Interviews with the winners of the 59th International Mathematical Olympiad
Hi, Habr! By the Day of Knowledge, we talked with the winners and owners of gold medals at the 59th International Mathematical Olympiad in Romania: Stanislav Krymsky and Vladimir Petrov. By the way, here are the tasks from this championship, try to solve it.
Stanislav Krymsky (St. Petersburg), a graduate of the academic lyceum “Physical and Technical School” of St. Petersburg and a freshman at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Faculty of General and Applied Physics.
- How did you prepare for the competition? Do you have any secrets in preparing for the competition? Do you have any rituals like a happy shirt or a cup of coffee?
- In happy shirts, I believe. Sometimes it helps. If it stops, then I no longer put it on important competitions.
In any case, before the competition it is important to get in shape. You can not be distracted by the holidays, you have to shake the brain so that he remembers all the small details that can help solve the problem. I have no method for solving problems, just as there can be no methodology for writing a poem or a musical work.
- Do you analyze your failures? Have there been any offensive mistakes in your career that you cannot forgive yourself so far?
- Failures must be analyzed in order not to repeat the errors leading to them. There were failures. As a rule, they happened when I underestimated the seriousness of the upcoming competitions, assuming in advance that I would easily win.
- How does it help you in ordinary life that you are one of the best in the world?
- It just gives me a place in the sun. It is difficult for anyone to find their place in society, but I hope that it will be easier for me to find it thanks to my reputation.
- What do you do when faced with a task that you can not solve?
- I don’t quit, but save and return after a while.
- How do you assess the state of the IT sphere in Russia? Does it make sense to move to another country to stay on the edge of knowledge?
- To move or not to move - a personal question for everyone. With the current opportunity to transmit information over the Internet it hardly makes sense. Although someone may be interested to join a foreign team. I understand more when people leave for internships and return home to create new technologies here.
- Do you have a favorite programming language? Is there a favorite branch of mathematics, the problems from which you like most to solve?
- My teacher and class teacher Mikhail Eduardovich Dvorkin, gold medalist of the World Programming Championships ACM ICPC 2007 at school taught us Java, it is a convenient language for solving a large class of problems. I have no favorite theme. A professional should be able to solve almost all problems or become a narrower specialist. I have not yet chosen a favorite topic.
- What is missing in modern programming?
- In modern programming, there is not enough clever multi-factor processing of huge data arrays.
- What do you think the new will be in programming in 5-10 years, when you will already be a full-time working specialist?
- In 5-10 years, the era of artificial intelligence may begin. The picture of current tasks will change significantly, but the question of what is human consciousness is likely to remain open.
- How did your parents influence your love of programming? That they instilled her?
- At school, I liked programming, but my parents dissuaded me seriously from programming. Nevertheless, I managed to feel the beauty of the subject thanks to the efforts of Mikhail Eduardovich Dvorkin.
- “Do you cook” whether you are in a programmer’s environment, or are you surrounded by various people?
- No, my environment - a variety of people: physicists, mathematicians, musicians.
- Have you already been offered a job? Where do you see your career? You are now a rising star - you have no fear that working in a real project will be more boring and will require much less knowledge and skills?
- No, nobody offered me a job. It would be strange, since I am just now going to study at the university. In programming, indeed, third-year students easily find a job; in physics, you need to study eight to ten years to become a specialist. I don't know about math. I haven't thought about a career yet. As for projects, in any work there are so many nuances and trifles that need to be borne in mind that regardless of the amount of knowledge that this work requires, at some points it may turn out to be both boring and overly complex. I think in such cases the right tactic is to share these difficulties with colleagues, so as not to get tired and not be disappointed.
- What do you plan to do when you graduate?
- I would like to do science, solve problems at the intersection of sciences.
Vladimir Petrov (St. Petersburg), after school is going to enroll in SPSU
- Why did you decide to do programming?
- Parents instilled a love of mathematics, from childhood they gave various tasks, was engaged in additional. Programming, I was fascinated, directly focusing on my environment, many friends of mathematics and classmates were engaged.
- How did you prepare for the Olympics? Have there been any happy rituals?
- Our team was purposefully trained by several teachers from many regions of the country. The selection to the team was very long, more than a year, and during it active learning took place, including remotely.
Of course, each has its own "traditions" or "rituals." So, I do have a happy T-shirt that I put on throughout the year; I also professionally played sports as a child and remained a sign not to cut hair before competitions.
Despite the fact that the Olympiad is an individual one, we always had a solid team, we felt like a single whole. Therefore, it was the personal “secrets” that never happened, they all shared with each other and discussed with the coaches; there were command rituals, for example, to eat a watermelon together before going abroad.
The method of solving each individual. Of course, there is a general “plan” for deciding which rules to follow. For example, one of the main rules is: as soon as you solve a problem, write it down to ensure that you get the maximum points, otherwise suddenly there won't be enough time.
- Often have to work on the bugs?
- After each unsuccessful performance, I definitely draw conclusions and try to work on the mistakes. Sometimes I even write in writing what is wrong and what needs to be changed. Hurtful mistakes happen very often, but never seemed to be very upset, always thinking about the next chance and that we should work more.
- There are situations when you can’t solve the problem at all?
- This happens quite rarely, happened, solved the problem during the week, but not so that every free second, but postponed, then returned. However, when nothing comes out at all, I ask the teachers for a hint or discuss it with friends, looking for a new approach ...
- What do you want to do in the future?
- To be honest, I do not know yet. Similarly, something related to mathematics and programming, because I like it and it turns out. And this is a victory in life when work coincides with a hobby. Perhaps it will be applied mathematics, perhaps professional programming in a bank, for example. If it turns out, in the distant future we will create our own business.
Stanislav Krymsky (St. Petersburg), a graduate of the academic lyceum “Physical and Technical School” of St. Petersburg and a freshman at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Faculty of General and Applied Physics.
- How did you prepare for the competition? Do you have any secrets in preparing for the competition? Do you have any rituals like a happy shirt or a cup of coffee?
- In happy shirts, I believe. Sometimes it helps. If it stops, then I no longer put it on important competitions.
In any case, before the competition it is important to get in shape. You can not be distracted by the holidays, you have to shake the brain so that he remembers all the small details that can help solve the problem. I have no method for solving problems, just as there can be no methodology for writing a poem or a musical work.
- Do you analyze your failures? Have there been any offensive mistakes in your career that you cannot forgive yourself so far?
- Failures must be analyzed in order not to repeat the errors leading to them. There were failures. As a rule, they happened when I underestimated the seriousness of the upcoming competitions, assuming in advance that I would easily win.
- How does it help you in ordinary life that you are one of the best in the world?
- It just gives me a place in the sun. It is difficult for anyone to find their place in society, but I hope that it will be easier for me to find it thanks to my reputation.
- What do you do when faced with a task that you can not solve?
- I don’t quit, but save and return after a while.
- How do you assess the state of the IT sphere in Russia? Does it make sense to move to another country to stay on the edge of knowledge?
- To move or not to move - a personal question for everyone. With the current opportunity to transmit information over the Internet it hardly makes sense. Although someone may be interested to join a foreign team. I understand more when people leave for internships and return home to create new technologies here.
- Do you have a favorite programming language? Is there a favorite branch of mathematics, the problems from which you like most to solve?
- My teacher and class teacher Mikhail Eduardovich Dvorkin, gold medalist of the World Programming Championships ACM ICPC 2007 at school taught us Java, it is a convenient language for solving a large class of problems. I have no favorite theme. A professional should be able to solve almost all problems or become a narrower specialist. I have not yet chosen a favorite topic.
- What is missing in modern programming?
- In modern programming, there is not enough clever multi-factor processing of huge data arrays.
- What do you think the new will be in programming in 5-10 years, when you will already be a full-time working specialist?
- In 5-10 years, the era of artificial intelligence may begin. The picture of current tasks will change significantly, but the question of what is human consciousness is likely to remain open.
- How did your parents influence your love of programming? That they instilled her?
- At school, I liked programming, but my parents dissuaded me seriously from programming. Nevertheless, I managed to feel the beauty of the subject thanks to the efforts of Mikhail Eduardovich Dvorkin.
- “Do you cook” whether you are in a programmer’s environment, or are you surrounded by various people?
- No, my environment - a variety of people: physicists, mathematicians, musicians.
- Have you already been offered a job? Where do you see your career? You are now a rising star - you have no fear that working in a real project will be more boring and will require much less knowledge and skills?
- No, nobody offered me a job. It would be strange, since I am just now going to study at the university. In programming, indeed, third-year students easily find a job; in physics, you need to study eight to ten years to become a specialist. I don't know about math. I haven't thought about a career yet. As for projects, in any work there are so many nuances and trifles that need to be borne in mind that regardless of the amount of knowledge that this work requires, at some points it may turn out to be both boring and overly complex. I think in such cases the right tactic is to share these difficulties with colleagues, so as not to get tired and not be disappointed.
- What do you plan to do when you graduate?
- I would like to do science, solve problems at the intersection of sciences.
Vladimir Petrov (St. Petersburg), after school is going to enroll in SPSU
- Why did you decide to do programming?
- Parents instilled a love of mathematics, from childhood they gave various tasks, was engaged in additional. Programming, I was fascinated, directly focusing on my environment, many friends of mathematics and classmates were engaged.
- How did you prepare for the Olympics? Have there been any happy rituals?
- Our team was purposefully trained by several teachers from many regions of the country. The selection to the team was very long, more than a year, and during it active learning took place, including remotely.
Of course, each has its own "traditions" or "rituals." So, I do have a happy T-shirt that I put on throughout the year; I also professionally played sports as a child and remained a sign not to cut hair before competitions.
Despite the fact that the Olympiad is an individual one, we always had a solid team, we felt like a single whole. Therefore, it was the personal “secrets” that never happened, they all shared with each other and discussed with the coaches; there were command rituals, for example, to eat a watermelon together before going abroad.
The method of solving each individual. Of course, there is a general “plan” for deciding which rules to follow. For example, one of the main rules is: as soon as you solve a problem, write it down to ensure that you get the maximum points, otherwise suddenly there won't be enough time.
- Often have to work on the bugs?
- After each unsuccessful performance, I definitely draw conclusions and try to work on the mistakes. Sometimes I even write in writing what is wrong and what needs to be changed. Hurtful mistakes happen very often, but never seemed to be very upset, always thinking about the next chance and that we should work more.
- There are situations when you can’t solve the problem at all?
- This happens quite rarely, happened, solved the problem during the week, but not so that every free second, but postponed, then returned. However, when nothing comes out at all, I ask the teachers for a hint or discuss it with friends, looking for a new approach ...
- What do you want to do in the future?
- To be honest, I do not know yet. Similarly, something related to mathematics and programming, because I like it and it turns out. And this is a victory in life when work coincides with a hobby. Perhaps it will be applied mathematics, perhaps professional programming in a bank, for example. If it turns out, in the distant future we will create our own business.