It’s that time of year! Thanksgiving, finals, winter break. Busy times! And don’t forget the first USACO contest is coming in mid to late December (the date has not been announced yet). USACO is the most prestigious contest for high school students to prove their coding and CS knowledge! They are very fun and challenging puzzles.
Breakout Mentors is helping a group of 20 students prepare in our USACO Competitive Programming Academy. We have a wide range of students: 8th to 12th grade, Bronze to Gold level.
Some of them have never competed before, and it is extremely helpful to do a contest first. So we are running our 2nd Annual December Programming Contest – USACO Mock for High School Students.
The best part? It is open to everyone and free!
See What a Programming Competition Is Like
Our goal is to create a welcoming event for high school (or advanced middle school) students who know how to code. You do not need to know what USACO is, we will introduce it and get you started with some problems at the Bronze level.
We will also have a Silver division for folks who expect to participate in USACO Silver this season. It is a great way to practice and get back in the zone ahead of the first official December contest.
There are prizes based on participation, not performance. Every problem for which you make a valid attempt to submit a solution, you will be entered into a raffle for $50 and $25 Amazon gift cards!
Gain Understanding From Experienced Mentors
The event will be run by our top mentors who work with students on USACO problems every week. They were former Platinum level competitors themselves in high school and now at Stanford studying Computer Science.
At the end we will have 30 minutes for a problem review. Participants will be walked through how to solve the tougher problems and have the chance to ask questions.
Sign Up Soon – Limited to 100 Students
In order to make sure the event runs smoothly, we are going to cap it at 100 participants. So please go here to sign up soon, and mark your calendars for Sunday December 5th, 12:45 PM – 5:45 PM PST.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
(We also have 1 spot open for our Machine Learning Workshop on Wednesday, November 24.)