Computer Engineering students participate in the Programming Marathon.

On September 13th, Computer Engineering students represented ESEG College in one of the regional stages of the Programming Marathon, a competition promoted annually by the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC). The event took place at the University City of São Paulo and brought together students from different institutions seeking a spot in the Brazilian Final, which grants access to the Latin American stage of the tournament.

The Programming Marathon is considered the largest programming competition in the country and follows the model of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), the most traditional university programming competition in the world. In it, teams of three students have five hours to solve up to 13 challenging problems of logic, algorithms, and computational reasoning. The scoring system takes into account the number of problems solved, the time spent, and the number of incorrect attempts.

The day's program began with thematic lectures and a warm-up session, a kind of dress rehearsal, before the main event. After the lunch break, the teams officially competed. For the first time, ESEG College was represented by two groups of three students each.

• Group 1Nicolas César de Lima Pereira, Lucas Palandri Diniz Pereira and Lucas Piccoli Alves
• Group 2Rafaela de Lima Castro, Vinicius Nemet Polli and Ramon Veloso Vieira

According to Bruno Moritani, professor of Computer Engineering and leader of the Speed Coders project at ESEG Tech & Business, the students' performance was very positive, considering it was the institution's first time participating in the event. “We managed to solve three exercises, which is a great result for our first participation. More important than the score was the practical experience, which showed the students how the competition works and challenged them in a real-world pressure environment,” he highlighted.

The course coordinator, Professor Fernando Kakugawa, emphasized the importance of the championship for the academic and professional development of the students: “The importance of the students being in this competition is enormous. Beyond programming logic, the Marathon demands skills such as time management, decision-making under pressure, and creativity in problem-solving. Furthermore, it provides contact with other students, allowing for exchanges and references that raise the level of learning.”.

The students themselves described the intensity of the experience. For Computer Engineering student Rafaela Castro, it was a mix of happiness and tension: “Despite the nervousness of it being my first time in the competition, participating was incredible, mainly because we managed to solve the problems.” Her classmate, Vinicius Nemet, highlighted the motivation for the future: “Next year we will come back more confident, already knowing how the dynamics of the competition work.”.

For the next edition, ESEG intends to prepare even further, with simulations and specific training, such as the one that... It happened in May.. This participation marks the beginning of the institution's journey in this traditional competition, which is recognized as one of the main spaces for training and showcasing programming talent in Brazil and the world.

ESEG College congratulates the students for their dedication and performance in this first participation in the SBC Programming Marathon.