Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

Belarus 18-year-old wins Google's Code Jam on his first try

By Josh Dickey, Mashable

An 18-year-old from Belarus won the Google Code Jam Finals on Friday, beating out 26 coders from all around the world on his first attempt at the annual programming competition.

Gennady Korotkevich took $15,000 in cash for his win. No one achieved a perfect score on any of the excruciatingly difficult word problems, which the contestants write computer programs to solve.

If you feel like feeling incredibly dull-witted, you can now see them on the Code Jam site.

Belarus 18-year-old wins Google's Code Jam on his first try

A birds-eye-view of the 2014 Google Code Jam. IMAGE: GOOGLE

The four-hour timed competition took place at Google LAX on Friday afternoon. Contestants represented the USA, China, Japan, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Korea, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Brazil and, of course, Belarus.

Gennady Korotkevich turned 18 this year, making him eligible to win Code Jam. He'd actually participated — and qualified for the finals — last year, but wasn't old enough to attend.

Belarus 18-year-old wins Google's Code Jam on his first try

The winner of Google's Code Jam 2014 is this kid from Belarus. IMAGE: GOOGLE

Nearly 20,000 programmers competed in four online rounds this year; 25 finalists and the previous year's champion qualify. Second Place went to Evgenii Kapun, Russia; Yuzhou Gu of China took bronze.

Not in the field this year — any women. But to encourage better participation in competitive programming in the future, Google debuted the Code Jam for Women at the 2014 event.