How to use UVa Online Judge

Many of us have enormous interest in practicing programming using online judge sites but sometimes get stuck when it comes to using them. In this tutorial, I've tried to explain the usage of one of the most popular OJ sites, The UVa Online Judge.

Let's get started.

First of all get an account.
1. Go to http://uva.onlinejudge.org
2. On the panel situated on the left side of the page look for the link "Register"

3. Click that you'll reach a page where you have to supply some account information in order to get registered. Look carefully at the last field, put 00000 in it.

4. After you've confirmed your email address and all other formalities you can come back and Log in to your account. Do so using the panel on the left.
5. Now for a test drive, let's submit a code. First go to "Browse Problems" on the left panel slightly to the bottom.

6. Here comes a list of Categories that the problems are organized in. We will browse through the volumes of Contest Problems. These sets are organized according to Contests. We use this because after a contest finishes, we get the problems of that contest in here together easily.

7. Click the volume you desire to use, I open the last one because this set has the latest contest problems.

8. We're going to submit a code for the problem "Calculating Yuan Fen". I'm not going to explain it here since that's not what I'm trying to show you.

9. Look on the left side of the problem name, it's the code of the problem, 12414. If you submit a solution, you need this code. You can also click on the problem and use the "Submit" button inside. Since I use the Quick Submit method a lot, I'm showing you that. On the left side look for the link "Quick Submit"

10. The Quick Submit window is pretty easy to understand.
a. Put the problem code in the first field
b. Choose which language you're coding in (The language you used to write the solution)
c. Paste your code in the BIG code field or you can choose the code file itself.
d. Click on "Submit"

11. After the submission is complete you'll have to click on the "My Submissions" link on the left side to see if the solution was successfully submitted and if so, was it Accepted or not. Since I didn't post an actual working solution, I got Wrong Answer. Hope that won't be the same with you :)

That's it, the basics. Start exploring the site and examining the different sections. You'll soon find that it's an awesome experience. Solving problems using programming methods is something only a few lucky people get to enjoy. And congratulations, you're now one of them :D





UVa is not the end. There are much better (resourcefully) sites that can help you enhance your programming skills. I showed UVa because most people start here. I don't think you'll need to understand anymore to start on other sites. Only TopCoder might seem a bit tricky initially. If you need any help, comment here or contact me on Facebook. Happy Coding.