Programming Challenges

Entering the Google Ant AI Challenge, a discussion on what's needed and the problems encountered.

If you run a programming contest or know of one that's not listed here and is open to C, C++ or C# then tell us here.

Some tips on helping me and making your entries more successful when entering programming challenges

Programming Challenge 59 - Find Numbers in a grid

Programming Challenge 58 - Place words on a Scrabble® board.

Programming Challenge 57 - Orienteering Maze Mouse, move a mouse through a maze in as few as steps as possible eating sandwiches for endurance,

Programming Challenge 56 - Solve the puzzle game flood in as few moves as possible

Programming Challenge 55 - Manage Checkout queues to keep customers being serviced without having too many tills open.

Programming Challenge 54 - Work out the fastest route through 20 railroad stations.

Programming Challenge 53 - Try either one or both challenges decoding morse code.

Programming Contest 52 - Follow each of the columns down to the bottom. This is a pure speed contest.

Programming Contest 51 - Draw Squares Quickly in a grid clockwise. This is a pure speed contest.

Programming Contest 50 - Optimize Widget Scheduling

Programming Contest 49 - Create Code Book

Programming Contest 48 - Word Square

Programming Contest 47 - Disguise Text

Programming Contest 46 - Explain the Rings

Programming Contest 45 - Defrag a Disk

Programming Contest 44 - Pack Those Boxes

Programming Contest 43 - Fast Word Searching

This is the contest page for the forty second Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that races a car around a track as fast as possible.

This is the contest page for the forty first Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that compares two lists of numbers to spot the differences.

This is the page for the fortieth Cplus programming contest. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that calculates the best poker hand from 7 cards.

This is the challenge page for the thirty ninth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that calculates the Levenshtein distance between 100 word pairs.

This is the contest page for the thirty eighth Cplus programming contest. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that minimizes fire damage.

This is the challenge page for the thirty sixth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that searches text questions for search phrases

This is the challenge page for the thirty sixth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that calculates value sin other Fibonacci sequences

This is the challenge page for the thirty fifth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that does a full knights move visiting every square on a 20 x 20 chessboard only once

This is the challenge page for the thirty fourth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that processes turns and tries to complete a straight line

This is the challenge page for the thirty third Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that evaluates a number of expressions.

This is the challenge page for the thirty second Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that makes loops like in the old game Loopz.

This is the challenge page for the thirty first Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that flips coins.

This is the challenge page for the twenty-ninth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that finds which treasure hunters are nearest the treasures

This is the challenge page for the twenty-ninth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that finds which treasure hunters are nearest the treasures

This is the challenge page for the twenty-eight Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to optimally move a large quantity of fuel across a desert.

This is the challenge page for the twenty-seventh Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that packs a large number of points in a grid.

This is the challenge page for the twenty-sixth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that processes a large body of text, counting words and sentences.

This is an ongoing challenge where players write bots to buy and sell virtual shares

This is the challenge page for the twenty-fifth (2nd Attempt) Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that reads a file of tetris shapes and drops the piece into the box.

This is the challenge page for the twenty-fifth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that counts the number of 1 in the numbers 1-99,999,999.

Some programming challenges are much more popular than others. Finding out which has been a bit hit and miss, so here's your chance to suggest some.

This is the challenge page for the twenty-fourth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that takes an input file based on the MineSweeper game and outputs where the mines are located.

This is the challenge page for the twenty-third Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that reassembles numbered tiles.

This is the challenge page for the twenty second Cplus programming challenge. Write an application that can generate hexagons and convert coordinates.

This is the challenge page for the twenty first Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can read excel .xls files.

This is the challenge page for the twentieth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can generate the prime numbers up to a million

This is the challenge page for the nineteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can read a file of tiles and by changing the character of the top square fill the whole grid.

This is the challenge page for the eighteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can generate a map.

This is the challenge page for the seventeenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can play Life quickly.

This is the challenge page for the sixteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can solve 1,000 sliding puzzles.

This is the challenge page for the fifteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can generate a dungeon of nine levels made up of rooms and corridors..

This is the challenge page for the fourteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# that can multiply several pairs of very large numbers together..

This is the challenge page for the thirteenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to sink all the enemy ships in Battleships in the minimum number of shots.

This is the challenge page for the twelth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to find the lowest cost route between ten points on a map.

This is the challenge page for the eleventh Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to find matching sets of cards from the commercial card game Set.

This is the challenge page for the tenth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to take a short sentence and somehow conceal it in a block of text so it isn't apparent. You must also write the decoder as well!

This is the challenge page for the ninth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to read 50,000 words and values in memory and then retrieve 10,000 of those values and add them up.

An article describing how to write a bot for the Stock trading Challenge and weekly contest

This is the challenge page for the eighth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to score 1,000 Texas Holdem Poker positions showing which of 8 players' hands is highest (or drawn).

This is the challenge page for the seventh Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to validate 10,000 chess positions, indicating whether a position is valid or not.

This is an ongoing challenge where players write dlls to play Rock Scissors and Paper in C, C++ and C#. Skeleton dlls will be provided so you just have to write the game playing code and not worry about the technicalities.

This is the challenge for the sixth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to fetch a value from a linked list as fast as possible.

This is the challenge for the fifth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to fit 14 words into a grid leaving as many empty spaces in the grid as possible.

This is the challenge for the fourth Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to solve a code breaking puzzle in as few steps as possible.

This is the challenge for the third Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to manage three elevators in order to minimize customer waiting and travel times.

This was the challenge for the second Cplus programming challenge. To write an application in C,C++ or C# to count the number of connected locations (forming a continent) and output the list of continents.

This is the challenge page for the first Cplus programming challenge. Write an application in C,C++ or C# to calculate the 100000th number in the sequence from 123456789 to 987654321 where each digit occurs only once.

An article describing how to write a bot for the Rock, Scissors and Paper Challenge and weekly contest

These audio lectures are derived from the course "Programming Challenges" taught at Stony Brook University and based on the book Programming Challenges: The Programming Contest Training Manual by Steven S. Skiena and Miguel A. Revilla, Springer-Verlag, New York, 2003.