‘impatecode’: students get together to study competitive programming
Extension project seeks to improve participation in Programming Marathons
Academic news for IMPA Tech students! The extension project ‘ impatecode‘, inaugurated on March 28, is now offering weekly classes in competitive programming to young people in the Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics, Technology and Innovation. Organized by students and supervised by Professor Uéverton Souza, the project functions as a study group for students from the three undergraduate classes. It also includes activities open to high school and college students from other institutions.
The focus of impatecode is to prepare students for university programming exams, such as the OBI (Brazilian Computer Olympics), the SBC Programming Marathon (Brazilian Programming Society) and the MFP (Women’s Programming Marathon). In addition, the project includes programming simulations and meetings with guest speakers.
“The project came about as an initiative to try to give more visibility and importance to competitive programming at IMPA Tech, preparing us better for exams. As the selection process for graduation takes into account performance in scientific olympiads, the students here have great potential for computer science competitions,” explained student Lucas Fraga, one of the creators of impatecode.
For IMPA Tech students, the meetings are always held on Saturdays at Port Maravalley. Until April 18th, classes will be held from 2pm to 4pm. From April 25, they will take place between 9am and 11am. Participation is voluntary and does not require prior registration, but attendance is essential to validate the extension hours.
The first meeting was a success, bringing together just over 40 students. “I think everyone really enjoyed it. We were able to pass on a lot of information and introduce the basics of the C++ language for competitive programming. The project is expected to achieve better results in the Marathon and the OBI, as well as developing the students’ skills in logic and algorithms,” said Fraga.
impatecode has also been remotely helping students from Piauí prepare for the OBI. In addition, throughout the year, the external community will be able to take part in lectures and face-to-face simulations, contributing to training for the Marathon.
IMPA Tech has been outstanding at the SBC Programming Marathon. In 2024, a trio made up of students Erique Gomes, Paulo Vitor de Oliveira and Gustavo Cardoso was among the top 10 in the state Rio de Janeiro state in Phase One, out of 40 participating teams.
Throughout 2025, more than 70 students took part in Phase Zero. In Phase One, the trio formed by students Amon Vanderlei, Lucas Fraga and Mateus Almeida came in 4th place of the 40 teams in the state, which improved the institute’s ranking compared to the previous year and guaranteed the students’ participation in the National Finals.
Participation in the competition is encouraged by teachers and has already been the subject of an academic seminar. At the meeting “The Power of Programming Marathons”held in June last year, computer scientist Samuel Eduardo shared his experiences and highlighted the benefits of participating in marathons.
For Professor Uéverton, the project is the fulfillment of a long-held wish of the students. “As many students who join IMPA Tech are already familiar with math Olympiads, when they have contact with programming, they naturally become interested in the OBI, which has a category exactly for this profile. As a result, forming teams to take part in the SBC Programming Marathon becomes a natural path and our students have achieved impressive results since their first year as undergraduates,” he said.
