The International Student Programming Olympiad takes place annually. These competitions are team competitions. Each university can nominate one team, which consists of three participants. Participants can be university students under the age of 24.
Each team is given 8 to 14 tasks to complete within 5 hours. In addition to the small amount of time, the difficulty lies in the availability of one computer for one team. Therefore, it is important to organize team interaction. After completing the task, the work is checked by a special robot. If errors are found, the team needs to make changes.
The winning team is determined by the number of entries accepted by the system. Incompletely completed work will not be taken into account. If several teams have completed an equal number of works, then the winner is determined by the penalty time. It is calculated from the moment the work is started until delivery. For each return of work for editing, 20 minutes are added to the penalty time.
Kazakhstan takes an active part in the International Student Programming Olympiad. The best universities of the country provide their teams an active fight for reaching the final. The Olympics have been held since 1977. The United States has been the permanent leader, but in recent seasons Russia, Japan, China, Portugal and other European countries have won. Teams from Kazakhstan did not win the ICPC final, but almost every year they reached the final. Olympiads similar in features to the ICPC are also held inside the country, as a result of which the best teams of the country’s universities reached the final.
Successes of students from Kazakhstan
Despite the fact that the teams of Kazakhstan did not win the finals of the International Student Programming Olympiad, its teams occupied leading positions and showed excellent results. Firstly, within the country there is its own Olympiad between the teams of the best universities. Based on their results, a team is determined to represent universities in the world arenas.
For example, students can sign up for the Olympiad, which is organized by Nursultan University. It is similar in structure to ICPC. Participation in this Olympiad has several advantages. First, it follows a similar structure. On it you can meet similar tasks, as well as hone your skills. Participation in this Olympiad will allow you to assess your strengths and identify weaknesses. It will also hone your coding and team communication skills. You can get acquainted with the features of the Olympiad at the link nuopen.kz
The latest achievements of the teams of Kazakhstan include reaching the finals of the ICPC season 2017-2018. During the qualifying round of the Central Asian region in Almaty, the team from KBTU reached the final and represented Kazakhstan in the final of the Olympiad. The stage was held at the Kazakh-British Technical University. More than 80 teams took part in the tournament. There were 14 tasks to complete.
Programmer training in Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, there are a large number of universities that train specialists in programming of all types of specialties. It should be noted that the universities of Kazakhstan also train foreign students. Therefore, English is used as the common language. You can’t do without knowledge of English, both at the university and in the IT field.
To enter the university as a programmer, you must choose a specialty and a higher educational institution. The best universities in Kazakhstan include:
- Nazarbayev University;
- IUT;
- KBTU;
- SDU;
- KazNU and others.
Each university has its own unique history and main directions. Before submitting an application, it is necessary to study the features of each institution and make an accurate choice. It should be noted that all of the above universities take an active part in international and state programming competitions.
To enter, you must pass the UNT and entrance exams in English and computer science. If an applicant fails the tests, he can count on passing preparatory tests to get a second chance at admission.