Practice and Learn

On this page you can see results and code from past rounds of Google Code Jam, and you can try the problems for yourself. If you're new to Code Jam, try following the Quick-Start Guide.

Where should I start?

If you're new to programming contests, we highly recommend starting with the least difficult problems and moving up from there as you get more confident. Beware: the round that has the easiest problem A may have a very difficult problem B! As you get used to the platform, you can check how many people solved each problem in the "Submissions" box to the left of the dashboard, and use that as a rough gauge of difficulty.

Here are some choice problems for new competitors:

• Africa 2010, Qualification Round: Store Credit, Reverse Words.
• Code Jam 2008, Round 1A: Minimum Scalar Product.
• Code Jam 2009, Qualification Round: Alien Language.
• Code Jam 2010, Round 1C: Rope Intranet.
• Code Jam 2010, Round 1B: File Fix-it.
• Code Jam 2010, Round 1A: Rotate.
• Code Jam 2009, Round 1C: All Your Base.

Remember, if you get stuck you can look at someone else's solution (click a "solutions" link below) or join our mailing list and ask for help. If you're done with these problems and looking for more, look for early rounds (Qualification, Round 1, maybe Round 2) and look at the first problems (A, B). Then see how many of the competitors solved them.

Finding Solutions

You can click a "solutions" link below, but those aren't really indexed in a helpful way. You can find solutions grouped by language, author and country at http://go-hero.net/jam, a site written by contestant foxlit.

Past Contests

Other Resources

TopCoder

TopCoder runs regular algorithm competitions called SRMs (Single Round Matches) that anyone can participate in. They also run High School matches and the annual TopCoder Open. You can practice with their old rounds; start with Division 2 if you're new. They also have a variety of other, longer-term programming competitions. Warning: you'll only be able to use Java, C++, C#, Visual Basic, or Python.

ACM ICPC

If you're a university or college student, your school may have a team that competes in the ACM ICPC. Some teams have regular practices, tryouts and local contests; if yours doesn't, maybe you can start something. You can try to solve problems that have been used in old ACM contests (local and global) on your own at their Online Judge. Warning: you'll only be able to use C, C++, Java and PASCAL.

SPOJ

The Sphere Online Judge also hosts a lot of problems.