TCO18 Finalist Interviews

Interview with deedee

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I was introduced to programming in high school, and fell in love till now.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Start earlier and complete the one that you think can fulfill all requirements.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Following some tech blogs and feeds.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Since this is my first time TCO, meeting with all my fellow Topcoder members is the moment that I’m waiting for.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Get into TCO :D

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Love deadlines, fast learner.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Going around with families and friends and helping with community service.

Interview with kinfkong

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Code more.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
No strategy. Just code.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Code more.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Looking forward to the dev onsite competition.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Just a developer.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Playing games.

Interview with maxceem

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Have been always curious about technologies.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Spend enormous time to do as much as I can to provide the best solution.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Participating in challenges with new technologies and learn them during the challenges. Reading https://habr.com/.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
In one year of full time topcodering from a challenge participant to reviewer and copilot.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Tackling down perfectionism to deliver more.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Dance

Interview with mishacucicea

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I think being passionate about development, staying curious, and competing will raise the bar to a whole new level. To get better, you need to constantly overcome your limits.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Understanding what needs to be done and try to be fast as well. Keep calm even if odds work against yourself.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
It’s difficult to keep up with everything as things change so fast, and I think this what Topcoder excels at, infusion of new technologies applied to real needs, creating opportunities for both developers and customers. A Topcoder challenge is a journey to learn something new, if you’re up to it, it’s a win-win situation.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Reconnecting with fellow developers, copilots and admins. Getting inspired by what others achieved and looking forward to new opportunities.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Qualifying to TCO18 development track.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
I’m passionate about technologies, software development and leading teams towards a goal.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Travel, running (accompanied by my dog, Max).

Interview with N1k1tung

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Worked hard ;)

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Choose a suitable technology and then - more of the above =)

Also I make sure to frequently check for new tools/approaches in your field. And I try to not forget to keep fit - sitting too long for meeting a deadline is harsh for your health, so one needs to make amends.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I watch/read online materials/conferences. Just working on a modern technology stack gives plenty of new information of how the things are around at the current moment.

I also occasionally check out some slack channels to see if people discuss something new & useful - it’s easier to pick up a topic and look into it in further detail afterwards

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting fellow Topcoder members!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Trying to keep pride from clouding my judgement ^^

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Well that would have turned out as CV, and that’s boring to write.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Whatever is fun! Depends on where I am, if at home city I will probably have everything planned so just following the plan, in a new place - walking around, in a hot/sunny place - lying at the beach.

Interview with ngoctay

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Enjoy programming.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Participate early, submit close to the deadline.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Subscribe to some well-known software development websites and blogs to receive the weekly newsletters.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting the Topcoders from all over the world.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Won a trip to TCO18.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
A slow coder.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Reading books.

Interview with NightWolf

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
When I was 12, one of my relatives inspired me with QBasic programming. From that point programming became one of my most favorite hobbies. I participated in IOI and ACM at high school and at college. After college I started my software development career.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
In most cases project/challenge requirements are not complete, so the first thing to do is to ask lots of questions until everything is clear to me and the client! I have had many projects when client significantly changed requirements after discussing the details.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Continuous learning!

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meet TC members and crew :)

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Bronze medal on IOI 2005 (International Olympiad in Informatics). This sounds like not a big achievement for most people from more developed countries, but I grew up in a small town in Kyrgyzstan, where I almost didn’t have internet, so I prepared to Olympiads using old primitive books for programming where most difficult task was permutation of numbers. Luckily, 2-3 months before IOI I got internet and found some great resources to learn, as well as the Online judge system. So, basically I had only few month of real preparation, and that’s why I’m proud of winning bronze medal!

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Not much, maybe just list of technologies that I use and quick summary of my working experience. I prefer to discuss details during face-to-face interview.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Traveling, reading books, racing (drifting, karting)

Interview with paolog

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Hard work, then hard work and finally hard work

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
I spend a significative portion of available time studing challenge requirements, then I start with coding.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
It’s a quite natural process to keep up on new trends and technologies because it is embedded inside my work.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
No one specific, I will have the pleasure to meet as many as possible TC people at TCO

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
For sure this second consecutive participation to TCO.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
I would make a list of project and customers, not simple skills.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Spend a lot of time with my family, play tennis and travelling.

Interview with seriyvolk83

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
My mom asked me before I chose high school, “- Do you want to make rivets in the factory or fight robots?”

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Biting my nails half of the time guessing if N1k1tung will win the challenge, then coding in a rush in last two days.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I am the trend.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Chimichangas at the opening of TCO.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
A bug found in NSData… no, it’s high rate knuckle rapping of course.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Development of houses, fences; swamp drying; Windows XP installation; custom-made knitting, feeding of squirrels. Did I mention, iOS app development?

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Swinging in a hammock.

Interview with tuxing

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Enjoy learning and coding.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Read the requirements carefully and ask as many questions as possible in the forum.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Keep learning.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meet the awesome finalists

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
For 2018, attendence of TCO18.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Coding is one of my favorite things.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Swimming.

Interview with asmn

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Thanks to Topcoder, it gave me a chance to join in a world class development practice.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Get it to work first, then keep tweaking and fixing it.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Go to bed early and get up early, so I could have more time on coding.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meet awesome people!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Go to ACM ICPC final contest for Zhejiang University.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Trust me, I’m an engineer

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Swimming, play desktop card game

Interview with dwij

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Being passionate about technology and doing lots of self-learning.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Getting the requirement clarified as early as possible.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Participating in Topcoder challenges keep me up to date about current trends.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
The whole TCO experience, since this is my first time.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Being selected to the TCO18 finals.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
A developer who is passionate about new technologies.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Playing the guitar.

Interview with gfzabarino

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I would say a mix of a fair amount of curiosity and good opportunities where to apply my abilities.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Because how important time is in first to finish challenges, I tend to try starting them as soon as possible and don’t waste a single minute. I always read the specification several times because you always find new important details when doing that.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Topcoder is good for that. I find the diversity of challenges very useful to keep up.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
I don’t really know, this is my first time. I would probably say the whole experience.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I know this is not tech, but having become a father recently.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Enthusiastic, self-learner and motivated by exciting challenges.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I like playing tennis and spend time with family.

Interview with kondakovdmitry

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I think it was my grandfather who gave me a jump-start, teaching me math and simple electrical engineering from my early years. When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I met a computer for the first time. It was my cousin’s Apogee BK-01 - one of the earliest Russian personal computers. From that time I really fell in love with programming! On Apogee I started with BASIC language, and then I even tried to write a simple game in machine codes for it, although I hadn’t ever managed to make it work ;).

When my father bought me my first own computer - ZX Spectrum - I felt to be the happiest child in the world! There was also BASIC, but I wanted to go deeper and learned its Z80 processor instructions from books, so Assembler was my favorite development language at that time.

After this goes a long story of meeting with IBM PC computers in my school, continuing at Moscow State University, my first jobs as a programmer, working for Samsung Electronics, then being full-time self-employed competing on Topcoder and ending up with Alterra.ai company where I am now!

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
I am not sure why it works, but I usually fist spend long time thinking about a project and writing some a code. Then I suddenly find that there is almost no time left until deadline, when I just have to finish everything very fast and submit my result at the last minute!

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I like to read IT news on our Russian “Habrahabr” site, and watch videos from IEEE Spectrum Automaton blog. Now I just managed to join Alterra.ai team, whose wonderful guys always keep me up with trends and so many things I still have to learn from them!

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
I would really love to meet everyone in person on the TCO Finals. Always competing behind the display and then just seeing all those legendary guys and gals in person - this is what really excites me!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I am proud of taking 1st place in the IBM Castle Blitz after just starting actively competing on Topcoder in a new area for me (I had to learn JavaScript and Node.js development during that time). And of course I am proud of my 2 wonderful sons!

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Love programming, that’s it!

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Bicycling and flying on planes :)

Interview with Schpotsky

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I graduated as a Computer Science Engineer, after that comes a lot of self-learning and perseverance.
With Topcoder, I worked on a broad spectrum of technologies, which is impossible to do anywhere else.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Work on challenges which involve technologies I’m already familiar with. And if there are challenges with existing code on which I already worked, these have a higher priority when choosing the project to tackle.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Never stop learning. Working on Topcoder challenges is by far the best way to keep up with the current trends.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Looking forward to meeting the community members and Topcoder staff, and experiencing the TCO for the first time.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Winning the trip to TCO18.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Persevering and self-learner developer, willing to try and learn new technologies.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Hanging out with friends.

Interview with Sharathkumar92

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Though I did my Engineering in Computer Science, I didn’t write any code for 3 years since graduation due to the nature of my job. After joining Topcoder, now I am not able to stop writing code :) I learned a lot from Topcoder and will continue to learn.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
I focus on only 1 challenge at a time and I will try to review the submission myself before submitting

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Google :) I do read articles whenever I get time to keep myself updated.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Networking with fellow Topcoder members and Admins

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I took my Parents to Malaysia with my earnings from Topcoder. It’s their first International trip and first time to travel by flight.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
My linkedin profile is indeed written by me and you can check it out :)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharathkumaranbu/

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I am a travel freak. I love traveling, trekking, hiking and listening to music.

Interview with sjbr

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I like programming, so I think doing what you like is key. Also to be curious about technology

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Begin early and do focused work. Develop the solution in an iterative way to avoid getting blocked

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Books mostly

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
To enjoy the experience

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
TCO finalist

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
For fun and profit

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Travel to discover new places

Interview with veshu

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Continuity, many sleepless nights.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Read & read requirement until the big picture is clear.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Newsletter, blogs.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
The first step in entrepreneurship.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Dev Migrating from .Net to many others.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Basketball, Books, Movies or anything related to entertainment

Interview with eldidou

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
One day I found my job not challenging enough, so I looked at programming competitions online and stumbled upon a website called Topcoder, it has been a turning point in my career.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
Focusing on getting a good enough understanding of the problem before committing to an approach.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting friends, visiting a new place in the US, and maybe this time getting some good results in a final.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Being selected for 5 TCO finals.

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
“Better at writing code than profiles”

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I enjoy skydiving (started last year).

Interview with marek.cygan

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
Pressure and time.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
Start early and iterate.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Competition and fun.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
My family.

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
Long time competitor.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Sport activities.

Interview with Milanin

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
A lot of effort. Little bit of luck.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
Forget about scoreboard. Focus on the problem.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Not to take the last place.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Invented the algo that no one can understand, sometimes even myself.

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
strict, laconic, solid

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Football (soccer)

Interview with mugurelionut

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
Passion and persistence. Also, failures really annoy me and motivate me to try to perform better next time.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
I do “hill climbing” for finding the best approach :) I always have a baseline approach (the one that worked best so far) and I make changes to it, which I keep only if the scores are better. In the 1st part of the contest I make big changes (i.e. I try out various potentially very different strategies), while towards the end I only make small incremental changes (small parameter changes, small extra rules, etc.). I also change the set of tests I use for local evals periodically to make sure I’m not overfitting.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting again other participants I’ve met at previous Finals. Beer nights :) Not doing too bad in the Final. Visiting the Southfork Ranch (I used to watch “Dallas” a lot as a kid).

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
This will be my 3rd TCO Final! (and the fact that it required a very improbable combination of events for this to happen doesn’t make it any less exciting)

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
I like to work on novel problems and explore innovative approaches.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Reading books; playing board games; pub quizzes; swimming; walking in the nature.

Interview with nika

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
It all started from high school competitions and became more serious during university years. Even after getting full-time programming job, I am still trying to keep learning and competing.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
Spend first few days to fully understand the problem: play with visualizer, try different approaches and see what works in general, take notes about ideas that could help later. Produce a working solution midway through the contest and spend remaining time improving it.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
The competition itself - the Marathon final is a pretty unique experience.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I have done well in multiple areas using general problem solving skills that were acquired through competitions.

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
Always learning, sometimes winning

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Taking a walk outside

Interview with PaulJefferys

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
I think I just really like solving good problems - it all stems from that.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
I guess I feel like I have an advantage when the problems are more mathematical and theoretical - often then I can try and benchmark my solution to what I think is theoretically best possible.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Its always interesting to see how people respond to the pressure of a contest under time pressure.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Having two amazing little boys.

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
It would probably say I’m not a programmer; I’m a mathematician who writes code.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Taking my son to the park.

Interview with sdya

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
A lot of practice and dedication.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
I always try to come up with a reasonable solution which could be implemented very quickly and then I iterate on top of it. Rarely I need to change the idea or algorithm dramatically.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Attending a TCO Finals event after 5 years of a break. First time competing in the onsite Marathon round. I believe it should be a lot of fun!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
After making it to the Marathon finals, I’m one of a few people who attended both Algorithm and Marathon finals (different years for me though).

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
I enjoy working on very difficult challenges quite a lot.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I love doing track & field and playing basketball.

Interview with tomerun

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
I learned computer science with programming competitions.

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
Experiment, visualize and measure everything

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Exciting competition

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I continue to enjoy competing in marathon matches for 10 years.

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
Slow but steady

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
(physical) marathon

Interview with wleite

How did you get to where you are today in the programming world?
Started liking programming when I was a kid. Graduated in Computer Engineering. Worked a lot with banking systems development. And now programming means Topcoder for me!

What is your best strategy for solving tough marathon problems?
I would rather keep it a secret.

Seriously, the strategy that works for me is trying to organize all the ideas that come up, and then implement everything in a more or less structured way, revisiting all parts when I have a deeper understanding of the problem.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Competing, meeting other competitors, and hopefully winning this time

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Well, this will be my 10th TCO appearence

If you wrote your own coder profile, what would it say?
Topcoder enthusiast, long time member, who loves competing and all sort of challenges.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Travelling with my family!

Interview with aveef

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Firstly I always pray to Allah The Almighty to get the best thing and then I do the all effort as best as I can. Found that my passion was design after got involved in social organization. Then time flew brought me to be more focused on user interface and user experience field.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
I always try to read the brief quickly, focus on the main point and not read too much on secondary things. I read just like skimming and scanning. Then I start imagining in my mind what will the apps look like.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Watch dribbble often, keep up to date with latest technology trend, and just always tried to surround my self with amazing desginer who can influence me better.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
The main prize for sure! Haha. Meet the amazing designers, developers, data scientist, engineer, and happy people around the world.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Champion of TCO 2018 Regional Design Event in Yogyakarta.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
I’m a person who loves what I design and design what I love, in the other words I always love my design job. User interface and user experience are things which never leave my mind even only one day.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Spend many time with my wife and my incredible son and daughter. Do something social and meet new amazing people.

Interview with djackmania

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Practice. Passion.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Focus on client needs and do more.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Browsing. Googling. Dribbbling.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Gathering with all finalist and exploring new experiences.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
TCO10 Champ

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
International Award Winner UI/UX Designer

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Time for family.

Interview with iaminfinite

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Keep in mind that impossible is just the beginning.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Follow one course/challenge until successful (FOCUS), do not be a Jack All the Trades/Tracks and avoid multitasking.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Do research, connect/follow/add top designers on social media.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meet all finalists in person and resonate with their positive energy on the same frequency.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Stepping out of my comfort zone and being a TCO18 Finalist.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Experienced designer and developer with strong interest in UI/UX Design.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Traveling and spending time with family.

Interview with iamtong

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Started by personal interest decades ago. Getting my way up to this point by working and learning from past design problems/ challenges.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Read spec, think, research and plan the time.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Browsing various resources on the internet, design screens, articles, videos including techniques on new design tools.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Get lucky in final round.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
TCO12 Champion :)

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
A designer who focuses on user experience and functionalities yet pretty screens.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Spending time with my kids.

Interview with khanhlinh

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Never stop learning from Topcoder’s designers.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
- Read spec carefully, do research from internet such as Pinterest, Dribbble…
- Watch forums and plan the time to finish

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Learning everyday from internet and from other competitors.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meet old members again and make a good relationship with new members.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
TCO17 and TCO18 finalist.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Designers make the world more beautiful.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Music - Travel

Interview with khusnunirawan

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
I just Interested with everything related to graphic design like character illustration, lettering, layouting etc. But I decided to pick an UI Design as my main passion.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Understand the brief, define the problem, create solution and improve.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Just simply surfing to the Internet :)

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
The experience for competing with other TOP designers of course :)

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
TCO18 will be my biggest achivement so far :)

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Don’t be so serious, have fun :)

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Watching movies, spending time with my kids…and sleeping of course

Interview with PereViki

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
It must be the combination of my passion, my curiosity and my commitment. That’s how I transitioned from the business world to a freelance designer.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Even though it slows me down quite a bit, I think the research I make before even grabbing a pencil to draw adds a lot to the value of my designs. I think somewhere there is the secret where UX design gets separated from ‘simple’ UI design.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
I read a lot online, and try to educate myself continuously. When I have a chance I participate related talks and workshops as well.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meet community members in person. I’m sure we will have so much fun together.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I’m proud of my daughter for being who she is. You guys will have a chance to meet her at TCO.
If it is about my professional life, I guess it is quite an achievement that I registered to Topcoder a week into Stage 4 and I could qualify to TCO.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
A passionate, multidisciplinary designer with high attention to details who strives to understand how users perceive products and try to create useful and usable ones.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Spending time with my loved ones of course or go for a run… or the combination of the two :-)

Interview with Ravijune

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Hard work and persistence. I was a graphic designer before. Topcoder played a very important role in building my skills up as an Interaction Designer.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Understanding the requirements fully before starting your wireframes/designs. Never hesitate to ask even a silly question if you are not quite clear about the challenge spec. Drawing the Wireframes on paper is something I enjoy a lot and my core strength.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
By browsing UX and design related articles. Subscribed to a few design sites which helps me update myself with the latest trends in design.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting friends from TC and travel after the event with my best buddies :D

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Getting qualified for TCOs.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Bicycling lately. Also lying down for hours in grass/beach :D

Interview with riopurba

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Learning from the best. And the competition is one of the best way for me to learn something.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Focus to finish your challenge.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
I always keep up to date to what’s trending right now from the best resources like dribbble, behance, pinterest, and blogs from many design sites.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Prestige! To compete with the best designers in the world.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Becoming TCO Finalist this year, of course!

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Indonesian Designer who is always seeking opportunities to share stories & serve others thru design

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Playing guitar

Interview with ssp555

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Passion, guts and a habit to never surrender for any problems.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Read the specifications carefully and try to find the heart of the challenge, meaning the main thing to win or to conquer the project. This will help to complete the project in a very short period of time with an effective solution.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
I always browse different content in Dribbble and in Behance.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
To meet the design God Adam Morehead (adroc) and all finalist.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Being a member of such a huge community is the biggest achievement in my life. And I really feel proud.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Well I need to think

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Well I am a motorcycle tourer, so I always go for long trips.

Interview with universo

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
From Pencil artist - Graphic designer - UI/UX designer.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Learning from the past, than just do it! You will never know that this is your time to shine.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Keep learning by searching & browsing.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting with new friends from overseas. Also to all TCO teams that I have met last year, can’t wait to see you all in 2018.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Became a TCO finalist 2 years in a row. It’s not an easy job, my friends :)

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Thanks to us designers. I can’t imagine how this universe will look like without us!

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Playing with my little Sally. Don’t know who is she? Visit her instagram now :) https://www.instagram.com/hi.iam.sally/

Interview with yiming

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
The experience with Topcoder makes me feel that I am more suitable as a designer than a coder.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
A beard well lathered is half shaved.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
Keep attention to all good things.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
A family trip to the United States.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
The first TCO UI Design Champion.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Accurate to every pixel.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Play with my two sons.

Interview with yoki

How did you get to where you are today in the design world?
Keep competing in Topcoder Challenges. Topcoder is a great place to learn and grow for designer.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Enjoy the work, read the spec carefully, have good time management, and a cappuccino :)

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in design?
There are so many inspirational & references from the internet… it’s fun to explore new trends and ideas.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting with Topcoder family (all members are family)!! and bring back the TCO $10k cash prize :D

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Being a TCO finalist is the most proud achievement, we fought our way to get there.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Let’s play game!

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
If I could… meeting with fellow designers, especially Topcoder members around the world.
I will spend my time to play games with my daughters

Interview with daga_sumit

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Strangely enough, I never thought I would be a software developer. I was into finance and trading for more years than I should have been, but here I am, attending the famed TCO for the 2nd time. I feel extremely lucky to have found Topcoder, or else I would still be buying and selling things I didn’t want to :)

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
To do the best work you can do and sometimes thinking like an end user also helps.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I am not a social media person, but I am on twitter just to be up to date with the new things. It really helps!

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
More than the competition this time, I am excited about the fact that my wife and my 15 months old son will accompany me.
Just hoping his cranky meter stays in the normal range. #FingersCrossed

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Qualifying for TCO for the 2nd time :)

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Web developer and attending TCO :)

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I love whistling.

Interview with e06widu

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
With more than 6 years of experience, I am working as a full stack developer. Self-studies and TC working experience made me to become much more compatible with javascript and .net related technologies. I am always eagerly waiting for the upcoming technologies and willing to work with those.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
At the beginning of a project or a challenge, I first read the requirement documentation well until I clarify each and every needs of the system to be delivered and the places that I can use the reusable components, and start working for the deadline.

And I am trying to learn from a project and try to apply the latest technologies that will be of value for both the project and for self improvement.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Google… Google is the helper of me who updates my knowledge on the current trends in the industry. So I always follows tutorials and try to apply that knowledge for the projects.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
TCO finals will be a difference experience of my carrier life and I am waiting for meet the people who met on the forums and gather lot of experience by working with them onsite.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Considering my career life, the biggest achievement is being selected for the TCO finals.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Engineering education and over 6 years of experience in IT industry, currently working as a Associate tech lead in a Software Company.

Expertise : NodeJS, Angular JS, ReactJS, Redux, jQuery, JavaScript, Mongo DB, MySQL, MSSql, Microsoft Technologies

Educational Experience: Bachelor of Science of Engineering in Software Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Playing cricket, Watching movies and TV series

Interview with h_n_y

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I was first introduced to programming in college, and have since refined my skills competing in Topcoder, reading, and taking online courses, etc.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Before writing a single line of code, it’s important to really review the scope of the project and come to an understanding out what is being asked of you. Once you understand the high-level architecture of the application, it’s much easier to organize the app and begin implementing the low-level details.

Additionally, it’s critical that you maintain back-and-forth communication with the copilot in order to clarify scope requirements and to make sure you’re on the right path.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I read tech sections of newspapers/magazines and blogs. There are scores of good articles written about modern trends in the software industry if you look!

I also think it’s also important to really dive deep into the documentation of the frameworks you’re using in your work, instead of only watered-down summaries of the frameworks written by secondary sources.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
I am excited to meet new people and compete in my first TCO finals!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon a few years ago and am pretty proud of that.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Hans is deeply curious, intellectual, and loves the thrill of solving tough problems.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Lately I’ve been flying a lot of FPV quadcopter simulators.

Interview with hi4sandy

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Started early with programming, at that time I was in high school & computer science was introduced for the first time in our school.

After making programming as a profession, took some important decisions. I found myself standing at a place that leads to two different places & I picked Topcoder.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
It keeps on changing from time to time. For now, start a bit late when everybody has already asked several questions in the forums & then work more at the end to complete all the requirements in time.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Most of the Topcoder challenges I participated in had some requirements based on some new frameworks, plugins or technology. So, I keep on learning new things in order to win these Topcoder challenges. Apart from these, there are a few websites I visit, sometimes.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
To do my best in the onsite finals.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
This is the 7th time in a row I got qualified for TCO onsite finals, hold on!! This time there’s something new.

A few weeks ago, I started working with Jessie & the rest of the team for weekly Topcoder-newsletters, It just happened & is one of my best achievements because I did a few interesting things besides participating in Topcoder Challenges to get here.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Here’s the answer: https://SandeepYadav.net

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Driving, travelling, swimming.

Interview with iversonLv

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
When I was young, I loved to stay home with my PC and play games, enhance the hardware, etc rather than doing anything else. Hobbies were the most important step for me in jumping into the coding world along with faith, self-learning, and practice.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Google and YouTube, time managing to schedule the challenge. If the challenge needs 5 days, I will spend ‘6 days’(less sleep more coding time) on it.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Watch related hot technologies YouTube videos, official docs and demo, learn and write code.
There is no shortcut I believe, more learning, more coding, more confident.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
I really wanna watch Dallas Mavericks NBA match if possible.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Attend to TCO again!

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Hello TCO world!

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Staying with my family, play basketball with friends, and sleeping to store energy for coding

Interview with leo.ananth

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Keeping me updated.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Just do it.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Keep on reviewing the latest updates.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Exciting US Trip, good meet up, filled with joy and challenge.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Fourth time as TCO finalist.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Updated UI developer with all the latest technologies.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Gymming, Traveling (Covered 10 countries in last one year), Reader.

Interview with moulyg

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Hard work and never giving up attitude.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Analyzing the scope, deadline and required skills thoroughly and put up all the questions in the forum before starting to work on the project.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Self-learning and research.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Nice trip, fun time, new colleagues, good competition.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
TCO championship 16 & 17

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Experienced IT professional with can-do attitude.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Coding, Travelling, Sleeping, Watching movies

Interview with radioactivCoder

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
A t-shirt. I did my first challenge on Topcoder for a t-shirt, btw where’s my t-shirt Topcoder?

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Know what you need to do, and know what you are doing.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I’m the guy who sets the trend.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting the community members and Dallas.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I once fell head first from 9ft on to concrete and nothing happened, nothing. And qualifying for TCO18, I guess.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
I’m an artist, my work hangs on the walls of the Internet.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Skydiving and Spacetravel although I haven’t done either. Yet.

Interview with vasilica.olariu

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Got into development since high school. After that there was lots of work & fun.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Read challenge requirements, if it fits for me, post in forum every question I have. If everything seems ok, start working on it and try to submit best solution possible.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Follow influencers via social networks (eg. twitter, dev.to).

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting other competitors & try my best to win the big prize.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Probably qualifying for 2 tracks for tco17.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Here’s what it says: www.linkedin.com/in/vasilicaolariu

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Travel with my fiance

Interview with callmekatootie

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Lots of perseverance

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Break it down into the smallest component that I am comfortable working with and then build it from the bottom up.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Mostly twitter. Product Hunt occasionally.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
To meet everybody. Having only used email / slack, it’s a nice change to meet each in person

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Sitting on the drop tower of an amusement park without holding on to anything.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Travel

Interview with chekspir

How did you get to where you are today in the designer world?
Working hard every day! There are no shortcuts, the only way to improve on the design and anything is working hard. I still consider there is a long way to go :-)

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Reading the challenge/project requirements and trying to understand what Clients want.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I’m a technology fan and nerd, so I’m always reading and learning about what is top on this field, I also like to see the work from other designers around the world on sites like Dribbble, Behance, DeviantArt, and many more. Something that I really love is to watch the launch of new products from companies like Apple and Tesla. Those keynotes are fantastic!

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
I would love to meet new members from all over the world.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Being able to qualify for TCO15 and TCO17 :-)

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
A very honest and highly skilled designer who passion about the beauty of great user experiences.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I love mountain biking and scuba diving. Also, I enjoy any outdoor activity.

Interview with DaraK

How did you get to where you are today in the designer world?
By being curious about learning new things and working hard to improve them.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
As a copilot, I am looking to understand what the client’s problem is, ask questions to clarify the details so I can translate it as much as possible for designers, provide them with additional materials they need, and make things easy for them so they only focus on designing.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I read various online design and tech magazines and check the work of other designers on Behance, Dribbble, etc.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting the Topcoder friends and admins. It’s always fun and a great time! Best part of TCO :)

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Being part of the Community Team and attending several TCOs in different roles.

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Dream for the best and work for it.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Spending time with dear ones.

Interview with fajar.mln

How did you get to where you are today in the designer world?
I got inspired by one of my seniors in college that won $15K from a design competition. Being jealous about his achievement, I start learning about design and front-end by myself, a few years later, after added with some life spice, voilaa, here I am now.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Keep focus, do research, and a lot of coffee…

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Lots of reading and be actively involved in the design community online.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meet Topcoder members and Admin from around the world.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Become 2018 MVP Member at Topcoder

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Still a Newbie, got a lot of things to learn…

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Sleeping, Martial Arts, Music, Goofing around

Interview with gondzo

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Luck and some hard work :)

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Do it on time, or earlier - I don’t usually follow this advice :)

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Read blogs.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting all the top Topcoder members.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
TCO qualifications in the past years.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Just do it already!

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Scuba diving, ham radio.

Interview with lg5293

How did you get to where you are today at Topcoder?
I got hooked on competing in SRMs back around 2011. Topcoder was one of the first sites I used for competitive programming. I enjoyed it a lot and started writing problems and contributing back to the community a couple of years ago. Topcoder is the first site that I wrote problems to, and I felt it was a fun experience.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
When writing problems for SRMs, I usually just try to stay somewhat up to date on what questions are being posed on other competitive programming sites to get inspiration and to make sure my problems don’t overlap too much.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Looking forward to meeting all the top algorithm competitors and watching them compete.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Competitive-programming related is probably successfully writing rounds that a lot of people enjoy. I don’t have as many achievements from the competitor side :(

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I like playing DDR, playing random puzzle video games, and listening to music.

Interview with mahestro

How did you get to where you are today in the designer world?
Working hard, embracing opportunities and taking well-calculated risks.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Depending on the particular scenario, in the most typical case, I would use three phases: define, design, and develop.

As a copilot, I have the opportunity to be involved from the early stages of a project, which gives me the chance to meet with clients and stakeholders. I use this initial definition phase to learn about their expectations, to know the target audience and make sure I’m identifying the problem properly. Once that is defined, I can move to the design phase where I focus on the problem (s) therefore possible solutions. I’d make sure my proposals are in line with the vision of the client as the desired final product so there are no surprises after the development is done.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Normally, reading design-related news websites and putting my hands on any interesting new software, technique, gadget, that’s out there.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Friends and food, or if you want to put that on a single phrase: Butter Chicken Squad!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Competing consecutively onsite for three TCOs

If you wrote your own designer profile, what would it say?
Who else could write it? :)

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Playing football, working out, swimming in the wild waves of an untamed beach or making people’s lives miserable with my awkward jokes. If any of those is not available then eating, that is always an option.

Interview with majk

How did you get to where you are today at Topcoder?
Waking up for a challenge at 3am helps to reduce the stress level. Apparently that’s when I perform the best.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Dive in! If that doesn’t work, find someone to dive in with you.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Wait, is that even possible?

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting a lot of extraordinary people. Also free pizza.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Qualifying to Facebook Hacker Cup Finals. With resubmission in the last minute.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Move fast, break things. Also, revisit the broken things later and fix them.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Enjoy the colours of nature.

Interview with monsoon

How did you get to where you are today at Topcoder?
I started serious competitive programming in 2003, advancing to algorithm finals of TCO 2004 and TCCC 2005. Later I moved from participating to organizing contests as a judge and problem setter. That is how I won my trip to TCO 2018 finals: by writing problems.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
It depends on a scale: for competitions I try to focus and give my best. For longer projects the hardest part is to begin, but usually a good plan makes it easier to jump into the flow.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
If by “this field” we understand competitive programming, then as a problem setter I read tasks from ongoing contests and follow discussions on Codeforces and blogs of other problem authors.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting all the people.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
As a problem setter, it would be coming up with a linear-time solution to a “Coins in a Row” problem. My more recent non-programming achievements were finishing a marathon race in 2017 and 1/4-Ironman-style triathlon in mountainous terrain this year.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
My profile used to say “DP is the key”. I really like dynamic programming problems.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Playing catchy tunes on the piano.

Interview with sdgun

How did you get to where you are today at Topcoder?
Staying involved with challenges without giving up made my path so far. It was not easy, but one should always work with the same enthusiasm until the end of the competition especially in the QA track.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Studying all the details on the challenges and staying involved in the challenge actively until the end of it is the best way to learn about it and overcome any difficulties in a challenge.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I read a lot of blogs, articles and attend conferences and seminars.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
To meet the other finalists and the members I have worked with in person.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
Being selected as a finalist in TCO18 is the most prominent achievement.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Dedicated to learn new technologies and trends and also take up new challenges.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Spending time with my family is my favorite thing.

Interview with talesforce

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
Started off in year 2000, wrote protocol stacks, developed billing systems, worked across multiple geographies including India, Taiwan, France for varied projects, landed up in my hometown doing Salesforce & mobile development, found Topcoder as a place to enrich and explore my technical skills!

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Stay on top of things - projects fail because people let them fail! Always keep track of timelines, budget and deliverables - try to foresee, mitigate & eliminate risks! Once you do that, rest everything else is easy :)

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I’m a compulsive reader who’s passionate about new technologies. I can’t go to bed until I read for about a couple of hours every day. Reading up on new technologies and trying out different things keeps me up to date! I love my collection of gadgets and devices and I end up spending a lot of my earnings on buying new stuff every month :)

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
I believe the development and F2F finals are always a close battle at TCO finals. I’ve actually been involved as a reviewer for both of these finals for a few years. I don’t know yet if I’ll be reviewing these this year but regardless, I look forward to the fierce competition!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I’ve been fortunate to have some illustrious accomplishments in my career of nearly 20 years. However, being recognised as a MVP (Most Valuable Professional) in two of the communities where I’m deeply involved - Salesforce & Topcoder would rank as the highlight of my professional career!

And trust me, I’m not done yet!

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Life-long Developer. Period!

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I love spending time with family. My life revolves around my mother, my wife, my 11-year old daughter and my 5-year old son! Whether it’s playing with my kids or just chatting with my wife and my mother, I’m seriously a ‘Home is where the heart is’ person. Unfortunately, I have to travel a lot for work but I try and make up for it whenever I’m at home!

Interview with thomaskranitsas

How did you get to where you are today in the developer world?
I enjoy learning about new stuff every single day ;)

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
As a copilot, I’m looking at the challenge specification I create and I’m asking myself:

• Would you compete in this challenge?

Then I improve the spec until the answer is “Hell Yeah!!”

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Topcoder is one of the best ways to do that. Working on different projects with different clients and different tech stacks somehow pushes you to stay on top of things and always be aware of the latest trends and best practices.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting fellow Topcoder members and all admins is definitely the best part of the TCO Finals!

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I’m a development copilot for less than 1 year => I ran 375 Successful challenges => I became a development copilot trip winner and won the ticket to the TCO finals for the 3rd time

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
It would probably describe how I struggle to avoid the temptation to code the whole project by myself instead of running Topcoder challenges :)

Seriously, when I start coding, I just can’t stop!

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I workout, I do paragliding and I love playing the guitar

Interview with VietHTran

How did you get to where you are today at Topcoder?
I participated Topcoder in order to get some hands-on experience in the industry when I was doing my undergraduate research in the summer. After losing a couple of times and getting some brutal reviews, I learned from my mistakes and from other winners’ approaches and eventually I began to win a lot more often. Although I didn’t not always get first places, I did make some progress from where I started. :)

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
- Read through the challenge description carefully and ask anything you feel ambiguous.

- Visualize and plan ahead your approach (a note and a pen usually helps). Ask yourself if you are able to complete the requirement on time with your current resources and skill. Can you at least be able to pass the reviews?

- Treat the challenge as a real job and try to spend 5-8 hours a day working on the challenge.

- After you have your submission cleaned up and ready. Make sure you can set up your program from your submission and instruction. Record a demo video is the best way to make sure your don’t make any mistake in the documentation/code. It also helps overcome the language barrier (sometimes OS-barrier).

- Compress and upload your submission. Remember to select the right zip file. :)

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
I occasionally check out Hacker News to check out the latest technologies, frameworks, etc. I also check on the past challenges on Topcoder and its winners-submissions ratio in order to see which skills are in demand and which are more competitive.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
I’m hoping to learn a thing or two from the best people in the Topcoder community in order to improve my performance in the next year.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
I achieved second place in the Topcoder - Skill Importer Framework PoC challenge where there are 16 submissions. Some submitters have more wins and more experience than I do in Node.js. I only started to learn Node.js one or two weeks prior to the challenge.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
Khajiit has code if you have coin.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
I like studying history, biographies and going to the gym.

Interview with winterflame

How did you get to where you are today at Topcoder?
Keep competing.

What is your best strategy for tackling a project or challenge?
Make sure yourself well understand the project/challenge requirements.

How do you keep up with current trends and advances in this field?
Focus.

What are you most looking forward to for the TCO Finals?
Meeting TC members and watching onsite competitions.

Tell us what achievement you are the most proud of.
This will be my 4th time at a TCO onsite event.

If you wrote your own developer profile, what would it say?
There are some bugs in this code.

Offline, what is your favorite thing to do?
Walking and listening to music.