The fifth problem didn’t seem to be as difficult as they had imagined.
Moreover, the organising committee had only set aside 20 minutes to solve the fifth problem, which shockingly turned out to be the shortest problem-solving time.
The short time limit for the fifth problem did not mean that it was not difficult.
Indeed, the problem didn’t require much programming, but it was tough; many second-tier universities exhausted their wits and still had no idea how to crack this programming problem.
The top-ranked first-tier universities seemed quite composed.
It looked as though even the fifth problem couldn’t stump them.
With the perfect cooperation of Xu Bin, Chen Jun, and Ouyang Chen, they used 11 minutes and 27 seconds to get through the problem, coming in third for this question.
The time gap between the first two places and Mist City Arts and Science University was at most only a minute.
This also indicated that although Mist City Arts and Science University was not the first to solve the fifth problem, the university was still temporarily leading in cumulative time.
"If we can hold on , it seems we have a chance to win the championship!" Huang Youjie glanced at the cumulative time score as the fifth question was about to end.
Mist City Arts and Science University ranked first for now, followed by St. Petersburg State University, Imperial Polytechnic University, California Institute of Technology, Moscow State University, Haicheng University of Transportation, Nanyang Technological University, University of California, Berkeley, Zurich Federal Institute of Technology, and Stanford University came in tenth place.
Speaking of which, Stanford University is a world-renowned university in the United States, often ranking among the top globally, sometimes even in the top three.
In the ACM competition, Stanford University’s performance wasn’t particularly strong. It seemed their team couldn’t quite match up to the others in terms of capability.
At this point, the top ten colleges are evidently the hot favourites for the championship.
Ding Yue hoped that as Huang had said, if his Mist City Arts and Science University could just hold steady, wouldn’t the championship be within reach soon?
However, the sixth and seventh problems were coming soon, and it was indeed a big question mark if they could maintain their lead.
If they can clinch the championship, they can make a name for themselves, at least in the field of computer science.
If they can’t win the championship, no matter how brilliant they were during the fourth problem, it would be in vain, because, in the end, people only care about the championship.
Ding Yue sighed deeply before saying to Huang, "I hope Bin and the team can hold on. Of course, it would be even better if they could recreate the accomplishment of the fourth problem."
As Ding Yue and Huang Youjie were chatting, the organising committee announced the start of the sixth problem.
The difficulty of Problem F was cranked to the max, with a problem-solving time of an hour, according to the committee’s rules.
Solving Problem F within an hour was mandatory; failing to do so means failure and no score for this question.
For those university teams that still had a chance to win the championship, not scoring on this problem meant instant defeat.
The difficulty of the sixth problem was beyond many universities’ expectations.
"This... this is almost impossible!"
"An hour? Even if I had a whole day, I might not be able to solve it!"
"Mike, start quickly!"
"Hurry, hurry, let’s try our best while we have time!"
Upon seeing the sixth problem, many students from renowned universities started to lose heart.
In fact, even Xu Bin knitted his brows.
Chen Jun and Ouyang Chen, sitting next to him, also both looked anxious.
"Director Xu, I’m afraid it’s not going to work just with Ouyang Chen and my analysis," Chen Jun confided to Director Xu earnestly.
"I understand, but that’s okay. Let’s try to solve this problem together. You two can contribute as much as possible with your ideas."
Xu Bin might be frowning, but he didn’t panic.
Because he knew that he had to stay calm at this moment, and once they lost composure, they might indeed fail to solve the problem in an hour.
After all, they say that three cobblers make one Zhuge Liang.
Even more so when Xu Bin, Chen Jun, and Ouyang Chen were not cobblers but college geniuses in computer science.
The three of them may perhaps work wonders if they unite and cooperate.
In his year and more at Mist City Arts and Science University, Xu Bin excelled in computer science thanks to his genuine interest, natural capabilities, additional learning buffs, and other various perks from Ding Yue.
Although he’s not absolutely confident when facing the difficult problems in the ACM competition, Xu Bin believed he could bring something to the table.
However, unlike Xu Bin, the students from the other colleges were feeling a bit downcast.
They didn’t feel much pressure solving the first five problems; the fourth problem just took a bit more time.
But on the sixth problem, some students even started to feel a little frustrated.
"I believe we simply cannot solve this program within an hour!" sighed Wilke, who’s from the University of California, Berkeley, in America.
"Hey, Wilke, we have to stay confident!" Wilke’s teammate encouraged.