288 Competitive Programming: What Is The Real Purpose? - Simple Programmer Podcast

A lot of you guys have been asking me this question. "John, can you tell us a little bit more about competitive programming? What is competitive programming? Is it a good choice?"

Well, the questions are endless. And I've decided to do a video talking more about this topic, trying to sum up everything in here.

So, first of all we need to understand what is competitive programming.

According to Wikipedia, "Competitive programming is a mind sport usually held on the Internet or a local network, involving participants trying to program according to provided specifications. Contestants are referred to as sports programmers. Competitive programming is recognized and supported by several multinational software and Internet companies, such as Google, Facebook, and IBM. There are several organizations who host programming competitions on a regular basis.

A programming competition generally involves the host presenting a set of logical or mathematical problems to the contestants (who can vary in number from tens to several thousand), and contestants are required to write computer programs capable of solving each problem. Judging is based mostly upon number of problems solved and time spent for writing successful solutions, but may also include other factors (quality of output produced, execution time, program size, etc.)"
(Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_programming)

So, what is the real purpose in enrolling at one of these competitive programming championships? Will it do any benefits to your career?

Watch this video and find out!

Cracking The Coding Interview Blog Post: https://simpleprogrammer.com/2015/01/19/cracking-the-coding-interview/
Preparing For A Job Interview Course: https://simpleprogrammer.com/pluralsightinterview
Learning Algorithms: Is It REALLY Necessary?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJcG-6g4wA4
How To Be a Better Developer with Programming Challenges: https://simpleprogrammer.com/programmingchallenges

Programming Pearls: https://simpleprogrammer.com/programmingpearls
Cracking The Coding Interview: https://simpleprogrammer.com/codinginterview