The time difference between Haicheng University of Transportation, University of California, Berkeley, and Mist City Arts and Science University was actually less than 30 seconds.
Now, those 30 seconds have passed.
However, these two universities still haven’t solved the security flaw problem.
Meaning, the cumulative time score of Mist City Arts and Science University has now surpassed Haicheng University of Transportation and University of California, Berkeley.
The time difference between the first four colleges and Mist City Arts and Science University is at least 1 minute. Due to St. Petersburg State University achieving a first place, the current time difference with Mist City Arts and Science University is more than 5 minutes.
In the next 4 and a half minutes, Ding Yue’s heart was filled with anxiety.
Those four and a half minutes quickly passed.
At this moment, Ding Yue felt both surprised and doubtful.
Why hasn’t any other university solved this security flaw repair problem?
Even if St. Petersburg State University were to pass [Problem D] at this point, they still wouldn’t be able to surpass Mist City Arts and Science University in terms of time score.
The temporary first place seems to be secure.
[National Television Station’s Science Education Channel Live Room]
"Hahaha, our Mist City Arts and Science University is awesome, we could be ranked first in time score now, right?"
"This is impressive, solving the security flaw repair problem so quickly."
"What? Has Mist City Arts and Science University won the championship?"
"Eh, eh, eh, don’t jump to conclusions, we’re just temporarily first in terms of score, the championship isn’t guaranteed, there are three more problems to solve, and each one is harder than the last."
The audience back home is already bubbling with excitement.
To everyone’s surprise, Mist City Arts and Science University has temporarily taken the lead. It seems everyone had underestimated the strength of this university.
Many people thought that Mist City Arts and Science University was just getting lucky and was only there to make up the numbers.
But from the first problem to the fourth, the performance of Mist City Arts and Science University has been excellent and clearly visible to all.
The fact that they were the first to solve the fourth problem so swiftly completely changed the way everyone looked at Mist City Arts and Science University.
Now, of the three domestic universities participating in the ACM competition, the strengths of Mist City Arts and Science University and Haicheng University of Transportation have been recognized by the audience, and they believe these two institutions have a chance to win the championship.
As for Northwestern University of Science and Technology, it can only be said that they’re a bit weaker, but they’re performing quite well compared to the second-tier universities.
However, given their current time score, Northwestern University of Science and Technology basically has no chance of winning the championship.
Unless Northwestern University of Science and Technology excels in the seventh problem and solves the problem in record time, which is nearly impossible.
Everyone knows that the seventh problem is notoriously difficult to solve.
By the time 35 minutes had passed since the start of the fourth problem, Ding Yue took a deep breath, wondering why no other university had fixed the security flaw yet after all this time.
Because the more time that passed, the greater the advantage Mist City Arts and Science University would have in this problem.
Finally, about a minute later, the "ding" sound rang out again.
Immediately afterwards, the committee announced: "Imperial Polytechnic University has successfully passed [Problem D] with a time of 36 minutes and 49 seconds!"
"St. Petersburg State University has successfully passed [Problem D], with a time of 37 minutes and 1 second!"
"The California Institute of Technology has successfully passed [Problem D], with a time of 37 minutes and 55 seconds!"
"Haicheng University of Transportation has successfully passed [Problem D], with a time of 38 minutes and 44 seconds!"
Starting from when Imperial Polytechnic University successfully fixed the security flaw, the other strongest first-tier universities also completed it successfully one after the other.
The gap between them is not significant, but compared to Mist City Arts and Science University, the gap is substantial.
On this question alone, it’s nearly a ten-minute difference!
St. Petersburg State University was somewhat impressive, though, the time difference on this question is less than ten minutes, taking into account their five-minute advantage from before.
This means that the difference in time between St. Petersburg State University and Mist City Arts and Science University is only about three to four minutes.
Ding Yue earmarked St. Petersburg State University as the biggest competitor to his Mist City Arts and Science University on the path to the championship.
Of course, the powerful universities like Imperial Polytechnic University, Haicheng University of Transportation, and the California Institute of Technology should also not be taken lightly.
The fourth question resulted in a significant change in the scores on the field.
Some originally first-tier universities dropped to the second-tier because of the security flaw repair problem.
And some second-tier universities, since they solved the security flaw in more than forty minutes, moved onto the first-tier.
But the universities teams at the bottom, they are still pretty much the same, underperforming as usual.
Especially the University of Cape Town from Africa, they failed to pass [Problem D] yet again.
Each problem seems to be challenging for the trio representing the University of Cape Town. One can only wonder how their fellow students must feel seeing the competition unfold?
After the fourth problem, it’s apparent who has the chance to win the championship and who’s just there to fill the numbers.