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Google is set to use a Portal-like situation for their annual programming competition. Yes, there will be digital cake involved, in case you were curious.
The Google Code Jam is Google's annual programming competition that pits programmers from around the world against each other to optimize puzzle solutions using programming algorithms.Sounds like an interesting premise to me! If you'd like to learn more about the Google Code Jam, simply head on over to the Code Jam website for more details. Now you're thinking with programming algorithms!
Valve's award-winning puzzler Portal serves as the backdrop for Part B in Round Three of the most recent code-off, with Google recreating a basic room in two dimensions. The game's trademark cake, yellow and blue portals and the portal gun technology are all included in low-tech form.
Google's Portal challenge is, "Given the maze, your initial position, and the cake's position, you want to find the minimum number of moves needed to reach the cake if it is possible."
Code Jam is open to everyone with cash prizes available to the top 100 finalists around the world. Contestants may download Google's input data set to test their results. Those who can interpret the game's graphs and text controls should be proud of their programming prowess.