Communications of the ACM
North Korean College Coders Beat Stanford in a 2016 Competition. Here's Why That Matters
A North Korean school boy looks up from his computer screen in Pyongyang, North Korea.
In 2016, North Korean programming students won 28th place in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Competition — an intense, problem-solving battle of over 100 teams.
That may not sound impressive, but they beat Stanford University — a school that has been ranked as one of the top 10 computer science schools on multiple occasions. They also tied with Cornell and one of South Korea's most revered tech schools — the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
These international competitions are one of the only ways we can see North Korea's tech skills compete on the world stage. The takeway: North Korean students are a decent match against those studying in the U.S. and South Korea.
The Kim Jong Un regime needs top-notch computer scientists and hackers, and so far they've succeeded.
From Mic
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