BrazilAPAC students claim top three spots in Tata annual programming comp
Coders from the Asia Pacific have swept the latest installment of Tata Consultancy Services global programming challenge, beating out 230,000 fellow students worldwide.
The eighth edition of Tata Consultancy Services’ flagship programming challenge, CodeVita – one of the largest such events in the world – have seen competitors from the Asia Pacific emerge atop the podium, with the ultimate prize taken by Sheng Yu Hang of Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University. Ali Khosravi of RMIT University in Australia, and Tan Jia Qing from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University were named first and second runner-up.
“Coding is still one of the most sought-after skills in the workplace in 2020,” said TCS Asia Pacific president Girish Ramachandran. “Qualified individuals for roles like front-end engineer, java developer and software engineer are all in high demand. These three students have proven their mettle and emerged as global coding champions. We look forward to the great things they are sure to achieve. Congratulations again to Tan Jia Qing, Ali Khosravi and Sheng Yu Hang,”
More than just verbal accolades, the trio also received prize-money ranging from $3,000 to $10,000, along with being granted the opportunity to intern at TCS’s Research and Innovation unit. Altogether, the latest edition saw a record 230,000 students from 89 countries participate across eight programming languages, with the top 25 qualifiers invited to India for CodeVita’s grueling grand finale in the shape of six-hour live programming hackathon.
“It's exhilarating to see the agility and critical analysis brought to life at TCS CodeVita by this young talent,” said Tata Consultancy’s Chief Technology Officer K. Ananth Krishnan. “In an era where technology has revolutionised our world, innovation and creativity are critical parameters for success. Our platform aims to fuel the passion for programming in these brilliant young minds that goes beyond educational, social, geographical and cultural backgrounds.”
The passion for CodeVita has certainly been fuelled since its more humble origins in 2012. Following its domestic success, the competition went global two years later, and as an example of its continued growth last year drew 210,000 contestants from 68 countries (with Sheng Yu Hang going one better this year following his second placing last time around) – a jump of 20,000 student participants in a single year and a geographic broadening to 20 more countries.
This, the consulting firm partially puts down the competition’s growing esteem among university students, but it has also deliberately set out to promote programming-as-a-sport, based on a philosophy that programming can be both fun and challenging while invoking the passions and camaraderie of a sport; “connecting people from varied backgrounds and ethnicities regardless of physical and cultural boundaries.” Last year’s registrations opened in the second week of March.
