Google Data

Given a list of cell phone towers, the cost or gain of upgrading each one, and the requirement that every upgraded tower can only have upgraded towers in its range, can you find the most profitable set of towers to upgrade?

Caught your attention? Then we have the competition for you.

We’re thrilled to announce Google’s annual Code Jam competition. Google Code Jam is a programming competition in which professional and student programmers solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you compete in the programming language and development environment of your choice.

And, this year, for the very first time, the final competition will take place in Google’s Dublin office.

Visit http://code.google.com/codejam to register now and get up to speed on the rules. You can also practice on problems from previous contests. It’s a good idea to check out the competition arena and get comfortable with the interface, competition format and types of problems that you’ll encounter in the contest (http://code.google.com/codejam/archive.html).

The qualification round starts on May 7th, 2010 and after four rounds of online competition, the top 25 competitors will be flown to Google's Dublin office to match wits for the $5,000 first prize — and the title of Code Jam champion!

By Igor Naverniouk, Code Jam Team

Are you energized by cracking conundrums? Are you keen to crank out some code? Here at Google, we know the rush of encountering a challenge and rising to meet it, transforming a problem into a solution and a solution into code. Since 2003, we've been sharing that experience with a global community of computer scientists through our annual programming competition, Google Code Jam.

Today, we're excited to announce Google Code Jam 2009, powered by Google App Engine. This year, contestants will compete in several 2½-hour online rounds, attacking three to four difficult algorithmic problems during each round. To code up solutions to the problems, they'll use the programming language and tools of their choice; when those solutions are ready, they'll try them against our fiendish test data. One wrong answer out of a hundred, and it's back to the drawing board!

Registration opens today. So visit the Google Code Jam site to register, read the rules and — most importantly — begin to practice by trying out the problems from last year's contest, so you'll be in shape when the qualification round starts on September 2. After four tough rounds of online competition, the top 25 competitors will be flown to our Mountain View headquarters to to match wits for the $5,000 first prize — and the title of Code Jam champion.

On your mark, get set... CODE!

Posted by Bartholomew Furrow, 20% Tech Lead for Google Code Jam