An upcoming Marquette programming competition happening on April 17 has some of our Highlanders hoping to compete for the top prize. Being led by Harrison Palzewicz, computer programming teacher, the team is preparing themselves in order to bring their best to the competition.
Palzewicz plays a key role in preparing the teams for the competition and he makes sure that he is helping teams prepare for the upcoming competition.
“Every year, Marquette hosts a state-wide programming competition for high school students. Teams are made up of four students with two computers each. The goal is for each team to complete as many of the 10 programming problems as possible within the three-hour time limit. The problems vary in difficulty and have a range of points that teams can score. Teams have been practicing old Marquette competition problems to practice. They are also utilizing websites like leetcode.com with difficult programming problems. Students who participate in the programming club have been practicing difficult problems all year. Homestead is always competitive in these competitions due to our wide availability of programming classes. We placed first two years ago,” Palzewicz said.
From one of the teams, William Harwood, senior, is gearing up for the competition by doing practice problems.
“I am excited to participate. It’s my first time in a programming competition and I don’t really know what to expect. I think the Homestead team will crush it. We have some really talented programmers in our team especially and I expect big things,” Harwood said.
Another team member, Kevin Wan, junior, has taken some programming classes but he’s practicing for the competition and making sure he’s prepared using a resource called leetcode.
“I’ve taken a few programming classes, participated in the Programming Club, and have attended some competitions. It’s nice to work on some fun and challenging problems with my team. I like the thrill of solving fun problems,” Wan said.
