StackLeague Challengers Find May '22 Lightning Round Nerve-Wracking

 StackLeague Lightning Series - Bronze Category - May 24, 2022

I was able to join the Bronze Lightning Round for the month of May, together with seven other challengers. It was both exciting and nerve-wracking for everyone, as we all raced to finish two Bronze-level challenges within just one hour. 

What is the StackLeague Lightning Series?

Lightning Series are a by-invitation competition open only to challengers from the same Challenger Level. Gold-level challengers are disqualified. The Bronze Category is open only to Bronze-level challengers.

Why join the Lightning Series in addition to the other challenge categories?

The Lightning Series offers yet even more opportunities to win cash prizes and swag. The top 2 winners for Bronze Category will each receive ₱ 1,200 cash prize and a StackLeague T-shirt.

Results of the Lightning Series

The entire program was streamed live on YouTube. The official timer started at 6:30PM. Challengers had to solve two Bronze-level challenges within one hour. Below is a play-by-play coverage of the competition:

• 06:30PM - Only 6 players were on the leaderboard at first. Two other players seem to enter the challenge a little late.
  
                  - At first I was a little relieved that there were only 2 challenges to tackle. But upon reading both problems, my mind was panicking a little bit in trying to comprehend the problems and choose which one to solve first.
  
  
• 06:31PM - All 8 challengers were now on the board, all at 0 points.
  
                   - I've decided to work on the second challenge first, which I think was related to binary arithmetic.
  
  
• 06:34PM - Rankings still haven't moved with everyone still at zero.
  
                  - The clock is ticking, and I had to force myself out of my analysis paralysis. I started coding a naive solution, just to find momentum.
  
  
• 06:38PM - Still no change in rankings. So I thought I still have a chance to get ahead of everyone if I could just solve this one problem quickly. But then a challenger finally breaks through...
  
  
• 06:39PM - Finally Efren Mercado Jr secures the top spot with 50 points (1 out of 2 challenges solved).
  
  
• 06:44PM - Efren finishes both challenges and gets 100 points while others were still at zero points. It's now a battle for the second place.
  
  
• 06:48PM - My solution for problem number 2 worked with the small unit test but failed with the larger test data set. I couldn't figure out how to optimize my code. Maybe I should move on to the other problem, so that I can still beat the others for second place.
  
  
• 06:57PM - Aloever Dulay finishes his first problem (50 pts) and takes the second place.
  
  
  
• 06:58PM - Albert Francisco follows at 3rd place with 50 points as well.
  
                  - I tried to shift to problem #1 for a bit, but decided to go back to problem 2. At this point, I was just trying to at least not end with zero points.
  
  
• 07:05PM - I finally get a breakthrough with Problem #2. It turns out attempting to perform bitwise operations was naive, and had I known to do a simpler boolean operation, I would have finished earlier.
  
  
• 07:06PM - The leaderboard now has the first to fifth places filled: With Efren at 1st place (100pts); Aloever, Albert, and myself (Eliel) at 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places respectively (each with 50pts); Lorie Lie Cubid took 5th place with 13.64 points.
  
  
• 07:08PM - Albert Francisco finishes his 2nd challenge and snatches second place from Aloever. I started to work on the next challenge that apparently had to do with calculating pairwise distance.
  
  
• 07:14PM - Aloever increases his score to 54.55 and remains at 3rd place. No score movement for myself and the others.
  
  
• 07:15PM - Aloever finishes his second challenge and gains 100 points, securing 3rd place.
  
  
• 07:17PM - At this point the other challengers can actually give up, since only first and second place will get prizes. 
  
                  - But I pushed on, and I picked up my notebook and pen to draw and better visualize the challenge scenarios. I should've done this much earlier!
  
  
• 07:23PM - Jigger John Mendeja finally breaks through and scores 50 points (6th place)
  
                  - With only 7 minutes left, I hacked on, having gained clearer perspective of the problem.
  
  
• 07:24PM - I ran my code on both small and large data set, so that I could at least raise my score a bit more if it passed at least some of the tests if not all.
  
  
• 07:25PM - Only 5 minutes left, and I was still trying to figure out why the sum returned by my code was off by 4 compared to the expected answers.
  
  
• 07:26PM - I just subtracted 4 from my final answer - it worked! I finished both challenges and got 100 points at 4th place.
  
                  - There were no more score movements for the other challengers. Either they already gave up, or were still trying to solve the challenges.
  
  
• 07:30PM - The timer ends with Efren at 1st place and Albert at 2nd place. As for me, at least I wasn't last, and at least my score was 100.
  
  

Recognition of the Winners of the StackLeague Bronze Lightning Series

When interviewed, second place winner Albert Francisco laughed. "Nakakatawa lang... nanginginig kamay ko hanggang ngayon." He was still trembling due to the pressure and excitement of the Lightning Round. When asked what tips he would give to fellow challengers, he said, "Mag-isip muna talaga, wag muna agad code." Albert encourages challengers to think hard about the problem before diving into the solution. The first solution you come up with might be complicated, but when you try to first clarify the logic involved, a simpler solution will come to you. "Isipin muna ang algorithm tapos saka na i-code."

Efren Mercado Jr, a little bit more composed, said that he had fun with this round. He found the questions tricky but the solutions turned out to be simple. Efren suggests starting with the easier challenge first. The way the problem is stated is sometimes complicated to distract you from the real problem. In the end, the solution will be simple if you focus on the real meaning of the problem. Efren is already a professional and is already well-versed in coding.

What's next?

The May Playoffs happened on May 28, though I wasn't able to join this time. StackLeague offers many other ways to practice and improve coding skills. So just keep practicing, keep improving, and keep your eyes on the goal -- whether that goal be winning the cash prize, finding job opportunities, or improving your skills.