First of all, I would like to introduce the relevant background and information of ACM-ICPC:
- International Collegiate Programming Contest ACM-ICPC is actually referred to as ICPC (International Collegiate Programming Contest)
- ICPC is organized by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), which was initiated in 1970 and has held nearly 50 sessions so far.
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), founded in 1947, is an international scientific and technological education organization and the world's first scientific and educational computer society, headquartered in the United States New York. The American Computer Society is committed to improving the application level of information technology in science, art and other industries. Since its inception, ACM has provided a platform for members to exchange information, ideas and discoveries. As of 2007, the American Computer Society has more than 100,000 professional members from more than 100 countries and regions, who come from enterprises, academic institutions and government organizations.
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BE%8E%E5%9B%BD%E8%AE%A1%E7%AE%97%E6%9C%BA%E5%8D%8F%E4 %BC%9A/1896077?fr=aladdin
- ICPC is generally divided into Asian regional competition (reginal), Asian finals (ec final), and world finals (world final) , which will be introduced in detail below.
- China's undergraduate programming competition CCPC is held in China.
- The subordinate to the provincial competition is a certain provincial college student programming competition (such as Jiangsu, it is called JSCPC)
The playing field usually looks like this: Is it very bloody to watch!
Medals generally look like this:
The first, second and third place are trophies:
ICPC details:
The gold content of the provincial competitions in some strong provinces is very high [but compared to the regional competitions, the popularity is not as good] , such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the coach once said, "If you win the gold medal of JSCPC, you don't have to play ICPC anymore." This sentence is of course taking into account the strength of the school and also for the purpose of motivating students. After all, it is only the weakest group in Shuangfei (Second Ben & New Association), but the most powerful team is also in Nanchang in 2019. Regionals are among the upper middle and upper reaches of silver medals.
The ACM-ICPC Asian Regional Competition (national competition) is generally undertaken by the strong schools that have applied for the qualification to hold the competition (such as: Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Western University of Technology, Xidian University, Northeastern University, Petroleum University, Xinjiang University, Henan University University of Science and Technology, University of Mining and Technology, Qilu University of Technology, Xiangtan University...), teams from schools all over the countrycompete for the qualifications according to a certain percentage through the online qualifiers. Generally , schools that rank in the forefront have the opportunity to participate in the regional live competition, and finally Whether you can participate depends on the level of your team in the school team, and the coach decides whether to agree to go (in principle, the number of live matches for each college should not exceed 3). The proportions of gold, silver and bronze awards in the main competition are 10%, 20%, and 30%, but the total number of medals should generally not exceed 210 (this is the number if I remember correctly). about to double. In order to increase the fun of the game, special honorary awards such as the fastest problem solving award and the best women's team award have also been added.
Taking the 43rd ACM-ICPC Asian Regional Competition (Xuzhou Station) held at the University of Mining and Technology in 2018 as an example, the way to obtain the places for the on-site competition is as follows:
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The above mode is the regular official mode before the epidemic. After the epidemic, it was basically changed to online competition, which also made it difficult for new players to experience the special atmosphere and feeling of live competitions. Online competitions no longer have online qualifiers, and only provide warm-up games to help familiarize themselves with the competition environment, but another situation has also been formed: hundreds of teams flocked to the scene, and what’s more, seven or eight hundred teams competed for two games. With more than 100 medals, the competition is still very fierce, and it is vaguely felt that the online competition has exacerbated the polarization of the competition level (strong schools and strong teams flock, and the chance of winning is even slimmer).
In addition, as far as the regional competition in Asia is concerned, it is not easy to win the prize. Ordinary one or two books have worked hard for three or four years, and many people have not won medals in the end . After all, the objects of competition are from all over the country. The algorithm competition leader of the strong school, the strong school also has a lot of specially recruited students (some have started learning algorithms from primary school/middle school, and in a good environment, as long as they don’t slack off, there is generally no problem in securing the gold medal! In this case Don't let go of the big bosses easily, each of them may become a treasure of the competition association.) Don't feel discouraged by the fact that you can't beat the primary school students, after all, university is not the best time to study, and courage is the right way to know shame .
If there is no strong interest, firm belief, perseverance and the corresponding competition environment as the support, I advise you not to enter the pit easily.
The algorithm competition examines purely the participants' own strength or the strength of the participating student teams. It is basically what it should be. The evaluation process will not be affected by the sponsorship of such and such or because the mentor is such and such a big cow. score.
Mainstream language and algorithm question types in the competition:
- Algorithm questions are generally written in C++ . Except for high precision and large integers, it is more convenient to use Java. In the past, a small number of junior high school algorithm competition students generally started with python. The more important features of C++ are operations such as STL.
- The basic algorithms include: sorting algorithm, greedy algorithm, enumeration, simulation, recursion, divide and conquer, bisection, prefix sum & difference, construction, backtracking, etc.
- Practices that do not require any algorithms (such as using only for loops) are generally called naive practices/violence , but they also focus on thinking conversions (such as details such as time units or abstractions of actual physical/life scenarios). The first question of the Blue Bridge Cup is generally like this, as long as you practice some targeted exercises.
The algorithms for increasing difficulty are:
- Search (deep search dfs/wide search bfs, which is actually a graph theory)
- Dynamic programming dp (recursion, backpack, LIS, LCS, interval dp, tree dp, digital dp, probability dp, shape pressure dp, four kinds of optimization dp, generally encountered are divided into one/two/three-dimensional, the total Say that two-dimensional dp is mostly)
- Prefix Sum/Difference (1D/2D)
- Number theory (fast power, factorial, inverse element, Fermat's theorem, Chinese remainder theorem, combinatorics, probability, line generation, Gauss's theorem, Lucas's theorem, Stirling numbers of the second kind...)
- Game theory (Nim game Nimm, Bash game Bash, Wythoff game Wythoff, single-player sg game basic four categories + extended Nim-Fibonacci) [Game theory is not easy to say, difficult to say, generally have ideas Just use those few spellings to touch, maybe it’s right]
- Graph theory (shortest paths, topological sorting, problems on trees, various graphs, minimum spanning trees, k-short-circuits...)
- Computational geometry (convex hull or something, ACM gold and silver medal questions, most people don't care)
- String algorithm (string matching, hashing, suffix array S, dictionary tree, such as AC automata may be ACM silver medal questions)
- There are also some questions, such as network flow, weight line segment KD tree, which are not very long, but generally they are at least regional silver-level questions.
...
In general, whether the Blue Bridge Cup can get the provincial one mainly depends on dynamic programming (that is, dp, generally in the second question of the big question, basic backpacks and simple applications can be used) and search big questions (generally not difficult, yes Template questions) whether you have scored points, generally Jiangsu C language group B fill-in-the-blank question one wrong + two major questions full marks + other questions using violence to deceive the score is basically the provincial one to enter the national competition.
Entering large factories/research bases:
The following is mainly related to employment (going to a technical post in a large Internet factory)~
The blogger recounts a recent incident as an entry point:
Recently, a student complained that ACM-ICPC did not have enough status in the college competition list. As an ACM lover, I had the same resentment, but then I felt that some things (such as Internet innovation competitions) might really need to be vigorously promoted, because it can not only provide a wider group of people on the same stage Competition, a platform for play, so as to compete for winners of a certain quality and quantity, it also caters to the needs of the society for special talents.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand that ACM will not be a very popular competition, nor will it be suitable for the general public. It is difficult to get started, and the cycle to achieve results is long . For ordinary players from weak schools, it is good to have the opportunity to participate in the regional competition. Yes, cast iron into copper is more likely to complete the competition career.
Needless to say, I am in this category. It is a pity that the sophomore retired due to physical and mental discomfort (for personal reasons, it is inconvenient to disclose)
ACM is at least friendly to undergraduate employment , and gives some examples around you: I learned that the total contract for the first year of 211 silver medalists is generally 300,000 to 400,000 yuan and above, and the double non-copper silver medal is about 200,000 to 300,000 yuan (I know limited roar)
In the absence of a good academic background and no internship experience, competition + project + other is a good choice. After all, it is usually through school recruitment, and university competitions are undoubtedly the best match for ACM.
To be able to enter the written test and interview with other advantages, in fact, ACM is not necessary, and the strong have their own advantages. However, the ACM is better, and the algorithm questions in the written test and interview are all ok. During the preparation process, you don’t need to spend too much time trying to debunk.
It is true that ACM can be used as a good stepping stone, and it can also allow a certain group to maintain a good advantage while catering to their interests, so that the future road is not difficult or difficult;
Acmer happens to be quite popular in big factories. Other aspects are not bad, and a child with a good foundation in algorithms and data structures, who doesn’t like it? After all, going to the company is not writing code, thinking and algorithms are especially important!
Due to the limited environment and strength you are in, your vision may be limited. What you say only involves ordinary people who are suffering. If you are immature, please correct me!
In the end, I hope everyone can live a happy life, be healthy, and achieve self-realization as soon as possible.
