Programming Challenges

There are many distinct pleasures associated with computer programming. Craftsm- ship has its quiet rewards, the satisfaction that comes from building a useful object and making it work. Excitement arrives with the ?ash of insight that cracks a previously intractable problem. The spiritual quest for elegance can turn the hacker into an artist. Therearepleasuresinparsimony,insqueezingthelastdropofperformanceoutofclever algorithms and tight coding. Thegames,puzzles,andchallengesofproblemsfrominternationalprogrammingc- petitionsareagreatwaytoexperiencethesepleasureswhileimprovingyouralgorithmic and coding skills. This book contains over 100 problems that have appeared in previous programming contests, along with discussions of the theory and ideas necessary to - tack them. Instant online grading for all of these problems is available from two WWW robot judging sites. Combining this book with a judge gives an exciting new way to challenge and improve your programming skills. This book can be used for self-study, for teaching innovative courses in algorithms and programming, and in training for international competition. To the Reader Theproblemsinthisbookhavebeenselectedfromover1,000programmingproblemsat the Universidad de Valladolid online judge, available athttp://online-judge.uva.es.The judgehasruledonwelloveronemillionsubmissionsfrom27,000registeredusersaround the world to date. We have taken only the best of the best, the most fun, exciting, and interesting problems available.