The PAG Experience : Part 2
Where you never stop learning
When I first came to Roorkee, I was introduced to python as my first programming language in the “101: Intro to Programming”, which I felt was pretty inadequate. I was merely typing the “Hello World!” program, while many of my friends already had a pretty good head start. After having discussions with few seniors, I started solving math problems on Erdős and Project Euler and tried solving a few programming questions on Codechef. It was an arduous task for a newbie like me initially. I started off struggling with the concept of taking in test cases, along with a towering list of WAs, TLEs and REs. But I still kept trying!
“3 Errors. Fix them. Compile. 934839 Errors.”
It was the PAG intro talk, where I was actually introduced to the real world of competitive coding and the competitions like ACM ICPC. The ACM ICPC is known as one of the most coveted programming competitions for college students. After attending the open lectures, I was really enthusiastic about being a part of this group and learn competitive coding. The recruitments started off soon, where I realised that the questions in the tests relied more on logical reasoning and aptitude than proficiency in coding. The recruitments comprised of an initial math-based online contest on Erdős (Noobematics) followed by an aptitude and math written test and two rounds of technical interviews for a selected bunch of people. After the gruelling interviews, I was selected even though I was hardly adroit at programming.
Being selected into PAG has helped me extensively. Here, I was introduced to few of the most brilliant people in the campus who inclined my interest towards coding and enhanced my problem solving skills. I found a place to ask my doubts and learn effectively. It gave me a vast amount of exposure in terms of knowledge and ability.
PAG used to have a tradition: to remove all first year members at the end of the academic year and conduct recruitment again in the second year; but this has been discontinued. The second year recruitment served the purpose of testing the skills gained over the past year and also check the eagerness to pursue competitive coding. This recruitment process consisted of a contest on CodeVillage and shortlisting a few students based on their overall performance with the online judges for a technical interview round. The interview involved questions designed to test the knowledge of algorithmic concepts.
Here at PAG, our main aim is to spread awareness about the importance of competitive programming. We want to spread this culture amongst people in Roorkee. The group regularly conduct internal and open lectures on topics like Graphs and Trees, Dynamic Programming, Game Theory, Data Structures and a lot more! This coupled with solving recommended questions on the taught topic and regularly participating in contests, can help have a wonderful start. As a second yearite, giving lectures helps enormously in increasing our knowledge about that topic and helps us gain confidence in that. Along with this, one of most important thing about this group is the bond of understanding with the seniors, who help you all the way from giving lectures to helping with the doubts and queries. Coming to the fun part, PAG has an amazing annual trip along with numerous Chapos and Mafia nights all year, which are amongst the best memories I have had in Roorkee.
Over the past year, I have learned a lot, after regular participation in the online contests, attending the organised lectures and also going through numerous blogs and tutorials. PAG has a QOTW series, which has helped to give an appropriate start for diving into that particular topic. Our team ‘bonelessPi77a’ also qualified for ACM ICPC Chennai and Amritapuri regionals, which was an unparalleled experience. We had started preparing for this few months before, giving WPCs and other team contests. We figured out the strengths and skills of every team mate and focused on improving those skills. The pressure and thrill of the contest is like no other, where you see balloons going up around a team with increasing number of solved problems. We even interacted with other teams from IITR after the contest about how they tackled the problemset. This motivated us to work even harder for the next year. From this experience, I learned how to work under pressure and deliver it efficiently in an extreme time constraint. Overall, ICPC was a thrilling and humbling experience.
With constant practice, I have managed to gain a fair amount, although I still have far to go and a lot to learn. My advice to my juniors would be :
“Be consistent.”
Rhea Parekh is a 2nd year Engineering Physics(EPH) student at IIT, Roorkee. Shee is currently a member of PAG and has been with us since October, 2016.
PAG will be recruiting first year students in January, 2018. FIll this form by 13th January, 2018 to be a part of PAG.
Programming and Algorithms Group, commonly known as PAG, is a student run group that fosters competitive programming under the Software Development Section at IIT, Roorkee. We have a forum open to all doubts pertaining to competitive programming for everyone.
