suncup224's blog

What will happen to Google Code Jam this year?
By suncup224, history, 22 months ago, In English

Since the layoff announcement, the Google Code Jam and Kickstart contest pages have been changed to say that the registration has been delayed. Layoffs are definitely difficult times for everyone and the company, but I just want to say that Google Code Jam is a milestone contest for me each year. I do competitive programming for a hobby (I don't work in a technical role or industry) and I practice regular to do better at subsequent year's Code Jam competitions. I hope everyone will get to share in the excitement of CP by competing in one of the largest contests of each year.

(Hopefully Meta Hacker Cup will continue this year!)

Update: Google will be discontinuing all its competitions. This is literally a shock to me as I that they would just suspend for a year or two. While I came on CP only around late 2020 as a new lockdown hobby, I still managed to make some bittersweet memories of competing on Google Code Jam and Kickstart.

I still remember taking part in my first Kickstart and Code Jam 1A contests in 2021 after practicing on Codeforces. Both were 2000+ positions. Ultimately made it to round 2 via round 1C but didn't get to top 1000. I set a goal to get a t-shirt in 2022. I practiced whenever I have time on weekends and as I learnt all the dsa that I never knew before and improved, I felt I had a decent chance. Round 2 in 2022 was such a roller coaster ride as problem 2 on Pixalated Circle was nasty. I wasn't sure if my solution would miss some corner cases and even so, my in-contest ranking was ~1200. I was extremely surprised when the final scoreboard revealed me to be in the top 400! I set a goal for 2023 to get into the top 300 for Round 3. I was hoping to improve progressively and eventually made it to some world final event to meet other avid CP legends. Alas!

It's a sad day for the CP community!

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Comments Comments (15)
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22 months ago, # |
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This will be my last year participating in this contest probably really hoping that it happens.

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22 months ago, # |
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Here is a very relevant tweet about the situation.

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22 months ago, # |
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I don't work in a technical role or industry

Out of curiosity, where do you work?

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    22 months ago, # ^ |
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    I do sustainability work :)

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      22 months ago, # ^ |
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      That's interesting because I thought that most of work in sustainability now is quite technical :)

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    22 months ago, # ^ |
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    I am sure OP works for the government.

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22 months ago, # |
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I'm not hearing good things about GCJ :(

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22 months ago, # |
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Just imagine a single round of layoffs breaking a history of >=16 years hosting this competition.

I certainly hope Google isn't this fragile.

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    22 months ago, # ^ |
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    Unfortunately Google is fragile. They are discontinuing the coding competitions :(

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22 months ago, # |
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Kickstart practice is still scheduled to start in 4 days though

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    22 months ago, # ^ |
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    My guess is that the schedule and countdown were just left untouched. I guess we will know in 4 days' time if anyone is manning the contests...

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22 months ago, # |
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Just got the news that Google is discontinuing all of their contests. :(

I grew up with these contests from Google. So many memories. But now it is time to say Goodbye to all these prestigious contest series from Google!

What a sad thing for competitive programming!

This is a massive loss for the community. I feel sad for new contestants who won't know about Google’s contests. Hopefully they'll get something new, something fresh to experience.

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22 months ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been updated by suncup224 (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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22 months ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been updated by suncup224 (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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21 month(s) ago, # |
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There is a farewell contest on April 15, 2023.

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