Undergraduates take part in the Final of the SBC Programming Marathon

IMPA Tech students Amon Vanderlei, Lucas Fraga and Mateus Almeida won 21st place in the 30th Programming MarathonThe challenge was promoted by the SBC (Brazilian Computer Society). The challenge took place in São Paulo, between November 6 and 9, at FECAP (Álvares Penteado School of Commerce Foundation). A total of 66 teams took part.

The Marathon is a national competition that brings together computer science students to solve complex problems with creativity, strategy and teamwork. The teams are made up of three higher education students who have five hours to solve as many of the twelve problems provided as possible.

Supervised by Professor Ueverton Souza, the IMPA Tech trio solved five problems. “Their performance was very good. All the coaches and participants were surprised that these were students who are still in their first year of undergraduate studies – the vast majority of the other teams are made up of senior students. We expect our students to surprise even more in the coming years,” said the professor.

For student Lucas Fraga, reaching this level was a unique experience. “The test itself is extremely challenging and fun. The questions have an increasing level of difficulty, with the first one being very easy and the difficulty escalating quickly. What’s more, the interaction with the companies sponsoring the marathon reveals a wide horizon of opportunities.”

Before reaching the final, the young people went through Phase 1 of the competitionThe competition was held on September 13 at Stone’s headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The trio came 4th out of 40 teams from the state, which guaranteed qualification for the final round in São Paulo.

Preparation for the final challenge included solving problems on traditional competitive programming websites, which simulate questions from the exam. “The challenge is great, but this experience has shown us that it’s possible to achieve even better things,” said student Amon Vanderlei.

In addition to the events related to the Marathon – which include the race, the warm-up, complementary challenges, lectures and interaction with sponsors – the young people also took a short tour of the city of São Paulo, visiting the Liberdade neighborhood, Avenida Paulista and MASP (São Paulo Museum of Art).

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