My First Programming Competition, any adivise!

[ScarWars9]

Hello fellow geeks,

I have been working hard at preparing for my first vb.net programming competition (It's this tuesday!).
Have any of you done any competitions before? if so. Do you have any advise for a first timer?
I'm kinda nervous.

[aVar++]

I have no advice, simply good luck! :)

[Reverend Jim]

I was in a competition once. The rules were simple. If I produced quality code in a timely manner I got to keep my job. The competition lasted 29 years.

[rotten69]

@Jim.. it lasted for 29 yrs. Wow. That's really a long time.

@ScarWars9 ... Good luck and let us know how you go and what it's like.

[<M/>]

My advice is to be smart about your choices, know what your doing, and most importantly be relaxed!
Also make sure your code is well structured and well documented!
Good Luck!

[<M/>]

@Jim, wow 29 years... you must be winning then? Unless your talking about your work.

[Ketsuekiame]

@scarwars; don't try and do something very complicated. Look at the task and think of something simple. Unless it's something like an obfuscation competition in which case make sure no one ever understands it, not even you :)

Always ensure you design something within your ability to do within the timeframe. It's all well and good coming up with the best design EVER. But if you can't do it then what's the point? :P

[Reverend Jim]

you must be winning then?

I made it to retirement anyway.

"I plan to live forever. So far so good" - Stephen Wright

[ScarWars9]

Thank you everyone for all the good luck wishes, and advise!
This is the reason I LOVE this forum all the people are soo nice. :-D
All post an update on how it went and how I did!

[<M/>]

Good Luck!

[VernonDozier]

Also make sure your code is well structured and well documented!

No! That's time better spent just getting the darned thing done, getting the points, and getting to the next problem. No contest I've seen cares about anything other than whether the code works. You aren't writing maintainable code. You are writing fast code that will never be looked at by anyone, including the people grading the contest. There's probably an automated tesy script that compiles and runs everything.

[Ketsuekiame]

No! That's time better spent just getting the darned thing done, getting the points, and getting to the next problem. No contest I've seen cares about anything other than whether the code works. You aren't writing maintainable code. You are writing fast code that will never be looked at by anyone, including the people grading the contest. There's probably an automated tesy script that compiles and runs everything.

Kind of correct, however, unless it's an obfuscation contest, your code should be self documenting. For example; Int32 totalNumberOfPlayers; and public Int32 GetScoreForPlayer(Player playerIdentity)

In some competitions I've seen people be marked on readability when a winning decision can't be made. Minor numbers in the grand scheme, but could mean the difference between second or first if it comes down to it.

As this is written in VB .NET I highly doubt performance is an issue unless you end up taking three hours for your application to perform its task. Getting it done on time is, but if you have a bug and go back to the code and you can't remember how it's supposed to work, you're probably going to end up re-writing the entire thing anyway.