On April 9, 2019, in line with previous years, the programming class of the Greater Nanticoke Area High School participated in the 24th annual programming contest in Bloomsburg.

The competition, designed to strengthen the minds and logical capabilities of students from districts spanning most of Pennsylvania, is composed of ten assigned problems of increasing difficulty. Participants are given three hours to solve as many problems in the shortest plausible time, with the winners receiving plaques and prizes as rewards for their intense mental efforts.

In the recent iteration of the event, the sole team to solve all ten posed problems was an envoy of the State College Area School District, having accomplished the feat in 2 hours and fifteen minutes. Due to the difficulty of the problems, a major drop in program accomplishment occurred following this, with the teams which placed second and third (both representatives of the East Penn School District) solved seven of problems each. Nanticoke’s teams fared significantly worse, unfortunately, with the top-scoring of the two groups representing GNA at the event solving only three questions.

In spite of the Nanticoke teams’ low performance at the event, significant enjoyment was derived from the occasion, with students having briefly explored the campus of Bloomsburg University. The contest allowed Nanticoke’s young programmers to assess their own capabilities in coding and determine areas of the skill in which to improve themselves. Coupled with the coding-oriented grant recently obtained by the district from Amazon, the competition poses a valuable opportunity for aspiring programmers to improve their skills and better their thinking.