IEEE SPIT, keeping in mind the doubts students might be facing about IEEEXtreme, organized an interactive webinar on the topic. Meet Dave, Vice Chairperson of IEEE SPIT started off the event with a brief introduction to what IEEEXtreme is, what is the footfall one must expect, and welcomed Vinayak Iyer, one of the panelists, to begin the discussion. Vinayak imparted his knowledge on what competitive coding exactly is, why it is important, and what role teamwork pays in it. He further added on how IEEEXtreme takes place in terms of when the problems statements are released, what role relative scoring plays in it, and how it works as a starting point of taking part in hackathons. Vinayak then welcomed Sahil Sheth to continue with the discussion where Sahil was seen speaking about when the event starts, how their experience was, the difference between competitive coding and hackathons, display of live leaderboard in IEEEXtreme, the importance of the division of work between all the teammates, and the most important, he encouraged everyone to enjoy the event, stating it to be one of its kind. Adding to Sahil, Kshitij briefed about what they learned from the competition which included an idea about how much one needs to prepare. He also termed this competition as a platform where he understood his and his teammates’ coding abilities, teamwork capacity, and how a good rank in IEEEXtreme reflects on how good one’s coding skills are. Further, they even added on how working on parallel solutions turns out to be useful, the importance of taking breaks in between to clear one’s mind, and various platforms where one can practice competitive coding. Simultaneously, attendees expressed their doubts and questions as well, as a result of which the panelists also spoke about preferred languages, ease of using them, how to manage time, common mistakes made by them, the importance of taking competitive coding as a marathon, and not a sprint and a brief insight on what time complexity means. The end of the interactive webinar witnessed IEEE SPIT’s Vice Chairperson expressing gratitude towards the panelists as well as them thanking IEEE SPIT for giving them this opportunity and ended the webinar by expressing their excitement for this year’s IEEEXtreme as well.
