some personal, more technical – by Thomas Einwaller
As I tweeted I registered for this years coding contest hosted by the Catalysts at the JKU. It was a great experience and I will try again next year because I am not satisfied with my result.
I started very good and reached the third level first but then I misinterpreted the specification and worked more than and hour and a half on an algorithm that permutes the blocks. I realized to late that my results are wrong because the space between the blocks may vary and not the permutation is missing.
Another lesson learned: I should have removed the dust from my Sedgewick and took it with me because sorting, tree and backtracking algorithms are not in my brain anymore. I learned them at the university but I need them hardly in my daily work.