On March 2, 2024, the La Salle Computer Society (LSCS) hosted Code Relay, a friendly team programming competition. Participants signed up either alone or in pairs, later getting grouped into threes, with each team competing for a prize of Php 4000.

The first of its kind in the LSCS, Code Relay had the twist that you and your group mates would alternate taking on programming tasks in 5-minute intervals. Communication with the one currently coding was forbidden, so each group had to strategize how they could get the best results with only one programmer at a time in order to gain the most points and emerge on top.

Project head and AVP for Training and Development Ramon “Rami” Sabarre explained that it was meant to be a fun event for first and second year students because there were a lot of them interested in LSCS events: “We wanted an event that is catered towards them, so all of our codes (challenges) were in C, up to the lessons of CCPROG2. We wanted to challenge them and make them use the knowledge they learned in these lessons”.  

The event would begin at 2pm in Room G302B in the Gokongwei Building. The groupings were revealed and the teams were given time to gather and discuss their strategy. At around 2:15, the competition would commence. 

The challenges had three levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, and Difficult. Easy questions were worth 10 points, Medium ones were worth 30, and the hardest were worth 50. They were all fun and had lots of variety. From easier ones such as unit conversion and calendars to more challenging ones such as simulating Genshin rolls and Among Us, they truly did not disappoint.

At 4pm, the competition was over and the results were tallied. It was Group 3, consisting of Christian Joseph “CJ” Bunyi, Leigh Avegail Namuag, and Cassidy Kyler Lao Tan that would emerge victorious. When asked for their strategy, CJ it was to simply work on their own problems based on their  abilities in order to maximize efficiency. “We were able to transition into the right mindset in order to approach the old problems we were solving”, he said.

Code Relay’s debut was nothing short of a successful one; one that united aspiring programmers through teamwork, challenged contestant’s coding knowledge, and made for a fun afternoon of problem solving and programming.