TUM team participates in international ICPC bootcamp.
At the beginning of October, the third ICPC Programming Bootcamp, hosted by Harbour.Space University, took place in Barcelona, Spain. A three-man team from TUM, comprised of Lukas Michel, Florian Leimgruber and Konstantin Pervunin (that's us) attended this camp. Over the course of 10 days we had the privilege of training under some of the most renowned coaches from the ICPC community.
Every morning, we participated in a contest with very difficult problems (world finals level). The afternoons were spent discussing the solutions as well as listening to interesting talks on advanced algorithmic topics, which would be the focus of the next day's contest.
In addition to deepening our understanding of standard topics, such as dynamic programming, the bootcamp introduced us to some more exotic and sophisticated algorithms and data structures. For example, Link-Cut Trees proved to be a challenge to implement, and 3D geometry proved to be a challenge for our sanity.
Even though we gave our very best, the top teams from Russian universities that participated in the bootcamp were still a little ahead of us. Nevertheless, the camp helped us improve our skills enormously and was perfect preparation for the Northwestern Europe Regional Contest (NWERC), which takes place at the end of November in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Besides training, there was also a sightseeing-day where we had the chance to explore Barcelona and get to know the other teams in a non-contest environment. Sights such as the famous Sagrada Familia or Park Güell are very impressive and definitely make Barcelona worth the visit.
We would like to thank TUM and our sponsors for providing us with the opportunity to go on this great trip, and Harbour.Space University for organizing a camp that was not only very technically rewarding, but also a lot of fun.
More information about the bootcamp can be found on the official hello barcelona programming bootcamp website.