The tech challenge was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it to other students if Google happens to host another one. Beforehand I didn’t really know what to expect and I thought it would be purely a programming challenge, and although programming skills were involved, it was really more of a team-oriented puzzle solving competition. The tricky thing was that some of the problems did not have clear directions, because part of the problem was figuring out what the actual problem was. By solving a few of these puzzles, we learned how to make inferences from unclear instructions, which is a good employability skill. In addition, these puzzles required collaboration and communication between teammates. Some problems required outside knowledge that not everybody had, and some problems were so complex that they couldn’t be solved by just one person. This can be applied to the field of computer science because complex problems require the brainpower of multiple people with different backgrounds, and it is important to understand how to work and communicate with others to solve these problems. I had a lot of fun at this event because it was something new for me and it was a great experience to work with others who enjoy computers and problem solving as I do.
Before attending Google’s Tech Challenge, I was intimidated. Everyone knows Google and this was going to be my first competition. I had no idea what was going to happen and knew no one else that would be attending. Once I arrived to the event, I was still intimidated because there were many graduate students that looked ready to win. I found a seat towards the front, coincidentally with two freshman who also had no idea what they were doing, which made me feel better. I learned at the activity that just because someone is a graduate student doesn’t mean they can do everything you can’t. I was able to solve two puzzles with the other two freshmen before the two graduates in our group did. The activity helped me understand that computer science truly involves working with others. I’ve always been the type of person to do things on my own because I like being in control of everything, but this time was different; I enjoyed working with them. This activity also helped me understand the pressure of a time constraint when needing to code. I was asked to do a code to solve a puzzle and felt as if I had forgotten everything I knew about coding. Because I had fun working with everyone, I would definitely attend an event like this again.
“Google’s acceptance rate is 0.2% .” This statement instilled many thoughts in my head about the questions that google ask in their interviews and challenges. I went to the tech challenge with these preconceived notions. After seeing many graduate students on the other end of the table, I was intimidated. Now it was the time to solve the questions. The puzzles unlocked and I glanced at the first problem. I was able to solve it and contributed some points for my team which helped me to ease off some pressure. I was able to solve 2 more questions/puzzles in the competition. I got to learn some improved coding practices from my seniors(grad students) and the event challenged my logical thinking as well. Some difficult problems required us to work together, much like we do in a company. I think I got the idea of what kind of questions some companies ask in their technical interviews. Though we did not win, but it was a great experience . I enjoyed the event and the thrill of solving the questions before anyone was awesome. I will highly recommend students to attend these kind of events for growth of their transferable as well as technical skills.
Before I attended the Google’s Tech Challenge at the Illinois Institute of Technology, I had been expecting to do a lot of team programming challenges. Instead, me, two of my friends, and two other grad students were put into a team and we did different team and solo based puzzles for about two and a half hours. The second event was made up of a bunch of puzzles based on patterns, programming, math, and riddles. Many of the puzzles in the middle event, like Rainbow Road, tetraforce, and many of the puzzles with little to no written instructions, were very challenging and difficult. There was pizza and soda as well. I took the last soda, and the last pepperoni slice. I think my group ended the event around ninth place, I was in the Happy Griffs group. The first event was made up of math and programming questions that each team member worked on separately, with a time limit of fifteen minutes. It was a little difficult, but we did okay. The last event was a team based word association puzzle that I liked. Overall, I would probably go again, so I could do better than I did this time.
The tech challenge was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it to other students if Google happens to host another one. Beforehand I didn’t really know what to expect and I thought it would be purely a programming challenge, and although programming skills were involved, it was really more of a team-oriented puzzle solving competition. The tricky thing was that some of the problems did not have clear directions, because part of the problem was figuring out what the actual problem was. By solving a few of these puzzles, we learned how to make inferences from unclear instructions, which is a good employability skill. In addition, these puzzles required collaboration and communication between teammates. Some problems required outside knowledge that not everybody had, and some problems were so complex that they couldn’t be solved by just one person. This can be applied to the field of computer science because complex problems require the brainpower of multiple people with different backgrounds, and it is important to understand how to work and communicate with others to solve these problems. I had a lot of fun at this event because it was something new for me and it was a great experience to work with others who enjoy computers and problem solving as I do.
Before attending Google’s Tech Challenge, I was intimidated. Everyone knows Google and this was going to be my first competition. I had no idea what was going to happen and knew no one else that would be attending. Once I arrived to the event, I was still intimidated because there were many graduate students that looked ready to win. I found a seat towards the front, coincidentally with two freshman who also had no idea what they were doing, which made me feel better. I learned at the activity that just because someone is a graduate student doesn’t mean they can do everything you can’t. I was able to solve two puzzles with the other two freshmen before the two graduates in our group did. The activity helped me understand that computer science truly involves working with others. I’ve always been the type of person to do things on my own because I like being in control of everything, but this time was different; I enjoyed working with them. This activity also helped me understand the pressure of a time constraint when needing to code. I was asked to do a code to solve a puzzle and felt as if I had forgotten everything I knew about coding. Because I had fun working with everyone, I would definitely attend an event like this again.
“Google’s acceptance rate is 0.2% .” This statement instilled many thoughts in my head about the questions that google ask in their interviews and challenges. I went to the tech challenge with these preconceived notions. After seeing many graduate students on the other end of the table, I was intimidated. Now it was the time to solve the questions. The puzzles unlocked and I glanced at the first problem. I was able to solve it and contributed some points for my team which helped me to ease off some pressure. I was able to solve 2 more questions/puzzles in the competition. I got to learn some improved coding practices from my seniors(grad students) and the event challenged my logical thinking as well. Some difficult problems required us to work together, much like we do in a company. I think I got the idea of what kind of questions some companies ask in their technical interviews. Though we did not win, but it was a great experience . I enjoyed the event and the thrill of solving the questions before anyone was awesome. I will highly recommend students to attend these kind of events for growth of their transferable as well as technical skills.
Before I attended the Google’s Tech Challenge at the Illinois Institute of Technology, I had been expecting to do a lot of team programming challenges. Instead, me, two of my friends, and two other grad students were put into a team and we did different team and solo based puzzles for about two and a half hours. The second event was made up of a bunch of puzzles based on patterns, programming, math, and riddles. Many of the puzzles in the middle event, like Rainbow Road, tetraforce, and many of the puzzles with little to no written instructions, were very challenging and difficult. There was pizza and soda as well. I took the last soda, and the last pepperoni slice. I think my group ended the event around ninth place, I was in the Happy Griffs group. The first event was made up of math and programming questions that each team member worked on separately, with a time limit of fifteen minutes. It was a little difficult, but we did okay. The last event was a team based word association puzzle that I liked. Overall, I would probably go again, so I could do better than I did this time.