The winners of the Yandex.Algorithm. Source: Yandex
Students from the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics (NIU ITMO) have won the Yandex.Algorithm open competitive programming tournament.
Gennady Korotkevich and Yevgeny Kapun took first and second place, respectively, ahead of software developers from Google, Facebook and VKontakte.
A duel between Korotkevich and the seasoned competitive programmer Peter Mitrichev(employed at Google’s Moscow office) was the highlight of the final round, in which 25 participants competed.
Mitrichev had won the Yandex.Algorithm in 2011, but he only managed to finish fourth this year.
According to Korotkevich, major companies such as Google, Facebook and Yandex hold such competitions to scout for strong, smart youngsters.
“I don’t have this notion of necessarily getting a job with a major. I’m just a freshman and plan on studying some more,” the young programmer said when asked about his career plans.
Korotkevich will receive the first prize of $9,000, while ITMO post-graduate student Kapun will receive $4,500. Shi Bi Sun from Taiwan National University took third place and a $2,500 prize.
Yandex.Algorithm is an individual computer programming championship open to anyone, irrespective of educational background, occupation and age. Only Yandex employees are excluded. More than 3,000 programmers from 84 countries took part this year.
First published in Russian in RIA Novosti.
All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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