Newsletter 3: Wednesday, 12th July

Today was the day that round 1 of CEOI 2017 competition was finally upon us; a start that we were all so eagerly awaiting. The organization of round 1 was similar to yesterday’s practice session – the contestants were arranged into 9 different classrooms where each contestant was assigned a computer. The tasks, which were also similar to the ones from the practice session, were distributed to the individuals in their mother tongue so that there would be no problem with the understanding of the tasks at hand. Round 1 of the competition lasted for 5 hours – from 9:00 to 14:00 – and judging by the results, posted on the official webpage of CEOI 2017, the contestants had little to no difficulty completing the tasks. During the competition, leaders of the competing teams were answering some questions in a classroom nearby.

While waiting for the testing and evaluation of their work in round 1, the contestants had lunch in the Faculty cafeteria. After the results were announced, the competing teams joined into five bigger groups to cause less of a commotion while visiting the local ZOO, which is situated across the street from the Faculty of Computer and Information Science. Since there was a one-hour delay in the visiting time between the first three groups and the last two, the former groups had some extra time on their hands before dinner, which one of the teams decided to spend at Ljubljana’s biggest park Tivoli with some milkshakes in their hands and sunshine on their cheeks.

The aforementioned dinner was held in a restaurant called Čad, which is one of the oldest and very popular restaurants in Ljubljana, known especially for their outdoor barbecue in the spring and summer time. After dinner, everyone headed back to the student dormitory to get some rest and relax after a long day.

At the end of the day, we asked some of the contestants questions about today's competition and programing in general. You can read the questions and answers down below, if you'd like.

We would also like to congratulate you all for your participation and hard work in the first round of the competition and good luck for the second, round which is scheduled to start on Friday. In the meantime, we suggest that you get some rest and have fun!

Lea & Rebeka

Interviews

Danil Koževnikov - contestant from Czech Republic

Q: How are you today?

A: I'm really bad, because I've got something like 20 points. I solved only one problem in the last five minutes, so I had no time to finish coding it. But the problems were nice, it's only me being stupid.

Q: When did you start to learn coding?

A: Well my favorite subject is math. I have many friends that study both mathematics and informatics. I was advised this year, that I should try the programming Olympiad and that you don't really have to know a programming language before you get to the nationals. Well I did get to the national finals and learned C++ two weeks before. By some miraculous way I got here and that's basically it. :-)

Q: Have you ever been in Slovenia before?

A: I have never been in Slovenia before. I really like the city. It's really beautiful compared to how small it is. The old city center is really great.

Q: Thank you for your time. Have a lovely week here in Ljubljana.

Matilde Padovano - contestant from Italy

Q: How did you do on today's competition? Did you manage to finish the tasks in time?

A: Quite good, but I'm not completely happy. I finished one problem and a half of another.

Q: Did you find this competition stressful?

A: No, I think it is always fun to go to international competition, because you can meet a lot of contestants. I think that the Olympiad in mathematics or in informatics is more about getting to know new people. There is not a lot of pressure, especially because there are a lot of males. :-)

Q: Do you see more and more girls deciding to start programming?

A: Not so much. Informatics is still a subject with a lot of boys. I don't know why girls don't start coding, because informatics is just like mathematics. I really don't know why.

Q: How old are you?

A: I'm 18.

Q: So, next year university?

A: Yes, I'm going to start university in September.

Q: Which school are you going to?

A: I'm going to Cambridge to study computer science.

Q: That's quite good. Did you get the scholarship?

A: No, but in the UK fees are low. If you are an EU student they are about 9000 pounds per year.

Q: Thank you for your time. Good luck to you.

Tim Poštuvan - contestant from Slovenia

Q: How did it go today?

A: So so. I only finished one task. I feel bad, because I thought I could solve at least two tasks. But what can you do... :)

Q: How did the rest of your team preform? What did they say?

A: Quite similar answers. Some of them managed to solve a little bit more and got a bit more points.

Q: Do you have an idol in informatics?

A: I don't know. I kind of want to be the best myself. :-)

Q: Did you participate in any other international competitions in informatics?

A: Yes, two times I went to IOI, two times to BOI and this is my second time here.

Q: So, how did it go?

A: Well, I didn't win anything.

Q: What do you think about today's tasks compared to last year's?

A: The tasks were difficult, but compared to last year's they were easy. Previous year when the CEOI was in Romania, the tasks were awfully difficult.

Q: Do you know anyone from another country that also took part in CEOI last year?

A: Yes, I know one contestant from Romania.

Q: That would be all. Thank you for the interview.

If you'd like to see some snapshots of this week, scroll below.

their milkshake brings all the boys to the yard