Forum Moderators: open
The bad news, and I think these are really bad news are that Google for second year in a row moved away from "creative" to "school-like" contest.
In 2002 Google offered a bunch of data files for download and challenged people to come up with some code that would do something cool with the data. The guy who won made code that was able to do local searches. It was cool and I think still is. It is exactly the kind of real world problem that people might need to solve at Google (based on what I know about them).
However this year they again offer school-like test of memory and speed typing with 60-minute time, and basically whoever gets to solve problem quicker wins. Of course because its not creative its easier to test (they have automated testing) and thats why I call it "school-like" testing, which in my view is totally un-Google. Or perhaps Google pre-IPO.
Source: [topcoder.com...]
Cash prizes will not be paid to residents of Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria.
Boo!
