Algorithms Weekly by Petr Mitrichev: A week of 4009

Codeforces Round 969 took place on Friday (issues, results, top 5 links, analysis, ratings). Tourist has finally broken the 4000 ratings barrier, with a mere 5 points lead over Jiangly. While one could argue that 4000 is just a round number with no special meaning in the rating system, Gennady’s recent run of form is simply astonishing. He has won 6 of his last 7 Codeforces contests, something that hasn’t happened since 2015 (and while I only checked Gennady’s rating history, I can say for sure that it has never happened to any other competitor), which is even more impressive now considering the much stiffer competition in 2024. Congratulations!

The 3rd Universal Cup Stage 8: Cangqian followed on Saturday (problems, results, top 5 links). Gennady’s team continued their very impressive form here too, winning the 6th stage in a row and turning what was a very close two-horse race last season into a Max Verstappen-like domination (oh wait!). It was quite close this time and towards the end of the race team HoMaMaOvO solved problems faster, but they couldn’t make up for the time lost at the beginning. Congratulations to both teams and to team Polish Mafia for the third full score!

Next week is IOI 2024 in Alexandria, Egypt (participants). Together with ICPC, IOI is one of the two really big events in the competitive programming world. It is the event that defines the year for the high school students who train for it, and also the event where friendships are made for years to come. Good luck to all participants, check my blog next week for the results (or just find them on the official website), and also check out the blog of the Swiss team!