Masters of Java 2006

Posted on | 31 October 2006 |
Tags: conference | java

Together with my esteemed colleague, Micha Hagg, I signed up for this year’s Masters of Java competition. We call ourselves The Dynamic Duo. ;P

When we heard about this at JFall, we thought it would be interesting to see where we stand on the cleverness scale. The only drawback is that we’d have to take a day off work to do it, but we figured we can do it just this one time.

I find that what’s even more interesting than solving programming problems is the pair programming. So not only does this test our ability to code, but also our ability to work together. Can we function as a team? Do we compensate for each other’s weaknesses? How clearly do we communicate our thoughts? How open are we to the other’s ideas? Can our brains think as one when given a clear goal?

A few weeks ago we had a practice run just for the hell of it. We both found that coding algorithms is a muscle neither of us has flexed in quite awhile, possibly since university. I bet kids right out of school would be good at this. The Java work that is available here has more to do with OO design and good structuring of code, and rarely requires algorithms. This is because performance is often overlooked in high level applications. This work requires a different set of skills than what is being tested at the Master of Java.

As we worked through more problems, the part of our brains responsible for algorithms got a little exercise. We also had to get used to working under such intense time pressure. (minutes as opposed to days) For the first problem, we couldn’t even solve it until we stopped the pair programming. The rest went much smoother, but sometimes we came across a problem that was just badly designed and missing a lot of necessary information, just like how it can happen in the real world.

We’re not going to spend anymore time to prepare, but I’m sure glad we did this practice session. Otherwise, we’d be swimming…

Good luck for whoever else is going!

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