By Rachel Dammala
Copyright deccanchronicle
Hyderabad: For three students of IIIT-Hyderabad, months of problem-solving drills and late-night coding marathons paid off in Azerbaijan, where they returned from the ACM–ICPC World Finals with a double feat. The trio, Shiven Sinha, Hari Aakash and Sushil Raaja Umasudhan, finished 73rd worldwide in the main contest and made the Honours list, a recognition given to teams solving at least half of the problems. They went further in the Huawei-sponsored ICPC Challenge, securing 11th place and prizes, finishing ahead of well-coached global teams including St. Petersburg State University. The finals, often called the “Olympics of programming,” drew 140 teams from more than 3,000 universities. Over five hours, each team had to crack twelve real-world algorithmic puzzles that tested both brainpower and teamwork. “ICPC problems are quite different and require special training. We solved six out of twelve, which put us on the Honours list. It didn’t go perfectly, but the experience was unforgettable,” said Sushil, a second-year computer science student who has represented India twice at the International Olympiad in Informatics. For Shiven, in his final year, the thrill was the industry challenge. “The Huawei contest is very different, closer to what banks or tech firms face. You can’t prepare, you just have to figure it out on the spot. Ending up 11th was special,” he said. Their preparation was a mix of discipline and peer learning. “We split topics, practised past contests and even held our own mock rounds. Those sessions helped us adjust quickly on stage in Baku,” said Hari, who joined IIIT-H after winning gold at the Indian National Olympiad in Informatics. The three credit not only their teamwork but also a culture of competitive programming on campus, where seniors guide juniors through workshops and shared contests. The wins, they say, are less about trophies and more about proving that Indian students, with far less early exposure than peers abroad can hold their ground on the world stage.
