Google India code jam winners blow the bugle Date:   Thursday , March 31, 2005 Google India has announced the winners of the Google India Code Jam 2005,Google’s first ever computer programming competition to find the best programming talent from India and South Asia. The event took place in Bangalore and was open to residents of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore and Thailand. Among the top five finalists three were Indians. One of the finalists gave an idea as to what the competition was all about. “We were given three algorithms problems. The first was to find out the unique URLs (universal resource locators); the second was trying to find the shortest possible path and the third was to calculate the probable winner among the two in a competition,” said fifth-placed Sreeram Ramachandran of Singapore. “These problems were challenging. We had to choose one among two languages – Java or C++ - and were given two hours to solve the problems. Speed of thinking was the key to winning,” Ramachandran added. The competition was opened to participants throughout Southern Asia on February 27, 2005 and attracted more than 14,000 registered participants from 6 countries. Contestants competed online to qualify for the top 500 spots in the first round. These 500 qualifiers then battled for the 50 final positions. The 50 finalists were flown to the Google R&D Centre in Bangalore for the championship round.