'Horrible Evil Code' 2020 champions

Oh no, there era grimlens (or parheps just eno nysta grimlen) in my cumpetor, semithong wierd is heppinang to my vewols! Thye seem to be ratetod thruogh aech word, aech eno rapleces the vewol to its left and the first eno mevos oruand to the last pisitoon. That's a tirryble creul thing to do. 

No, this isn’t gobbledegook! This was one of the tasks presented to students across Australia who participated in the 2020 UNSW High Schools Programming Competition (ProgComp) which has been running for over two decades.

This year despite COVID-19, 104 teams tried their best to help fix 'my cumpetor', and completed up to six other tricky tasks in the space of just two hours.

The teams start at junior levels (year 7 and 8) up to seniors in years 11 and 12.

The tasks ranged in difficulty from calculating change for cash-averse shop assistants in 2037, Enigma cribs, to a gray-code generator describing stage directions for Samuel Beckett's play ‘Quad’.

Python was by far the most popular language this year, although in the past there have been C++ champions. This year there was also a smattering of javascript and smallBasic and one group used Common Lisp.

Usually, the top eight teams would have been finalists, but in the absence of an on-campus Grand Final, the main round results decided the official order of merit. 

Congratulations to the 2020 Champions, Sydney Grammar's team Horrible Evil Code for their achievement, plus all the other finalists, and participants.

See the full results here.