United States of America Computing Olympiad

The United States of America Computing Olympiad (USACO) is a computer programming competition aimed primarily at secondary school students in the United States. Participants of the USACO submit programs in one of four languages, C, C++, Java, and Pascal, to various competitions held throughout the year. There are currently three divisions of the USACO: Bronze (easiest but requires some programming ability), Silver, and Gold (hardest). Participants advance through the divisions by performing well in their current division, or in a qualifying round which is usually held in October. The USACO was founded in 1993 by Don Piele and is currently maintained by head coach Rob Kolstad.

Parts of the USACO

Training pages

The USACO contains several training pages on its website which are designed to develop one's skills in programming solutions to difficult and varied algorithmic problems at one's own pace. In addition to around 100 problems, there are texts on programming techniques such as greedy algorithms, dynamic programming, shortest path, and many others. Enthusiasts find the training pages so useful that people from other countries use them to prepare for their own national Olympiads; those from other countries in fact outnumber U.S. participants.

Internet competitions

There are six Internet competitions held each year, each of which consists of three or four problems to be completed in a time span of three hours. These competitions are unproctored; however, they are...
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