C³ Algorithmic Circle

What is C³ Circle

C³ stands for

• Compute → programming with computational thinking
• Collaborate → structured discussion/peer critique
• Compete → public leaderboard based on solution quality

It is a strategy-first forum for competitive programming: students propose solution strategies, analyze trade-offs, and refine ideas through constructive peer critique. Final standings highlight clarity of thought, reliability of approach, and quality of discussion. Think it. Plan it. Win it.

Purpose

Promote analytical problem-solving and peer-driven open discussion. Prioritize strategy over syntax—ideas lead, not code. Foster clear reasoning and engineering acumen.

This Is Not

• A substitute for class.
• A place to ask for homework help .

Target Annual Competitions

 ACSL (American Computer Science League)ACSL

Exams are designed to increase students' competency in CS with computational thinking from Elementary to Grade 12 - 45+ years World level CS exams and contests.

 USACO (United States of America Computing Olympia

Exams are designed to challenge even the very best students, and it can take a good deal of hard work and passion in problem-solvings with programming to excel at them. But, the problems difficulties often do not seem to be inline with their levels.

Students take the exams online on their own. The majority of our Algorithms in C/C++ Level II students with high proficiency demonstrated remarkable performance.

This is NOT a class, but a discussion group. In order to be productive, students MUST possess passion in algorithmic programming, and be self-motivated (e.g. not being told by parents, not rushing thru to get problems complete without demanding themselves for the best result, etc. ) Thus, inquiry must be received from the students.

Do note: if you do not like error-checking, trouble-shooting or being inquisitive "what-ifs", or do not like to revise your work as sugggested by the instructor, etc., this is not for you.

Prerequisites: Students who have strongly completed Algorithms in C/C++ Level I (or equivalent proficiency).

If the student has met the prerequisites, please have the student  emailing us to acquire for the Discord Server link.

What if my child has never started with Algorithms in C/C++?

Please go here to view details.

1st step

Join our private Discord Server. All students are required to use their full name for their SR Server profile. Please see prerequisites. For security purpose, all signed-up membfers MUST be SR students, not adult. If you don't have access to it,  emailing us   to acquire for the link.

2nd step

• Review the #C³ Problem channel.
• Discuss at the #C³ Discussion channel.

3rd step

Post your solution at #C³ Solution channel using this form.
May resubmit with improvement.

4th step

Check out the Leaderboard for ranking. (Based on participants polling.)

• #C³ Problem: (Read-only) New prompt every other Monday, 10:00 p.m. ET.

• #C³ Discussion: Two-week window for peer discussion and iterative refinement in the thread. This is where discussion on the problem takes place .
• #C³ Solution Submission: Submit a written strategy via the forum linked in the Discord.  You may submit it anytime within the window. We will consider the latest one as the final submission.
• #C³ Leaderboard:  (Read-only) Points awarded after each cycle; cumulative totals tracked over time.

What to submit:

Strategy, not full code!

Your write-up should include Core idea and approach — Stepwise plan / pseudocode or diagrams is highly encouraged.

Great Addition:

• Complexity & trade-offs (time/space, edge cases).
• thought about proving its robustness.
• Testing plan (how you would suggest others to validate correctness).

No source code; pseudocode or diagrams are fine.

Click here to view our ACSL achievements.

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Advanced to Platnum Division

Advanced to Gold Division

Advanced to Silver Division

There is no shortcut to this. BEST PRACTICE...

• Basic rule of thumb - to understand and analyze, NOT by rote memorization and syntax recall.
• There is NO substitue of practices. Go thru their past exams. Be inquisitive. Try things out!
• The more practice you get, and the better programmer you become.
• One must love problem-solving with programming. That requires one's intrinsic love of being inquisitive.
• One must love debugging, trouble-shooting and often being inquisitive, understanding and shooting for the best result.
• When it comes to learning algorithms - put yourself in analysis mode and implement them.
• Don't settle with basic given test cases. Think about exceptions - normal to worst cases. List test cases and test your code.
• Work on the problems sets in the USACO.org site. Understanding the problem, practice, submitting and re-submitting solutions until you get the best result.

2025-Fall to presence: Group leader/ Problem-set curator: Kai Chan

Kai began programming through game development and later found his stride in competitive programming. Since joining Storming Robots in 2024, he’s been even more motivated—especially by helping others discover the joy of algorithmic problem-solving. “At first the problems looked like a foreign math jumble, but over time I learned to design efficient algorithms through iterative reasoning and evaluation,“ he said. Kai enjoys hunting edge cases, has solved hundreds of problems, competed in numerous contests, and advanced to USACO Silver at grade 7 (~90th percentile).

2021-Fall to 2022-Spring: Group leader: Arjun Subramanian

Arjun attended Storming Robots' CS Track program since his 5th grade, and started to lead SR's USACO Students Circle since his 8th grade. He possesses a deep passion for problem-solving with programming. He has advanced to the USACO Gold division at 8th grade. He has broadened his CS knowledge by self-studying thru Coursera in various topics, including Princeton’s Algorithms (Part 1 and 2), Managing Big Data with MySQL, and Algorithms Theory and Machines. He has also taught Python since the 2021 Summer and continues throughout the school year. Some of his other interests include skiing, squash, and play chess. Here is his GitHub.

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2021-Spring: Group leader- Brian Gan.

Brian, a USACO Gold level achiever at 11th grade, has been at SR as both computer science and robotics student since he was in early middle school. He has a deep passion in problem solvings. Brian took the initiative to start this group and hope to further increase the interest and strength in algorithmic programming. He was admitted to Purdue University- Class of 2025 as CE major.