Singapore Open and the disadvantage I am going through

[abr71310]

We call the person in my school who is 19th in the world in programming "Humble" and "Modest", because he honestly does not believe he is great at anything.

They have a world ranking in programming? What are people ranked based on?

I base it off of the rankings IOI (International Olympiad of Informatics) gives out, where 4 people are sent from every country (usually the top 4 -- this person was only 2nd in Canada, but the 1st place person didn't even get top 25...), and it was held in Egypt back in August of 2008...

But it's only school students (grades 4-12 in most "schools"), but still, 19th in the world is pretty impressive for a grade 11 (he's in 12 now, we expect him to rank top 10 without even trying).

 

[qqwref]

Ah, that's a bit different He placed 19th once (among only those who hadn't graduated college and managed to place top 4 in their country); it's still very impressive though.

It would really suck to be the 5th best in the world, but be in the same country as the top 4, and not make it to the IOI...

 

[abr71310]

China has had an issue with that for years -- there are much better programmers in high school than the ones who go, but still only the top 4 ranked in nationals move on.

Keep in mind that this particular student I'm talking about started programming for his first time ever in grade 10, and he was in the IOI in grade 11....

To think I programmed beside this guy for 4 months, only to have him become the most epic legend our school has ever seen...