【Report】Competitive Programming Workshop, May-June 2024

AIC held a competitive programming workshop every Friday for seven weeks from May 17 to June 28, 2024. Competitive programming entails solving a given problem by programming. Participants are then evaluated on the process and results of their work. While these competitions have a game-like aspect to them, where participating in a contest earns you a rating, they also serve as excellent training grounds where you can improve your programming skills, logical thinking, and problem-solving abilities. In recent years, competitive programming has gained significant traction and companies are increasingly using it in their recruitment and hiring processes.

The purpose of this workshop was to prepare for the ICPC 2024 national qualifying round, which was held on July 5, 2024. During each workshop session, students worked on a “virtual contest” consisting of a set of problems selected by the instructors, after which they would provide a brief explanation of their solution. In addition, tips and explanation guides that can be accessed online were also provided so that students at other campuses who could not participate in person can also follow the content.

Thanks to this workshop, six teams from Keio University were able to participate in the national qualifying rounds this year, two of which made it through the rounds to advance to the Yokohama Asian regional competition held in December. If these teams manage to make it through the Yokohama Asian regional competition and the Asian regional finals, they will be able to advance to the world championships. We look forward to their continued success.