- South African Computer Olympiad
The South African Computing Olympiad (SACO) is an annual
computer programming competition for secondary school students (although at least one primary school student has participated [cite web | title = Computer Olympiad - Winner Archive | url=http://www.olympiad.org.za/winner_archive.htm#1995 | accessdate = 2007-10-07] ) inSouth Africa . The South African team for theInternational Olympiad in Informatics is selected through this competition.=Competition rounds=The competition consists of three rounds. The first round is a pen-and-paper aptitude examination at the entrant's school, testing a combination of general knowledge, knowledge of computers, problem solving and basic programming (entrants are often required to program an imaginary
robot in a fictional Logo-like language). Although the first round is not compulsory, it is accessible to those who do not have access to, or knowledge of, computers. 31,926 students entered the first round in2006 [cite web | title = Computer Olympiad - History | url=http://www.olympiad.org.za/history.htm | accessdate = 2007-10-07] .In the second round, actual programs must be written and executed. There are five questions, each requiring a different program to be written. Most entrants only answer a single question. The tasks usually include one basic shape-drawing program; for example, the
2004 question "TriSquare" required output such as:* * * * * ***** * * * * * * *****
The top performers (those who have answered four or five questions in the second round) are invited to the final round. Usually between 10 and 15 students are chosen, but since the introduction of a new language and increased funding from the Shuttleworth Foundation in
2005 there have been between 20 and 30 students. The final round is held at theUniversity of Cape Town : the finalists stay inCape Town over a weekend. The competition consists of two five-hour rounds, the first on Saturday and second on Sunday. The problems are similar to those in theUSACO , though somewhat easier. On the Monday after the competition, a prize-giving ceremony is held.=Prizes=The top six entrants are awarded medals (one gold, two silver and three bronze). There are cash prizes, both for the winners and their schools. There are bonus prizes of R100,000 for using Python, due to Shuttleworth's sponsorship. The medal-winners are given additional training from the Olympiad coaches and the
USACO training programme. Four programmers are then selected from the six to represent South Africa at theInternational Olympiad in Informatics .=Languages=In the first round, it is not necessary to know a
programming language . In the second round, contestants may use a language of their choice (within reason -Brainfuck is presumably excluded). In the third round, however, the set of languages is restricted to:
*Pascal - the language taught in high schools in some South African provinces (includingGauteng )
*Java - taught in other provinces (including theWestern Cape )
*Python - sponsored byMark Shuttleworth
*C/C++ Python programs are given a 10x time bonus.
=South African IOI Medalists=
The following table lists all South African IOI medalists ordered by colour and number of medals (or ranking if gold), then by last year a medal was received. B represents a Bronze medal, S a Silver and G a Gold.
Name Years Bruce Merry G (6th) 2001 G (7th) 2000 S 1999 S 1998 B 1997 B 1996 Daniel Wright G (1st) 1998 Richard Starfield G (13th) 2004 Kevin Liu S 1995 S 1994 Ralf Kistner B 2007 S 2006 Carl Hultquist B 2000 S 1999 Keegan Carruthers-Smith S 2006 Joshua Yudaken S 2006 Linsen Loots S 2002 Johan Du Toit S 2001 Danie Conradie S 1997 Brian Shand S 1994 David Butler S 1992 Keith Guthrie S 1992 Saadiq Moolla B 2008 Dirk-B Coetzee B 2007 Timothy Stranex B 2005 Shen Tian B 2003 Jacques Conradie B 2002 Heinrich Du Toit B 2002 Jacob Croon B 2001 Liesl Penzhorn B 2000 Hugo van der Merwe B 2000 Paul Cook B 1999 Rainer Hoft B 1999 Jaco Conrje B 1998 Timothy Lawrence B 1997 Gert-Jan Van Rooyen B 1995 References
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