previously unseen problems, mastering a wide range of algorithms and data structures, and precisely
implementing solutions that can span hundreds of lines. Solutions are evaluated by executing them
on an exhaustive suite of unknown tests, checking for correct behaviour on edge cases as well
as execution speed. The fact that the test cases used for evaluation are hidden is an important
part of the challenge. These complex problems are newly created for each competition, with the
understanding that competitors can draw on solutions to previous contests (either implicitly, by
remembering old problems, or explicitly, by searching for them). Moreover, competitive programming
is very popular; events like the International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC, 2021) and
the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI, 2021) are widely recognized as some of the most
prestigious competitions in computer science, drawing hundreds of thousands of participants from
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