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UdS ICPC TrainingWritten on 24.04.24 by Yasmine Melina Briefs Competitive programming is like a sport. In the same way, as in sports, there are competitions and training sessions. If you would like to solve hard problems, compete with others, and travel around Europe (and the world), join our ICPC training telegram chat. We will hold meetings, discussions,… Read more Competitive programming is like a sport. In the same way, as in sports, there are competitions and training sessions. If you would like to solve hard problems, compete with others, and travel around Europe (and the world), join our ICPC training telegram chat. We will hold meetings, discussions, lectures, and training sessions. If you are interested, join using this link: https://t.me/+xjeGeV7df144ZTdi. P.S. Note that the number of places at NWERC for each university is limited, so eliminations will be held to decide who will go to NWERC. Participation in the ICPC training will also help you prepare for this elimination. |
Tutorial assignmentWritten on 22.04.24 by Tim Scheckenbach Dear students, we have assigned the tutorials. You can find your tutorial on your personal status page. Tutorials start on Thursday this week. In preparation for the first tutorial, you can already create an account on Codeforces and join our group. We prepared instructions on how to use… Read more Dear students, we have assigned the tutorials. You can find your tutorial on your personal status page. Tutorials start on Thursday this week. In preparation for the first tutorial, you can already create an account on Codeforces and join our group. We prepared instructions on how to use Codeforces here: https://cms.sic.saarland/cp24/4/Codeforces. |
Tutorial registration & First tutorialWritten on 19.04.24 by Yasmine Melina Briefs Dear students, please do not forget to enter your tutorial preferences today. This can be done on your personal status page. In the tutorials, we will use Codeforces for additional problems. In preparation for the first tutorial, you can already create an account on Codeforces and join our… Read more Dear students, please do not forget to enter your tutorial preferences today. This can be done on your personal status page. In the tutorials, we will use Codeforces for additional problems. In preparation for the first tutorial, you can already create an account on Codeforces and join our group. We prepared instructions on how to use Codeforces here: https://cms.sic.saarland/cp24/4/Codeforces. |
Competitive Programming
Advanced Course, 6 CP
Competitive Programming is the art of solving algorithmic problems and implementing solutions in a time-constrained environment. Such problems usually need insight into algorithms and efficient implementation to be solved successfully. This course will deal with general solution techniques as well as the algorithmic background knowledge to compete in programming contests. Since practice makes perfect, this course will include many tasks from previous competitions as hands-on exercises.
Aside from preparing for competitions, the goal of this lecture is to improve programming ability and apply algorithms that are usually only taught theoretically.
Prerequisites
You should be able to write basic programs in C++, Java, Python or Rust. Code examples in the lecture will use C++.
Some knowledge of algorithms as taught in Grundzüge von Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen is an advantage.
You will need your own laptop to solve problems on exercise sheets and participate in the exam. If you don't have access to a laptop, please contact the lecture staff.
Course Preparation
If you want to prepare for the course, we recommend having a look at the book "Competitive Programming 3" which is available for registered students in our Materials section. If you already want to practice on some competitive programming tasks, you may have a look at the UVa Online Judge. The linked book recommends some problems on this website for each topic.
More problems can be found in the Codeforces problem set. Codeforces also hosts competitive programming contests about once a week.
Dates
Lectures: Wednesday 14:00-16:00 in HS002, E1.3.
Topics
These topics are preliminary and subject to change.
- Introduction to C++ for contests
- Basic algorithmic ideas
- Brute-force
- Backtracking
- Greedy algorithms
- Dynamic Programming
- Divide & Conquer
- Dynamic Programming
- Graphs
- Breadth-first search and depth-first search
- Shortest paths
- Topological sorting
- Strongly connected components
- Articulation points and bridges
- Maximum Flow and Matching
- Finding subgraphs
- Trees
- Lowest common ancestor
- Minimal spanning tree
- Mathematical Basics
- Segment trees
- String algorithms
- Parsing
- Geometric problems
Weekly Exercises
There will be weekly exercises. Exercises will be purely practical and consist of a set of problems (usually about 4) that have to be solved, implemented and submitted. Solutions will be graded automatically against a set of test cases. Possible verdicts are Correct, Wrong Answer (your program produced wrong output), Time Limit Exceeded (your program took too long to compute an output) or general errors such as Compilation Error or Runtime Error. You are allowed to submit solutions for exercise sheets and exams in C++, Java, Python and Rust.
Points will be awarded iff your solution is accepted as correct by our automated judge. You will need to reach 50% of all possible points to be admitted to the exam.
Exams
Exams are practical contests. You are given a set of problems where you have to find, implement, and submit a solution. Exam solutions are implemented on your computer (inside of a VM provided by us with no internet connection), submission is possible through a portal provided by us.