Are there former Olympians here? How did the Olympics help you?

Question

Algorithms

Good evening.
This issue has already been discussed on Codeforces, and probably even on TopCoder.
I want to ask a question here.
Has Olympiad Programming helped you personally in any way in your life or work? Maybe some algorithms helped to solve a complex problem much more efficiently, maybe you taught to concentrate on a task for a short period of time?

Answer 1

The diploma of the winner of the state Olympiad gave me a budget place in the university. Diploma of the winner of the intra-university Olympiad - an increased scholarship (200%).
From a psychological point of view, the Olympiads gave me such things as:
1. Faith that there are no unsolvable problems. You just need to think a little more.
2. The principle "first we do what we know, then - what we do not know." Helps a lot.
3. The feeling that there is always someone ahead of you and the desire to catch up and overtake him.
From the point of view of the usefulness of the Olympiad knowledge - almost nothing. No, well, of course, some knowledge in the field of discrete mathematics, probability theory, etc. remained, but in general, Olympiad programming and industrial programming are not connected in any way. It's like figure skating and hockey - both seem to have skates and ice, but the methods of using them and the end goals are very different.

Answer 2

I entered the university thanks to the Olympiads.

Answer 3

ACM and a circle at the institute gave the following:
1. First, forced to consider different input data. Because there were tests for most of the special data and the tasks were stupidly not counted. After that, it became no longer possible, for example, to skip division by zero.
2. For me personally, joining this circle gave me some sobering, because. I began to rotate among people who knew a lot about IT better than me. Prior to that, in school, in the lyceum, in the group itself at the institute, he had no opportunity to compete with anyone, because. was many heads taller.
3. Solving problems in a fixed time frame. Evaluation and prioritization - what tasks in what order to whom to solve.
4. We perfected typical tasks in the classroom. This also gave some basis for further movement.
5. Optimization algorithms are a special value. There were many of them, and they were not very simple. You also need to know when to apply what. Helps a lot now.

Answer 4

In my case (Baumanka), they advised me to wipe myself with diplomas, like there won’t be enough such places for you. But knowledge will come in handy if you don’t want to live the life of stupid bydlokoderam. No, well, it is clear that in a good university you will pass all this, but there they give knowledge from a different angle. Prepared for standard tasks. And the Olympiads are prepared for non-standard ones.
Well, in general, just for fun, there is something to remember, and again, there is something to measure.

Answer 5

He entered the university without passing exams thanks to the Physics Olympiad

Answer 6

I entered the university for the Olympiad in mathematics, so this does not count. I took up sports programming seriously (not at the school level) only after my third year, so I didn’t get into the ACM team, and it practically didn’t affect student life. In working life:
- a decent income on writing tasks and other competitive things.
- Acquaintance with a lot of interesting people (including, pah-pah, future husband :-)).
- a trip to Las Vegas ( blogger for the finals) - when else would I get there?
- interview at Google after Google Code Jam - similar.
- well, and on the little things: a plus for intelligence, the ability to get together and solve a problem in a limited period of time, decent English, some kind of horizons.

Answer 7

They just made me stronger and it was probably a little something to be proud of in the old days, they took the first place in the city. And I learned how to program.

Answer 8

entered St. Petersburg State University at the expense of the Olympiad (it seems that there was the V All-Russian Team Olympiad for schoolchildren in programming), well, I received various profits later from participating in ACM - T-shirts and all that)) (just kidding)

Answer 9

I’ll say right away that I didn’t have a lot of sports programming: 10th grade - training camp (I didn’t know the standard task for dynamic programming, and in one place it was necessary not to apply Real, but Extended: they checked six characters, and I, with a formally correct algorithm, there were three or four). 11th - due to his own stupidity, he did not get into the prize-winners at all. Somehow things didn't work out with the team at the university, but that didn't stop me from being the second ACM "team" of the faculty alone.
Firstly, the Olympiad allowed me to get into the university for an interview. How I went through it is a different story, but everything turned out as it should.
Secondly, some tricks of low-buggy programming have been developed. And now strangers often tell me: "You carve the code like on a stone."
Thirdly, algorithms are algorithms. You always think: is there a way to "swoop" to increase the speed of a particular method? Is it possible to add, say, std::map here?

Answer 10

School Olympiads didn't help at all. At the university, he participated in programming microcontrollers at the republican level. He did not take any prizes, but employers still pay attention to this. I haven't graduated yet, so let's see if it can help in the future.

Answer 11

the ability to quickly, accurately, briefly and without hesitation to write many simple things.
(and not to be stupid then for half an hour in the debugger from scratch) the
topcoder, which does not forgive mistakes, especially helps here.
tasks of level 250-500 there rarely require knowledge of any super-complex algorithms.

Answer 12

It helps a lot - I notice that I solve the tasks set at work / at the university / etc rather than others. Still, participation in ACM was not in vain

Answer 13

Good afternoon. A very motivating video about the Olympics and that nothing is impossible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23HnjwTq4kA&t=1s