Google searches for code geeks

2005-08-23 08:33

San Francisco - Computer wizards launched an online battle of the brains for cash and a chance at a career with US internet search powerhouse Google, the company said.

The qualification round of "Code Jam 2005" commenced with geeks testing their programming prowess in a virtual tournament designed to uncover brilliant minds, a Google official told AFP.

"Google has serious problems," the company said in its playful posted challenge to computer geeks. "Like running our search algorithms on a graph of three billion nodes and 20 billion edges. Want to help us solve them?"

Code Jam gives "the best coders in the world" a chance to share in $155 000 in prize money and win employment at Google, according to the company.

The tournament "requires all your mind has to offer", Google contended.

Competitors weighing in via internet are divided into "rooms" and given coding problems to quickly solve on their own, according to the posted rules.

"In a race to see who can create an accurate solution in the shortest amount of time, competitors try to out-think and out-code their opponents," Code Jam organisers wrote.

In a "challenge phase", competitors get to test out and try to "break" each others' computer codes.

The top 500 finishers from the two-day qualification round will advance to Round One of Code Jam on August 29, Google said. Only half of those competitors will make it to Round Two.

The top 100 contenders will be invited to a championship round at the "Googleplex" in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View on September 23, according to the company.

The champion gets $10 000, while the rest of the prize money will be divided among the remaining 99 finishers, Google said.

- AFP