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Programming Challenges

The Programming Contest Training Manual

  • Textbook
  • © 2003

Overview

Authors:
  1. Steven S. Skiena

    1. Department of Computer Science, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, USA

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  2. Miguel A. Revilla

    1. Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Faculty of Sciences, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Offers a wealth of rich programming problems suitable for self-study - all with online judging at www.programming-challenges.com
  • Contains complete working code for fundamental data structures and graph, string, numerical and geometric algorithms
  • Supports all popular programming languages (C, C++, Pascal, Java)

Part of the book series: Texts in Computer Science (TCS)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
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  2. Getting Started

    Pages 1-26

  3. Data Structures

    Pages 27-55

  4. Strings

    Pages 56-77

  5. Sorting

    Pages 78-101

  6. Arithmetic and Algebra

    Pages 102-128

  7. Combinatorics

    Pages 129-146

  8. Number Theory

    Pages 147-166

  9. Backtracking

    Pages 167-188

  10. Graph Traversal

    Pages 189-216

  11. Graph Algorithms

    Pages 217-244

  12. Dynamic Programming

    Pages 245-267

  13. Grids

    Pages 268-290

  14. Geometry

    Pages 291-312

  15. Computational Geometry

    Pages 313-337

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 339-359
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Keywords

About this book

There are many distinct pleasures associated with computer programming. Craftsmanship has its quiet rewards, the satisfaction that comes from building a useful object and making it work. Excitement arrives with the flash of insight that cracks a previously intractable problem. The spiritual quest for elegance can turn the hacker into an artist. There are pleasures in parsimony, in squeezing the last drop of performance out of clever algorithms and tight coding.

The games, puzzles, and challenges of problems from international programming competitions are a great way to experience these pleasures while improving your algorithmic and coding skills. This book contains over 100 problems that have appeared in previous programming contests, along with discussions of the theory and ideas necessary to attack them. Instant onlinegrading for all of these problems is available from two WWW robot judging sites. Combining this book with a judge gives an exciting new way to challenge and improve your programming skills.

This book can be used for self-study, for teaching innovative courses in algorithms and programming, and in training for international competition.

The problems in this book have been selected from over 1,000 programming problems at the Universidad de Valladolid online judge. The judge has ruled on well over one million submissions from 27,000 registered users around the world to date. We have taken only the best of the best, the most fun, exciting, and interesting problems available.

Reviews

"Skiena and Revilla's new book 'Programming Challenges: The Programming Contest Training Manual' is just the ticket for those interested in a jumpstart to the world of contest programming. With special emphasis on the international ACM collegiate contests, the book's best feature is each chapter's pithy introduction that demystifies a particular scheme or algorithmic approach. The ensemble of these explications coupled with the contest strategy guidelines in the appendix can enable a novice to enhance contest results dramatically in a short time simply by solving the suggested exercises in each chapter. Even contest veterans are likely to be able to find a nugget or two in the explanations and strategies. "Presented in a logical order (contest programming has over a dozen different primary attacks), the book guides readers not only through the techniques and algorithms required but also through a huge set of problems that can be used for training. Solutions can be submitted to Valladolid University's online trainer for quick feedback and reinforcement. "If you're the sort who likes to have a single volume that covers the vast majority of a field, you'll love Skiena and Revilla's new tome." --Rob Kolstad, Ph.D., Head Coach, USA Computing Olympiad

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Computer Science, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, USA

    Steven S. Skiena

  • Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Faculty of Sciences, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    Miguel A. Revilla

About the authors

Steven S. Skiena is a professor of computer science at SUNY Stony Brook and is the author of many widely used books, including The Algorithm Design Manual. He received the 2001 IEEE Computer Society Undergraduate Teaching Award. Miguel A. Revilla is a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Vallodolid, Spain. He is the official website archivist of the ACM ICPC and creator/maintainer of the primary robot judge and content-hosting website.

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