Communications of the ACM
In the Olympics of Algorithms, a Russian Keeps Winning Gold
Top-ranked programmer Petr Mitrichev solves a problem during a 2010 coding competition.
Credit: John Morris Photography | TopCoder, Inc.
Since 2005, Google researcher and former Moscow State University student Petr Mitrichev has led the world in algorithmic programming.
Mitrichev won the most recent champion's title in competitive programming, a contest he says offers a rare island of absolutes in a subjective world. "You have a feeling of satisfaction in a contest when you solve a problem," Mitrichev says. "The beautiful aspect is that it's totally automatic and there is no human judgment involved at all."
Mitrichev earned his world ranking after joining the premier leagues of competitive programming, a series of weekly and annual contests that attract more than 400,000 programmers from around the world. The problems in these competitions often outline physical situations that must be described mathematically, which requires writing algorithms. Some contests also include a challenge phase, in which the goal is to submit data that trips a competitor's program.
At Google, Mitrichev works to improve Google's search algorithm, mostly by making subtle changes, such as finding language tricks to get more meaning from a search term. "When you have an idea, then you implement it as an algorithm, and then you run an experiment," he says.
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