Benjamin Qi

Benjamin Qi (also known as Benq and bqi343) is an American competitive programmer currently attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the two-time winner of the International Olympiad in Informatics, the "most prestigious"[1] high school competition for algorithmic programming, in 2018 and 2019.[2] Qi is widely considered one of the top 10 competitive programmers in the world, along with other top sport programmers like Gennady Korotkevich, Petr Mitrichev, Makoto Soejima, and others.[3] In December 2019, Qi also became one of the lead problem setters for the prestigious USA Computing Olympiad, whose competitions select the United States' team to the IOI.[4] He is also the director for the USACO Guide, a leading website for studying for the USACO.[5][6]

Benjamin Qi
Born2001 (age 20–21)
Nationality United States
Other namesBenq and bqi343
EducationMIT
Known forWinning the IOI in 2018 and 2019
AwardsCodeforces peak rating 3797 (June 2021)
Websitehttps://github.com/bqi343/

Early life

Interested in both math and computer science from an early age, Qi was a quarterfinalist at the 2015 MATHCOUNTS,[7] and an honorable mention at both the 2018 and 2019 USA Mathematical Olympiad.[8] He completed his first USACO competition in December 2015.[9] He attended Princeton High School from 2015 to 2019. Qi joined Amazon as a Software Engineer Intern in the summer of 2021.

Competitive programming

Qi qualified for the USA's IOI time three times: in 2017, 2018, and 2019.[10] Unable to attend the 2017 IOI, held in Iran, due to visa issues, he successfully attended the 2018 and 2019 IOIs, held in Tsukuba, Japan and Baku, Azerbaijan respectively.

IOI wins

At the 2018 IOI, Qi scored 499 out of 600 points, 30 points more than second place Maolong Yang.[11][12] He was the only contestant to fully solve the challenging algorithmic problems "Seats" and "Highway Tolls." At the 2019 IOI, which involved over 600 students from 88 countries,[13] Qi scored 547.09 points, well ahead of second place Ildar Gainullin.[14][15][16] Qi's two IOI wins made him only the fourth person ever to win multiples IOIs, and the first since Gennady Korotkevich won his 3rd IOI in 2011.

USACO problem setter

Following his high school graduation in 2019, Qi became one of the lead problem writers for the USACO contest. As of April 2021, he has contributed over two dozen problems to the contest.[4]

Other competitions

Qi has reliably been in the top 10 in various competitive programming websites. In June 2021, he achieved the highest rating of all time on Codeforces of 3797,[17] breaking a 4-year record held by tourist (although tourist would subsequently reclaim the record a few months later). He finished 2nd place in the 2020 Facebook Hacker Cup.[18] He finished 6th place in the 2020 Google Code Jam.[19] He was a finalist at the virtual 2020 Topcoder Open.[20]

Qi also evidenced his strong command over mathematics, winning a gold medal in the Romanian Master of Mathematics in 2019[21] and placing 2nd at the 2018 and 2019 February Harvard-MIT Math Tournaments.[22][23]

ICPC

Qi participated in ICPC 2021 held in Moscow, Russia. His team (MIT) ranked 9th place and won a bronze medal.[24]

Educational initiatives

Qi has been actively involved in increasing the recognition of competitive programming within the United States.

USACO Guide

As part of his Competitive Programming Initiative, Qi created the USACO Guide in June 2020. Its stated purpose is to be a "comprehensive, organized roadmap carefully designed and crafted for USACO contestants – available to everyone, for free."[5] On his GitHub account, Qi also has a repository with hundreds of solutions to past USACO problems.[25]

See also

References
  1. Kasraoui, Safaa (2020-09-21). "Moroccan Student Wins Medal at International Olympiad in Informatics". Morocco World News. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  2. "Benjamin Qi". stats.ioinformatics.org. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  3. "Best Competitive Programmers in the World". OpenGenus IQ: Learn Computer Science. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  4. "USACO". www.usaco.org. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  5. "USACO Guide". usaco.guide. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  6. "bqi343 - Overview". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  7. "2015 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition" (PDF). MATHCOUNTS. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-28.
  8. "Art of Problem Solving". artofproblemsolving.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  9. "Contest Results". www.usaco.org. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  10. "USACO". www.usaco.org. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  11. "IOI 2018: Results". stats.ioinformatics.org. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  12. "国際情報オリンピック日本大会 - 日本選手全員がメダルを獲得". TECH+ (in Japanese). 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  13. "Big Brains Flock To Baku For Math & Computer Science Competition". caspiannews.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  14. "IOI 2019: Results". stats.ioinformatics.org. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  15. "Российская команда победила на Международной олимпиаде по информатике". Газета.Ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  16. Media, Kompas Cyber (2019-08-13). "Merah Putih Berkibar di Ajang Olimpiade Informatika Internasional". KOMPAS.com (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  17. "Benq". Codeforces. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  18. "Facebook Hacker Cup - 2020 - Final Round". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  19. "Code Jam - Google's Coding Competitions". Coding Competitions. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  20. "TCO20 Finalist Interviews". tco20.topcoder.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  21. "U.S. Team Takes Top Prize at Romanian Master of Mathematics". Mathematics Association of America. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
  22. https://hmmt-archive.s3.amazonaws.com/tournaments/2018/feb/results/short.htm
  23. https://hmmt-archive.s3.amazonaws.com/tournaments/2019/feb/results/short.htm
  24. Johnson, Gus. "ICPC 21 ranking". Baylor. Archived from the original on 2021-10-05.
  25. Qi, Benjamin (2021-04-27), bqi343/USACO, retrieved 2021-04-28
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