For the first time in many years, 20 teams participated in this year’s Get 1/4! The Pen & Paper Programming Challenge conquering the Math Building Lecture Hall with a full-house last October 18, 2017.

“I did not expect the event to be a full-house and was quite overwhelmed, but we handled it well. Everything was perfect. The people, music, and the overall competitive but fun atmosphere,” said Jefferson Louise Basillio, the Programs Committee Head.

Get 1/4! aims to train the participants to think critically and write working algorithms without the use of compilers. The event also intends to develop the participants’ skills in collaborative working.

On its ninth iteration the said programming contest, in exclusive partnership with Azeus Systems Ltd., is entitled “Get 1/4! The Pen & Paper Programming Challenge: Code and Conquer”. There are a total of nine local sponsors, four non-local sponsors, and one organization sponsor.

Each team with at most three members were asked to complete, trace and debug code snippets, describe functions, and generate codes using C, JavaScript, or Python as the programming language. Using only a pen and paper, the teams tried to conquer the top spot by solving programming-related problems against the clock.

New concepts are added to the competition namely ‘siege’ and ‘classes’. Each team gets to choose their class be it offensive or defensive. Both classes have their own perks which can be used during the siege. When a siege starts, a randomly chosen team has to answer a given question within a specified amount of time. The siege was set off multiple times for both the first and second round of the game.

The top three teams with the highest accumulated points combined from the first and second round are declared winners. Team Blue Job conquers the top spot and receives an amount of Php 7000. Team ); DROP DATABASE;-- places second and earns Php 2000 while Team LEAH takes the third place and wins Php 1000.

“Even though we performed the poorest, we enjoyed the event and it was fun overall. I can tell na na-test talaga ‘yong programming skills namin and at the same time ‘yong pagha-handle ng pressure gawa no’ng time and ‘yong siege questions,” said Manuel Joseph Urbano, a first-time participant of the programming contest.

This year’s iteration of Get 1/4! The Pen & Paper Programming Challenge is headed by: Erlen Mae Evangelista and Ralph Lawrence Silaya, the Overall Activity Heads; Carlos Miguel Canonizado and Jefferson Louise Basillio, the Programs Committee Head; Jasper Sunga, the Technical Committee Head; Lorenz Matthew Afable, the Finance Committee Head; Harold James Roxas, the Promotions Committee Head; and David Ralph Benavidez the Visuals Committee Head.