Congratulations to the May Coders and Designers of the Month! TopCoder took a minute to ask them all a few questions so enjoy their interviews.

,Algorithm: wrong
What is your favorite part of TopCoder?
I participate in some algorithm competitions and most of their forms like ICPC.  But TopCoder’s SRM is not. TopCoder’s SRM’s form is original.  I like SRM and its originality

What was the hardest project or problem you worked on last month?
I think the hardest problem is “MazeWandering” in SRM 440 Div1 Medium. First, I was positive that the maze is graph and is not tree.  At that time, I couldn’t solve the problem in Coding Phase.  Later, I realized that the maze was tree.  But I couldn’t solve the problem without the other coder’s help.

What do you think is the most important factor to win a competition at TopCoder?
I think that the most important thing is not to make trifling mistakes.  I often make trifling mistakes.  Because of this, I sometimes get “Wrong Answer” or “Failed System Test”  for easy problems.

What is the story behind your handle?
Like I said before, I sometimes get “Wrong Answer” by trifling mistakes.  Not to repeat a mistake, I decided to name my handle “wrong”.  So I can check if I make a trifling mistake when I saw my handle.

Tell us one surprising thing about you.
I’m 16-year-old high school student in Japan, and I’m studying English at school.  Now I’m writing these sentences with a dictionary.  You may be surprised by poorness of these sentences :-] Someday I will  surprise you by speaking English fluently!

Design: saarixx

saarixx at the Grand Canyon after the TCO

What is your favorite part of TopCoder?
When I compete in design competitions full time, I like that my earnings are proportional to spent time and effort. And I know that I will get a reward for each hour additionally spent on work.

What was the hardest project or problem you worked on last month?
This was Preference Center Admin Publication Services design. I can’t remember when I drew such large class diagrams before

What do you think is the most important factor to win a competition at TopCoder?
IMHO, the main factor is time spent on exploring solutions provided by winners of previous competitions. This is applicable to most types of competitions: Marathon, Algorithm, Design, Conceptualization, Architecture, etc.

What is the story behind your handle?
My initials are SAA. I added RIX to them just to make it sound cool and funny, with no exact meaning. Then I googled for SAARIX and found that it’s not unique in the world wide web. To make it unique I added addition X to the end. Thus my handle is SAARIXX, and if you find some web page with word “SAARIXX” - be sure it’s about me

Development: isv
What is your favorite part of TopCoder?
I like competing in SRMs and assembly competitions. The former bring real fun and the the latter provide good expirience with building the applications. I also like reading forums which give a good grasp of what the TopCoder community is, what are the new initiatives from the company, whether they are successful or not and so on. Watching how the community and the company evolve is really interesting.

What was the hardest project or problem you worked on last month?
I’ve been working on assembly competitions for a single project mostly and the main problem was resolving various inconsistencies between requirements, components, prototypes which were introduced at various stages of the project.

What do you think is the most important factor to win a competition at TopCoder?
In short, have a plan for solving the problem and be fast and accurate when implementing that plan.

What is the story behind your handle?
This is just acronym for my full name.

Tell us one surprising thing about you.
I bought my first PC at the age of 28.

Studio: Trial_and_Error

What is your favorite part about Studio?
Not to mention the financial reward, Topcoder had really helped me enhance my design skills and build up my self-belief. Winning is definitely not easy here because I know I’m competing with a lot of talented designers around the world. But the moment you see your name being selected as winner, there’s a different feeling of pride. Now that’s priceless.

What was the hardest project you worked on last month?
Without blinking an eye, I’d say it’s the “A Day in the Life – Flash Animation Contest” . I just thought that the time is very limited for me because I also have a day job to attend, and could only work for my submission as soon as I get home. But I’m really determined to win so I just sacrificed some sleep just to get through it.

What do you think is the most important factor to win a competition at Studio?
Understanding the client’s requirement is a very essential factor to start right in the competition. Yeah at first you’ll get rejection, but make sure you learn from those mistakes to be able to deliver a better design the next time.

What is the story behind your handle?
Nothing serious - it was just the first thing that came to my mind because initially everything was just a trial for me — if I’m gonna be successful in every competition.

Tell us one surprising thing about you.
I play the guitar and I’m a frustrated rockstar.