I did this also. C and C++. Although none of my teammates are now Known Names, as far as I know, and also we did sometimes collaborate a little bit. But not

I did this also. C and C++. Although none of my teammates are now Known Names, as far as I know, and also we did sometimes collaborate a little bit. But not at the "terminal" (not really a terminal), because in the labs used for keying in the code, the A/C couldn't handle more than one contestant per computer, so the contest organizers required you to hold a mutex to the room, not just to the computer. I believe it was 3 hours, and in my day it was 10 puzzles. I still have my crib sheets, and the printed-out problems sets, which were printed on brightly-coloured sheet of paper. I agree that, once you apply yourself to this, it is not that difficult to learn to code more proficiently on paper than you would with an IDE, in less time. That's not to say we didn't have bugs in our algorithm designs. Although we did not get eighth place in our region, much less the world, I too think it was pivotal in my development as a programmer.