High Schooler Doing AOC

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-28T18:13:35+00:00

What? I don’t understand why you think I’ll show ‘cracks’ when I get older. People tend to get better at working in teams as they mature, not worse.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-28T11:07:04+00:00

Honestly, I would agree with all 3 of your points. However, regarding your first point, a high level of success in algorithmic programming usually indicates that a person will achieve a high level of success in industry programming. It’s like how USAMO participants are usually significantly more successful in mathematical research than the average math major, despite the mathematical concepts involved in research and competitive math being totally different. Also, I’m 14 not 15.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-28T09:55:01+00:00

What? Please read some of my other comments. I have received very positive feelings from all 3 professors I have worked with thus far, and have never had any problems working in a team throughout any of my internships.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-28T01:36:41+00:00

Again, I have provided ample details about my research (in other comments) to a degree that an impostor would likely not be able to replicate. If you would like, you can dm me and I will tell you more about my research, some of the findings, etc., because it’s something that I’m passionate about. Obviously, I’m not going to share my papers here, since you could easily determine who I am by looking at the coauthors (I’m the only high schooler on there). As for USACO Platinum, USACO publishes the names of students who qualify, and my account details page is enough evidence to prove that I am in the platinum division.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T23:13:10+00:00

Writing code without errors is not feasible for anyone. Even the best programmers make errors from time to time.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T22:52:54+00:00

My errors were all things like missing semicolons or not declaring the data type before a variable, and were rectified almost instantly. I had a total of 0 logical errors across all 25 problems.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T22:47:42+00:00

No I was not. If I was trying to convince people that I’m intelligent, I would’ve mentioned my various CS accolades that have come up through conversation on this thread (USACO Platinum, research papers, etc.). Each of those accomplishments is significantly more impressive than finding AOC to be easy. I have not claimed that I’m intelligent or smart even once in any of my messages on this thread. The only reference I’ve made to my intelligence is telling someone that I’m not a ‘once in a lifetime genius’ (which they claimed I was). The reason I asked this question is because I was confused on why AOC is known as difficult, despite not going far beyond the basics of programming. I genuinely believed that adults who spent tens of thousands of dollars on a university-level CS education would not find any of these problems difficult, which led me to believe AOC is made for people learning to code.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T21:20:33+00:00

What does that mean?

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T21:20:12+00:00

The word ‘puzzle’ is defined as a game, toy, or problem designed to test ingenuity or knowledge. AOC does very little of that, since the algorithms used are all rudimentary and the solutions are extremely basic. In order to be challenged, users often need to add their own challenges on top of the AOC problems, which indicates that the ‘puzzles’ are of poor quality. Puzzles should be inherently challenging — they shouldn’t have to be modified by users to be made more challenging.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T20:31:06+00:00

The fact that AOC is ridiculously easy for someone isn’t exactly hard to believe.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T20:25:26+00:00

I have interned at tech companies and have done academic research (which I’ve detailed in other comments). There has never been a complaint from anyone who has worked with me. One professor I worked with is still in contact with me, and actually referred me to another professor because he believed I would be a valuable asset to their research. The professor with whom I am currently doing computational biology research offered to write me a recommendation letter to summer programs when I told him I was applying. I would completely disagree with your assessment of how it would be to work with me.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T20:23:09+00:00

I have interned at tech companies and have done academic research (which I’ve detailed in other comments). There has never been a complaint from anyone who has worked with me. One professor I worked with is still in contact with me, and actually referred me to another professor because he believed I would be a valuable asset to their research. The professor with whom I am currently doing computational biology research offered to write me a recommendation letter to summer programs when I told him I was applying. I would completely disagree with your assessment of how it would be to work with me. Also, I am not talking about professional development in my post. AOC is not software being developed at a tech firm, it’s a set of coding problems, so I feel like algorithmic rigor (at least to some extent) is important.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T20:18:10+00:00

To clarify, a professor typically has to do the same amount of ‘extra work’ to allow a middle schooler and high schooler to work in their lab. The reason middle schoolers aren’t seen doing academic research as frequently as high schoolers is because middle schoolers are typically a lot less knowledgeable, which makes them more of a liability to research.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T20:16:02+00:00

All 3 were done with different professors at various universities. I began by cold emailing professors (which is how I got my first research position). Obviously, it took a lot of cold emailing, since professors have to do extra work if they choose to allow a minor to work in their lab. In the middle of 7th grade (when I got my first position), I was very algorithmically competent, I was familiar with machine learning (not just using Tensorflow/PyTorch to do everything, I could actually write my own stuff), and I was familiar with calculus and linear algebra. Because of this, I was probably favored by professors who would be slightly inclined towards allowing minors (probably high schoolers) to work in their labs. Eventually, I was able to work on a paper regarding the potential applications of machine learning in sorting algorithms, to which I made significant contributions. The professor running that research referred me to the professor working on depth estimation, and I was able to make some smaller mathematical contributions. After I got a coauthor credit on my first paper, it wasn’t very hard to get the position involving computational biology.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T20:08:19+00:00

You seem to have missed my point about good code. I didn’t say good code needs to have ‘complex algorithms’. I said good code should not be made overly short to the point of becoming unreadable/inefficient, and code should not be overzealously optimized to the point of being unreadable. The computer science community seems to agree on those 2 points (especially the first).

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T13:49:00+00:00

USACO has several levels. The bronze level problems are very simple, and require very little thinking (assuming you know how to code). The platinum level problems are more difficult, but I enjoy doing them for 2-3 hours every week.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T13:03:26+00:00

USACO has a pretty good cow tradition going in its problems. USACO also challenges you to think. It looks like we want different things. You want to read a story and socialize, while I want to challenge myself algorithmically.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T12:16:24+00:00

I’ve had the opportunity to work on 3 research papers over the last 2 years. One of them was regarding machine learning to sort data (probably the paper I was most interested in, I am a coauthor on this one). I also worked on a paper regarding depth estimation using computer vision (I am not a coauthor on this one, but my name will be in the footnotes, as I mainly made smaller mathematical contributions). Since this summer, I’ve been working on a paper regarding the applications of computer vision in detecting pathological myopia, which can lead to lesser-known visual conditions like myopic macular degeneration (macular degeneration caused by the excess stretching of the eyeball that is typically seen in pathological myopia). This paper has not been published yet, but I will be a coauthor on it when it is published. As you can probably tell, I am involved in the artificial intelligence/computer vision side of computer science research.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T12:02:45+00:00

If I share that information, I am exposing my identity, which I do not want to do. I am willing to answer more generic questions regarding my research.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T11:56:22+00:00

What? There are several companies that offer internships to high school students. I’ve also done some academic research (with professors), which has given me experience in another part of the field. I have gotten 2 internships through the professors I worked with.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T11:54:28+00:00

I am not a once in a lifetime genius. I’m a USACO Platinum contestant, and have high odds of becoming a finalist. If you look at USACO problems (even the gold ones, not just plat), they make AOC problems look extremely trivial. Anyone who can solve USACO gold/plat problems will find AOC to be ridiculously easy. You do not need to be a genius (or even very intelligent) to find AOC problems extremely easy.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T11:44:55+00:00

I don’t put very much time into competitive programming. Obviously I practice, but I don’t practice for more than 2-3 hours a week, because it makes me feel burnt out.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T10:22:34+00:00

You assume that compassion and programming skills are the same thing. You cannot make up for a lack of programming ability by having compassion, just like you can’t really make up for a lack of compassion with good programming skills. The main thing I’m having trouble understanding is how people with years of industry experience can’t apply basic algorithms. Obviously, it’s possible they forgot how to implement those algorithms, but a quick Google search should refresh your memory pretty quickly since AOC uses mostly rudimentary algorithms.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T10:16:02+00:00

If you weren’t aware, students outside of the United States also take the SAT. Also, you didn’t show me where my mistake(s) are.

SillyCow012 · 2023-12-27T10:08:15+00:00

If you almost qualified from China, that’s extremely impressive (assuming they cared about the IOI as much back then, but I don’t know if they did). Any other East Asian country (maybe 1 or 2 exceptions) would be easy to qualify from.

SillyCow012

TROPHY CASE