When I first heard about Mail.Ru’s “Russian Code Cup“, I was instantly reminded of that scene in The Social Network whereby Mark Zuckerberg is interviewing for a programing intern for Facebook. Two candidates are fighting it out for the position in a hackathon/drinking game in which they have to drink shots every 10 lines of code and every 3 minutes or something like that. Upon completion, Zuckerberg utters those famous words to the winner:
“Welcome to Facebook”.
And while the Russian Code Cup probably won’t be such a feisty affair, it’s likely going to be just as hardcore in its own way and there’s $10,000 up for grabs for the eventual winner.
The competition will run over five months with several Internet rounds, culminating with the final. The organisers plan to bring 50 of the best programmers to the final round in September 2011, while more than 5,000 geeks are expected to participate in the Russian Code Cup.
The programming tasks for the competition have been developed by the technical specialists of Mail.Ru Group together with leading experts at Saint-Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and Optics. The working group is chaired by Andrey Stankevich, who is an associate professor of Computer technology department, winner of the President of the Russian Federation prize in the education field, winner of the ACM-ICPC Founder’s Award, and winner of the special award of IBM Corporation, which is awarded for excellence in coaching.
To participate in the Russian Code Cup, which will take place from May, 8th till September, 17th, 2011 register here.
Shots of vodka not guaranteed.