Preparations for Computer Science Club competitions pay off

Students walk into Algebra 2 Honors and AP Computer Science teacher Debra Troxell’s room at lunch every other Monday, eager to apply complex algorithms to difficult problems and share their knowledge with other 15-20 Computer Science club members.

Junior Albert Tseng, who leads the club, explained that unlike the older Application Development (App Dev) club, the Computer Science (CS) club focuses on solving algorithm and logic based theoretical problems, while App Dev focuses on developing and releasing applications.
During meetings, members do presentations on different algorithms and solve problems from previous competitions. Occasionally, an alumnus experienced in computer science is invited to share his or her experiences in the workplace as well.
The CS club has been actively preparing on a biweekly basis for its two major competitions: the USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) and the Programming Contest (PROCO).
Students who participate in USACO have four hours to solve three problems every month. Each problem has 10-15 test cases and takes a large amount of time and thinking to correctly solve. The competition is one of the most difficult competitions for CS club members.
PROCO, on the other hand, is somewhat easier than USACO, and takes place every May at Stanford.
Junior Mayank Pandey, a club competitor, has been participating in these computing competitions for over two-and-a-half years.
“I find doing sufficiently hard CS problems very fun,” Pandey said. “I spend two to three hours a day doing USACO questions.”
Tseng and senior Brendan Ney, co-presidents of the club, were delighted by the progress of CS club members in the most recent USACO competition last December. In past USACO tests, many members were unable to advance to the next level, such as from the silver level to the gold level. In December, however, an astonishing eight members were able to move up a division.

In the USACO competition, senior Jacky Lee and junior Yehchan Yoo advanced from bronze to silver division. Senior Nicholas Lai jumped two divisions, from bronze to gold. Juniors Albert Tseng and William Hu, along with sophomore Tiffany Huang, advanced from silver to gold. Junior Mayank Pandey and sophomore Aayush Gupta were able to jump from gold to platinum.
Tseng and Ney attribute the club’s success on the last test to the dedication of its members.
“I’m glad to see that the club meetings and lectures have yielded positive results,” Tseng said. “Seeing a large number of people from Saratoga advance is a very positive event, given the high level of difficulty of the contest.”