Are you a fast programmer? Want to prove it? Here’s your chance! There will be a programming competition at Code Camp on Saturday, Sept 27. Any Code Camp attendee is welcome. Registration is free, but we appreciate your RSVP so we can plan. Email cstaley@createspace.com to register.

Contest Rules

1. Individual competitors only.
2. Contest runs 2 hours, and includes 4 different short problems.
3. Programming in Java 1.5
4. Winner is the person completing the most problems successfully. Ties broken by speed of completion, with time-penalties for bad attempts.
5. We’ll supply Java API docs access online. No other materials allowed.
6. Previous winners of CreateSpace programming contests are not eligible to receive prizes, nor are current or former CreateSpace employees.

Prizes

In case the sheer love of competition isn't enough to interest you, CreateSpace has kindly provided, for the top 3 finishers, prizes of dinner-for-two at your choice of several local eating places.

Session 1 - The Presentation

In the first hour, we’ll briefly review how public-key cryptography works, starting from the basics, and then go into depth on the RSA algorithm, from an implementation standpoint. By the end, you’ll know how to actually code an RSA system, and you’ll understand how you and another person can communicate securely and privately, even you’ve never met, you’re transmitting via a medium in which anyone may eavesdrop, and everyone knows exactly how you’re encrypting your data.

Session 2 - The Challenge

In the second hour, we’ll show you enough of the math of RSA encryption to let you crack an RSA-encrypted message based on small prime numbers (the real system uses huge prime numbers).

Then we’ll give you an actual message to crack, and will award dinner-for-two, on CreateSpace, to the first 3 people to crack it by hand during the presentation. (CreateSpace employees not eligible :))