I have to tell you a secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My programming journey is way different than most can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It started in my first year of high school, back in 2004, when an alumni student, who had recently graduated, came to our class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He presented some advanced algorithms that are usually taught in universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At that moment, I realized that computers can handle a huge amount of data and can solve problems that the human mind isn’t capable of doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was blown away by the idea that you can optimize a program that initially took a few hours to compute, down to under a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He presented the classical Binary Search and then continued with advanced techniques like the Segment Tree and Binary Indexed Tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think about it; Binary Search makes searching through one million sorted items in around 20 steps. Isn’t it crazy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s where my passion for Algorithms started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After eight years, I published a scientific paper on Binary Indexed Trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s how much that moment marked me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I started preparing for competitive programming. I’ve set up my goal that I will get a Gold Medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During my first two years of high school, I failed miserably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was so frustrated that I was having the correct ideas during contests but failed to put them into practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I never gave up. I kept hustling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my 4th year of high-school I decided to go big or go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was ditching school, going to the CS lab and practicing problems all day long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was in a situation where my professors didn’t want me to graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my juvenile mind, it was a win-win situation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was either getting selected for the national Olympic team or I was going to repeat my 12th grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the latter case, I would have one more year to participate in the Olympiad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, my parents were stressed to their bones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t know if I was unconscious or just so damn focused on what I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a quote from the movie “The Pursuit of Happiness” that goes like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. period.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can guess that I managed to get on the national Olympic team that year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I didn’t manage to get to the International Olympiad,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that dream somewhat came true after a few years when I was part of the Scientific Committee for the International Olympiad in Informatics in Brisbane, Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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