Brit takes prize in Google coders competition

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 17 Nov 2008 at 12:01

A Briton has won third prize in Google's annual Code Jam competition.

Bruce Merry came in third behind the Chinese pair Tiancheng Lou and Zeyuan Zhu, to claim his $2,500 prize.

The competition challenges programmers to crack complex algorithm puzzles in a set period of time. Entrants are free to choose whichever programming language they want to solve the challenges.

The competition started in July, with a series of online qualifying rounds attracting 11,000 entrants. The top 500 competitors were then invited to regional finals at Google campuses across the globe, and the last 100 standing were invited to compete in the final at Google's Mountain View headquarters in California.

The Code Jam competition is now in its fifth year. Success in the challenge is clearly a good way to bring your coding skills to Google's attention: this year's competition was set by former Code Jam winners, now Google employees, who created the platform and devised the tests in their infamous "20% time" - the fifth of the working week Google allows staff to work on their own projects.

For anybody interested in teaching their kids to code, follow our step-by-step guide here.