Jakub Pachocki of UW triumphs in Google programming competition

According to the University of Warsaw website, in Google Code Jam finals the Polish computer science student defeated 24 competitors, selected from among 20,000 participants from around the world.

Google Code Jam is an individual programming competition, which consists in solving algorithmic problems. Participants, both amateurs and professionals, must demonstrate knowledge of different environments and programming languages. First prize is 10 thousand dollars.

Last year, Jakub Pachocki took third place in this competition. In addition, this May, together with Tomasz Kulczycki and Wojciech Śmietanks, he won second place in the World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, which took place in Warsaw. At the end of last year, Jakub Pachocki also took first place in the Wielka Przesmycka, an important programming competition organized in Wrocław, and won the Algorithmic Battles in Warsaw.

In an interview with PAP the student explained that in this type of competition, programming skills and ability to write error-free programs in a short time are crucial. "It is more like mathematical work or solving logic puzzles, than the work on a website" - said Jakub Pachocki in an interview with PAP.

"Last year I did not win the Google Code Jam, because at the end of the competition I made a simple mistake in one task - admitted Jakub Pachocki. - By the end I was convinced that I would be the winner, but it turned out that my solution was not accepted. This year it also turned out that I made a small mistake at the end of the competition, but this time I still scored high enough to win (...). It is said that errors can not be eliminated, but you have to try. "

It was his third start in the Google Code Jam. The student acknowledges that such competitions taught him to control stress and focus on the competition.

After the holidays Jakub Pachocki wants to compete in next competitions, including TopCoder finals in Orlando, U.S. The young computer scientist will start in the algorithmic category.

He spends holidays in California, where he works as a programmer for Facebook. For now, he does not know where he would want to work in the future. He has not decided whether he would prefer a prestigious corporation, starting his own business, or academic work.

He still has time to decide: he finished the second year of studies at the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics at the University of Warsaw. "The best thing at the university is positive energy and many interesting people with whom you can talk, reach to the common scientific results or perhaps start joint projects" - he said.

According to the UW, second in this year\'s Google Code Jam was Neal Wu from the United States and third Michal Forisek from Slovakia. In addition to Jakub Pachocki, two other Poles made it to the finals: Eryk Kopczyński (MIM UW employee), and Paweł Gawrychowski associated with the University of Wrocłlaw.

Earlier, in 2005, another Pole won the Google Code Jam: Marek Cygan, then a student and now employee of the University of Warsaw.

Google Code Jam results are available at: http://code.google.com/codejam/contest/2075486/scoreboard?c=2075486#

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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