Aanya Goyal, 17, is a London schoolgirl who thrives on mathematical challenges and puzzle solving, most recently winning a Silver Medal for Team India at the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics (EGOI) at Veldhoven in the Netherlands. Her team was up against some of the top coders from across 50 countries at the prestigious international competition for young women interested in computer science. They went on to register their best performance with Aanya’s silver, two bronze medals and one Honourable Mention.
Here, she reflects on the highs of a winning streak, the inspiration she derives from her Indian culture and heritage and determination to tackle the male domination in the sphere of elite competitions such as the Olympiads.
What was the EGOI competitive course like?
I knew that thousands of people were watching and cheering for us on, so I felt a huge sense of responsibility. The scorecard was broadcast real-time live. While the contestants could not see each other's scores, the rest of the world could see our scores and positions.
It was a 10-hour contest and it turned out that I had slipped to a Bronze Medal position, then I got a sub-task in the last five minutes and moved back up to Silver Medal. I am told that all of those watching took a collective sigh of relief when that happened!
How would you describe the challenges involved in the Olympiad?
The contest consisted of two sessions of five hours each. In each session we were given four problems to solve, each containing several sub-tasks. The problems are complex algorithmic design and coding implementation challenges.
The implemented code has to get through the given sub-tasks within two to four seconds. So, you need to be really good in maths, creative in problem design and solution, and the coding implementation needs to be super-efficient. You need to do all of this while operating at a super-fast pace. Five hours go by very quickly and is not quite enough time.
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What attracts you to competitive programming?
I am a problem solver at heart. Mathematics is where I first tasted Olympiad success but I have also made the Linguistics Olympiad. Before that it started with solving crosswords and Kakuro puzzles and playing chess.
I have been trained for many years now to be able to solve the hardest combinatorics and number theory problems, and to decipher all kinds of languages applying the same problem-solving mindset. So, I needed a new challenge where I go beyond problem solving to problem design and implementation. I learnt Python at school, but Python is not very efficient for competitive problem solving. So, I tried to learn C++ on my own. I have to admit that it was painful. One year back I was really struggling but I didn't give up and then things started to click after a while.
How does your Indian heritage inspire you?
I am a proud Indian. I listened to Chak De! India and Ziddi Dil from ‘Mary Kom’ before the contests to motivate myself. India winning the T20 cricket World Cup and then the Indian IMO team finishing fourth provided the additional motivation. I wanted to prove that this is a good summer to support Indian teams. Now, it's time to cheer for the Indian athletes at the Paris Olympics; may we win many medals!
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Tell us about your future goals and ambitions.
I want to study mathematics and computer science at university. Maths remains the primary interest. Computing and other applications of maths offer an opportunity to use my problem-solving skills to make the world a better place.
I also feel a certain weight of responsibility as a girl doing well in maths and computing Olympiads because sadly when it comes to elite competitions in these subjects, men still comprise 95 per cent of the field; that needs to change. We need more girls involved in designing technologies of the future world.
Men have always provided all the support in my life, so I have nothing against men. But we do need more female perspective and more female participation. It is part of my ambition to be a role model for younger girls to realise that they have as much chance to succeed in the world of elite maths and computing competitions as boys.
*Info: EGOI
