Glad I am not the world's best programmer

Update: The incredibly misleading name "Facebook hacker cup" makes Bolivian newspapers fail: Facebook busca al mejor hacker del planeta

Just read: Are You The World’s Best Programmer? Compete In Facebook’s 2012 Hacker Cup

Last year I found a TopCoder thread about something called a hacker cup. But the link to explanation about its rules was a facebook page. And you know what I get when I try to open a facebook page?



Yeah, I had to register to facebook just to see info about that hacker cup thing last year, so I just didn't give it much importance and continued reading other threads.

Some time later, that thread exploded. Wow it was such an interesting read. Facebook managed to compress all possible horror stories about programming contests in a single qualification round... Generic problems, site glitches, bad test data, difficult to use interface...

The many issues with the so-called hacker cup apparently got quite an echo: Facebook hacker cup: Resounding failure.

Apparently it eventually gained some stability and the cup could continue. Which lead us to the best headline of 2011: Google Employee wins Facebook Hacker Cup. Hah. Later though, google got a taste of their own when the code jam first and second place went to TopCoder admins...

Also hilarious were the many reports of people offering money for help in the hacker cup. Yes, really it happened. Too bad I can't find the relevant links right now.

I won't participate in the hacker round. The prizes:

Of course! $5,000 USD and title as world champion to the top hacker, $2,000 for second place, $1,000 for third, and $100 for fourth through 25th. Awesome t-shirts for the top 100 hackers coming out of the second online round.

Are quite underwhelming and to me not out-weight the cons of creating a facebook account. I just look forward to what fun events will happen this year in relation to it. I am just glad I am not the world's best programmer.

To anyone who does not know much about programming contests, I would say things like google's code jam are far more relevant as a way to find who is who in the programming contest world. Facebook's little cup is very young as an attempt to gain cred.