Google Code Jam 2013 | Hacker News Reader

Google Code Jam 2013

code.google.com

61 pointsariassp10 comments

Im actually going to compete this year. Usually I sign up, get busy, then ignore the challenge, however I want to see how I match up with the rest of the world when it comes to solving hard problems in a set amount of time using good data structures. Its also always good to stay sharp so that you can do well in interviews when you need to (never know!).

"The Contest is void in Cuba, Quebec, Saudi Arabia and Syria and where prohibited by law."

As a student really wishing to one day work at Google Montreal this has me seriously disappointed.

Does anyone know of a way I could participate if I turn down any prize I would win?

Nothing "really" prevents you from participating, you'll just have to fill a valid address (which can be easily found online) only thing is you won't receive any prizes...

And how about Myanmar? Have Google lifted the restriction? I remember when I was a student in US and wanted to compete but couldn't.

I once won a US-only Blizzard contest. When I unexpectedly won, I sent them a mail, and they agreed to ship it to my country (France).

I'm probably the only EU winner of this contest !

Why Saudi Arabia?

There are tons of laws in various jurisdictions that make doing things that involve contests and competitions more or less difficult to run; in the case of Quebec, you apparently have to register your competition, disclose all of the various prizes, and even post bonds with the government related to the valuations. If you are sufficiently disappointed that these requirements often causes competitions to skip your country, you might consider lobbying to change these laws.

http://business.financialpost.com/2011/09/08/why-many-contes...

Code Jam problems are in English, but, if I recall correctly, prevailing law in Quebec requires the problems to be in French as well.

Anyone else get:

"""Error: Server Error

The server encountered an error and could not complete your request. If the problem persists, please report your problem and mention this error message and the query that caused it."""

When attempting to identify using a Google account?

I didn't get this error here, however I recieved the exact same error when I used my german "..@googlemail.com" mail address to register on appengine. After changing it to "..@gmail.com" it worked. If you are german, you could try that as well.

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