THE Journal

ACROSS THE COUNTRY, a select number of high school students compete in the TopCoder High School Tournament, an annual computer programming contest that challenges students' problem-solving skills.

The competition is conducted from January to March. The first three rounds are done online before the finalists meet faceto- face on the campus of Indiana's Purdue University to see who can write the most elegant algorithms to crack complex word problems. Launched by TopCoder last year, the contest is open to any high school-aged member within TopCoder's community of more than 145,000 programmers worldwide. Nonmember students can sign up and join the community for free-- the competitions are also free.

TopCoder COO Rob Hughes says the contest provides a great opportunity for students to show off their programming talents in the use of Java, Linux, Ajax, and Flash. While most student participants describe these skills as self-taught, Hughes says that a growing number report they are learning programming basics as part of their regular school curriculum. "More and more, we're seeing students say they've learned languages like Lisp, C++, Perl, and PHP in high school," he says. "If the right type of skills are followed and developed early on, then, as a nation, we can ensure both jobs for our youngsters and growth for our workforce as globalization continues."

According to Hughes, the benefits of these kinds of programming contests are much broader than one might think. First, of course, students get practice writing code. But he says the competitions sharpen intangibles such as problem solving and critical thinking, which can be as critical as programming skills for success in the 21st-century economy.

"Beyond the bits and the bytes, young people need to be able to solve complicated equations and think critically on the fly," Hughes says. "Anything that requires them to do these things-- whether you're talking about competitions or just an ordinary class-- is a step in the right direction."