It seems that even the team from the University of California, Berkeley are on the verge of cracking under the pressure of the questions.
This is a school that currently ranks in the top ten!
You can imagine how desperate the other schools, and even the second echelon teams are when they face Question [G].
Attitude becomes very important at this point.
Xu Bin, Chen Jun, and Ouyang Chen from the Mist City Arts and Science University were methodically addressing [Problem G].
Eventually, Xu Bin came up with a breakthrough.
"Look, can we try solving it this way?" As Xu Bin worked, he pitched his idea to Chen Jun and Ouyang Chen.
The two looked closely at his plan. Neither was entirely sure about it, but they both nodded their heads and echoed in unison, "Director Xu, I think we could give it a shot!"
Xu Bin took a deep breath, thinking of Principal Ding Yue’s expectations for him, gritted his teeth, and started trying to solve [Problem G].
Even if this approach didn’t work, Xu Bin wondered if there would still be a chance to change tactics.
But this method had to be tried.
At the 31-minute mark, the contest organizers received Imperial Polytechnic University’s submission.
The judges’ decision was — WA!
Meaning the answer was wrong!
According to ACM competition rules, if a submitted program is not running correctly within the stipulated time, the program will be returned to the competitor team, and the team can modify and resubmit the problem.
In other words, all competing schools have the chance to test and correct their code.
Clearly, Imperial Polytechnic University took a gamble—the gamble being that their program would pass the first time it was submitted.
If successful, the team could take a significant lead.
Because solving this problem would take at least 50 minutes!
"Imperial Polytechnic University’s answer is incorrect!"
The contest organizers returned Imperial Polytechnic University’s program, leaving its three team members stunned.
"We have about twenty minutes left, should we try Plan B?"
"We have no other choice, let’s make the most of our time."
Dispirited, the three of them quickly adjusted their mental states. If Plan A was a failure, then they had to execute Plan B.
Moscow State University, like Imperial Polytechnic University, chose to test out Plans A and B.
Moscow State University’s Plan A submission, much like their counterparts’, was deemed a — WA!
The problem was returned to Moscow State University, and they immediately moved on to Plan B.
But time was tight, and there was no guarantee that Plan B could be fully executed.
Actually, Xu Bin and his team from Mist City Arts and Science University employed a similar strategy to Imperial Polytechnic University and Moscow State University.
That was, test one method first, then if that fails, try another approach.
However, as Xu Bin coded, he found that this approach seemed faultless. With help from Chen Jun and Ouyang Chen, Xu Bin now wanted to perfect and execute this method as quickly as possible!
"Brother Yue, several schools have submitted their programs, but all have returned errors. Are they just probing for the right answer? But I don’t see any signs that Bin is preparing to test different approaches," said Huang Youjie, sensing something different.
"Sure, the best approach for this problem would be to test different scenarios. If Bin and his team aren’t planning to do this, it can only mean one thing," said Ding Yue, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"And what would that be?" asked Huang eagerly.
"That means Bin and his team are confident that they can solve [Problem G] on the first attempt!"
Between the 30th and 45th minute of the problem-solving session, many schools continued to submit their solutions but all received the same feedback from the judges — incorrect!
In other words, the strategy of rushing to make multiple guesses within a short time span had, by and large, failed.
So, many schools had virtually given up on this problem.
Given that only twenty minutes or so remained, it was practically impossible to flawlessly execute a second program.
Of course, there were some highly confident school teams like Imperial Polytechnic University and Haicheng University of Transportation.
Once the 53rd minute rolled around,
Xu Bin completed the final line of code and looked at Chen Jun and Ouyang Chen.
They both nodded in unison.
If their submission didn’t pass, they’d be in a pretty bad predicament, maybe even risk losing the chance to win the championship.
After all, if the submitted program didn’t run correctly, they’d be left with only seven minutes to switch tactics, hardly enough time.
Xu Bin, seeing their determined looks, gritted his teeth internally.
About half a minute went by.
"Congratulations to Mist City Arts and Science University for successfully solving [Problem G] in 53 minutes!"
As a purple balloon rose behind Xu Bin, Chen Jun, and Ouyang Chen, they became the first team to solve Problem 6.
Mist City Arts and Science University!
The audience erupted into applause.
At 53 minutes in, finally a team had successfully solved [Problem G].
This really was a difficult problem.
A majority of the schools, at least ten, had already thrown in the towel.