I participated in the International Olympiad in Informatics way back in 2009 (Bulgaria) and 2010 (Canada). I got a bronze medal in the first, and a silver in the latter. I was really aiming for a gold, especially the second time around. But alas, it was not to be.

The main feeling I remember during the contest is me trying to solve the problems fast, but as a result making stupid mistakes like not reading the problem correctly, or spending extra time debugging because I wrote the code so carelessly. In retrospect, I’d obviously have liked to enjoy the contest as much as I enjoyed the contests that I had participated in much more regularly (such as TopCoder, etc), but thats always easy to say after.

A couple of hours into the contest, I was much more calm and poised. And for some reason, day 2 of the contest was also much better than day 1.

Now I was really aiming for a gold, so when at the end of the contest day I was pretty certain than I won’t be getting a gold, I felt I didn’t perform well enough. So instead of calling all the people who love me the most and being excited, I sort of pretty much kept to myself the rest of the day on each day. I has also received a tremendous amount of support and mentorship from specific people, and I felt I let them down. However, I did reach out to them right after the contest ended and tell them how much I appreciated their help throughout the past months.

The excursions and walking around new places was quire fun for me. Plovdiv, Bulgaria is quite a beautiful place, and so is University of Waterloo, Canada. Plus in general, I like walking around and exploring places. These were my first trips outside India (assuming Nepal doesn’t really count). I was kind of weirded out during the water-park excursion in Bulgaria though. I wasn’t a big fan of water parks, and I wasn’t carrying any swimming trunks or anything. :S