sticky_note_2 Introduction

2024/25 Team Selection Test was held on 8, 9, 11 April 2025, with a record-high participation of 33 students. Within 2 hours and 30 minutes, participants were required to solve 9 programming problems of increasing difficulty. New team members were selected based on the results.
This year’s test allowed students to bring reference papers with them. However, most students did not make effective use of the rule, leaving considerable room for improvement. It is hoped that students can have better preparation before future tests, giving their best efforts in applying what they have learnt. We will also review and refine our curriculum and teaching methods to help students learn and apply knowledge more effectively.

Our annual team contest Cooperation Theory III was held on 18 February 2025. Members were divided into 5 groups. Each group put in their best effort to solve 12 coding problems in 4 hours.
During the contest, each group could only use one computer for coding. Therefore students had to collaborate effectively, sharing problem-solving ideas and managing coding time effectively to finish more problems. Each group demonstrated strong teamwork and achieved satisfactory results.
The contest encouraged communication among team members, uniting the team in facing upcoming challenges.

The National Olympiad in Informatics in Provinces (NOIP) 2024 (Hong Kong) was held on 30 November 2024 at City University of Hong Kong. 8 team members were qualified for and participated in the competition.
performed well and won our team’s first-ever NOIP First Prize. It is hoped that team members can make more attempts when facing difficult tasks, gaining higher scores in future competitions.

The first Hong Kong Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics (HKGOI) 2024/25 was held on 24 November 2024 at City University of Hong Kong.
Our team’s 2 girl members performed well, with achieving a Silver Medal. It is hoped that this competition helps to break stereotypes and encourages more girls to participate in Olympiad in Informatics (OI) activities. It is also hoped that our team will make further progress and achieve even better results next year.

The results of Hong Kong Olympiad in Informatics (HKOI) 2024/25 was quite disappointing for our team.
Our team nominated 8 students each to join the Senior Group and Junior Group competition. In the Heat Event held on 9 November 2024 at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, surprised everyone by ranking first among all Junior Group contestants. But still, with only 3 Finalists for both groups, it was a significant drop compared to the previous year.
The Final Event was held on 7 December 2024 at City University of Hong Kong. In Senior Group, got a Silver Medal and received an Honourable Mention. In Junior Group, and won a Silver and Bronze Medal respectively. Totalling up to 5 points, we ranked seventh in Hong Kong this year, dropping one place from last year.
The results was unfortunate in both events. However, members’ hard work could be seen and improvements were significant for some of our members. It is hoped that members can reflect on this year’s competition experience and improve in the future.

The Joint School OI Competition 2024-25 was held on 28 September 2024 at Wah Yan College, Kowloon and Pui Ching Middle School. 6 representatives did their best to solve 4 tasks in 3 hours. achieved 4th Place, and 4 other members ranked in the Top 50. We are honoured to get invited and would like to express our appreciation to the organising committee for their excellent arrangements and efforts.

The 2024/25 Team Formation Test was held on 28 September 2024 for selection of HKOI representatives. 15 team members paid their best efforts to solve 6 problems in 3 hours.
This was not only was a valuable contest experience for participants, problem setters also learnt a lot from the contest-holding experience. This test marked the beginning of our fourth full school year. It is hoped that our members can strive for improvements and learn from activities and competitions this year.

Hong Kong Secondary Schools Software Development Invitational Contest (SDIC) 2024 Heat Event was held on 21 September 2024 at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 11 team members participated in the Senior Group, while 6 joined the Junior Group. The Junior Group students performed admirably in the competition. Although they did not advance to the Final Event, they gained valuable competition experience.
The Senior Group Heat Event was cancelled due to bad weather, resulting in all Senior Group students advancing to the Final Event held on 26 October 2024 at Wah Yan College, Kowloon and Pui Ching Middle School. 10 Senior Group representatives from our team attended. got a Gold Award, ranking 3rd in Hong Kong. and got Silver Awards. , and got Bronze Awards. This result shows a significant improvement from last year. It is hope that members can work hard and get even better results in the future.

The 8th La Salle – Pui Ching Programming Challenge was held on 26 August 2024 at La Salle College. 19 students forming 7 teams represented TWGSS in the competition. Our official team managed to solve 7 out of 12 problems in 4 hours, getting a Silver award. Two of our sub team managed to solve 4 problems and each received a Merit award. All of our Secondary 6 students concluded their secondary school OI journey perfectly with an award in this competition.

The Heat Event of Hong Kong Secondary School Coding Challenge 2024 was held on 6 July 2024 at TWGSS CAL, 8 out of the 14 participants advanced to the Final Event.
The Final Event was held on 13 July 2024 at City University of Hong Kong. ranked 14 in the contest, getting a Silver Medal. and both got Bronze Medals.
Our performance was improved slightly compared to the previous year. It was encouraging to see more members getting awards in external competitions.

Borrowing the idea from JSOI Lockout events, the Lockout contest format was introduced in the Post Examination Activities of school year 2023/24.
Each season of Lockout League would consist of a series of two-player matches for each division. In each match, both players code strategically solving Codeforces problems shown on a tic-tac-toe board faster than each other. The player who first connect a line on the board or solves more problems wins. Lockout League 0 was held on 5 July 2024. After four rounds of intense matches, , and won the champion of Div. 1, Div. 2 and Div. 3 respectively in this trial season.
Lockout Teams was held on 11 July 2024. Participants are divided into two teams, Team Red led by and Team Blue led by . The teams competed in four rounds of exciting team Lockout matches. Item Cards were added, making matches even more entertaining and unpredictable. Carrying out successful strategies and performing great in matches, Team Red won the competition.
The new format is well-received among members. It led to the plan that Lockout League can be held regularly, such that it can act as a constant motivation of coding for team members.

The 2023/24 Team Selection Test was held on 19 April 2024. Participants made use of their previous knowledge or programming skills learnt in the C++ Foundation Course held beforehand to solve 5 problems with different difficulties in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Participants meeting the standard are being chosen as new team members.

Cooperation Theory II was held on 26 February 2024. Our team members formed 7 teams to solve 12 interesting problems in 4 hours. The team with two Senior Leaders and managed to solve all problems and won the contest.
After the contest, the S6 Farewell activity was held in the form of a prize-giving ceremony. The five S6 students each received an award and shared their words to younger team members. They told members to treasure the freedom in the team and work hard improving their skills.

Our team has attained mixed results in the Hong Kong Olympiad in Informatics 2023/24.
In the Heat Event held on 11 November 2023, 9 of the 16 contestants were located above the cut-off and advanced to the Final Event. With a passing rate over 50%, it was a highly encouraging news to our team.
In the Final Event held on 16 December 2023, the results were worse than expected. With only a Bronze Medal and an Honourable Mention in the Senior Group, it is unfortunate that our team cannot keep up with the strong result in Senior last year. However, the Junior Group results were decent. A surprising Gold Medal, a Bronze Medal and an Honourable Mention was obtained.
With a total score of 7, our school dropped slightly to overall #6 in Hong Kong. Reflections were carried out for the whole team. By reviewing the issues in training and the lack of practicing, methods are being suggested for improvements. It is hoped that our team can continue its existence and get better in future competitions.

The 2023/24 Team Formation Test was held on 7 October 2023. Team members made use of their knowledge and programming skills to solve 5 problems with different difficulties in 3 hours. The abilities of team members are determined and would be used as reference for future selections.

Hong Kong Secondary Schools Software Development Invitational Contest 2023 was our school’s first appearance in SDIC. This was a great experience for members to try out new types of competitions. The Heat Event was held on 16 September 2023 at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 4 out of 6 participants managed to advance into the Final Event. In the Final Event held on 21 October 2023 at Wah Yan College, Kowloon, performed outstandingly and got a Gold Award in Senior Group.

The International Olympiad in Informatics 2023 was held from 28 August to 4 September 2023 at Szeged, Hungary. Although he had participated in IOI 2021, was still very excited as this time was finally on-site. Hsieh managed to get a First Solve on Day 1 Task 2, which is just incredible to achieve this on an international stage. In the end, Hsieh ranked 69, ending his secondary school OI journey by getting his eighth and final Silver Medal.

The 7th La Salle – Pui Ching Programming Challenge was held on 19 August 2023 at Pui Ching Middle School. 18 students forming 6 teams represented TWGSS in the competition. Through the outstanding performance of , our official team managed to solve 8 out of the 12 problems in 4 hours. This placed us on the top of the leaderboard and won the La Salle – Pui Ching Programming Challenge Cup, as well as the Gold award. One of our sub team managed to solve 5 problems and received Merit award. We would like to pay our respect to the organisers and those who contributed to the competition. It is also hoped that our team members can value this competition as an important experience, performing better in future contests.

The National Olympiad in Informatics 2023 was held on 22-28 July 2023 in Chengdu. This was the first external competition that contestants would travel outside Hong Kong since the formation of our team. managed to get another Silver Medal. As a two-time NOI participant, Hsieh also represented Hong Kong to make a speech in front of all contestants.

The Hong Kong Secondary School Coding Challenge 2023 was mainly led and participated by our Junior form students. The Heat Event was held on 8 July 2023 at TWGSS CAL, 6 out of the 12 participants advanced to the Final Event. The Final Event was held on 15 July 2023 at the City University of Hong Kong, got a Silver Medal. Our team members gained valuable experiences and some of our team members learnt the importance of honesty through the competition.

The 2022/23 Inter-house Coding Competition was held on 6 July 2023. 4 representatives from each house cooperated with their teammates, attempting to solve 8 problems in 4 hours.
As one of the last inter-house competitions of the school year, contestants tried their best to gain points for their houses. Plum House got the First Place with a score of 333.078, while Pine House getting Second Place with a 59 points difference. Camphor House got 166 points, getting Third Place by a difference of 12 points over Bamboo House.
It is hoped that by having this competition, coding events can be less obscure to schoolmates, promoting a culture of programming and logical thinking in the school.

The 2022/23 Team Selection Test was held on 24 and 28 April 2023. Participants made use of their previous knowledge or programming skills learnt in the C++ Foundation Course held beforehand in February and March to solve 5 problems with different difficulties in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Participants who performed well are being welcomed as new team members. Being the largest internal contest ever held till that time with 22 participants, we saw the bright future of the team. It is hoped that team members can work hard and practice more, reaching newer heights and leading the team to leap forward.

Our first internal team contest - Cooperation Theory I was held on 25 February 2023. Our team members formed 6 teams to solve 12 interesting problems in 4 hours. Through communicating and making use of their programming skills, the results were satisfactory. The contest brought the team together and improved friendships between members.
After the contest, the S6 Farewell activity was held. The three S6 students shared their own OI experiences, stories behind the team’s foundation and the development of the Judge. They encouraged team members to work hard and improve themselves by practicing more, as well as enjoying the fun in programming. They hoped OI activities can keep moving in the school by promotion and having team members of new generations.

HKOI 2022/23 Heat Event was held on 12 November 2022. 5 Senior Group and 3 Junior Group contestants have passed the Heat Event. Even we were facing some obstacles regarding the arrangements, the passing rate was 50%, which was unexpectedly good.
HKOI 2022/23 Final Event was held on 17 December 2022. 5 out of the 8 finalists got a medal. In the Senior group, two Gold Medals and a Silver Medal were gained. Meanwhile in Junior Group, we got two Bronze Medals. In conclusion, our school have a total of 14 points, ranked #5 in Hong Kong. Although we were not able to reach the goal of winning the Grand School Prize, it is hoped that our team members can continue to improve and get better results next year.

As the OI Team finally have more members than the quota for HKOI, a Team Formation Test was being held to form the team of 8 Senior Group and 8 Junior Group contestants. Although the TFT was almost forced to be cancelled due to multiple factors, we overcame the difficulties and it was held successfully. attained the highest score of 240 out of 400, while and , with scores of 227 and 203, got Second and Third Place respectively.

After the member recruitment in July, a 2-week course was being held to teach new members basic C++ syntax and some concepts of Computer Science. A Mini Contest was held to conclude the course for them to try out competitive programming. The course was successful, and it is expected that this routine for member recruitment would continue.

The National Olympiad in Informatics 2022 was held on 20-27 August 2022. managed to get a Silver Medal, barely located on top of the cut-off line. This was the first-ever NOI medal of TWGSS.

To maximise the expected prizes, 2 teams were formed. formed the official team with and , while a sub team was formed by , and . Hsieh’s team got a Silver Medal, continuing his “silver legacy”.

The Hong Kong Secondary School Coding Challenge 2022 was introduced to 12 of our members with 6 got into the Final Event. That was a small step for our members, but a giant leap for the team. ranked #2 overall, getting $5000, which is 1.5 times more than the previous year. In total, one Gold, one Silver, one Bronze and one Honourable Mention was obtained by our team.

As our first-ever internal contest, Operation Imaginary I was held on 15 April 2022. The contest consists of 5 problems having the same theme of “The Judge Team”. 8 contestants are given 4 hours to write programs solving the problems. A well-designed badge is being designed to reward participants with high ranks. Although the scale of the contest is quite limited due to its online nature, it was still a major milestone to the team, and it laid the foundation for future contests.

We collaborated with Computer Club to organise a C++ Coding Workshop for schoolmates.
There was a total of eight online lessons and a Mini Contest. The aim of the workshop was to familiarise our students with programming, and well-performed students are invited to join our team.

Motivated by other online judges, we decided to create our own to support modifications or implement new functionalities. The project is originally called “Operation Imaginary” as it was extremely time-consuming and difficult to make. Despite all the obstacles, from the first page of problem statement, till the finish of the judge, bits by bits, the Judge Team, consists of (backend), (frontend), (idea) and (server), slowly transformed a seemingly impossible task to a finished product with basic functionalities. The judge was eventually launched at 22:22:22 on 22/2/2022, facilitating different types and difficulties of coding problems in C++.

The 5th La Salle – Pui Ching Programming Challenge was the first-ever team contest we joined. A single team named “AC is So Exciting” was sent. Our team, for the first-time appearance, managed to solve 8 out of 12 problems, resulting in a Gold Medal with an overall rank of #2. Having to stay focused for 4 hours was definitely tiring, and if you were there, you would definitely hear the tic-tac sounds produced by the keyboard. But looking back at the medals, all the bitter-sweet sweat are meaningful.

, and joined the Hong Kong Secondary School Coding Challenge hosted by City University of Hong Kong, as the first ever external competition since the formation of the OI Team. The competition was fun but surely tiring. By ranking #4 overall, Hsieh got a prize of $2000 as a reward.

Hosted by Singapore, the International Olympiad in Informatics 2021 was held on 19-25 June 2021. Due to the global pandemic, the contest was unfortunately held virtually in City University of Hong Kong. managed to grab a Silver Medal with a combined score of 289 out of 600, barely located in front of the Silver-Bronze cut-off line. Despite its online nature, it was a wonderful and invaluable experience for Hsieh to meet other strong OI people, learn from them and expose oneself in the vast world of programming for an entire week. It also inspired the creation of TWGSS Online Judge, if anyone wonders.

In May 2021, with aid of the school and Coach , we, the TWGSS Olympiad in Informatics Team (OI Team), was officially initiated by a group of students interested in competitive programming. Our target is to provide a sharing and communication platform for students who are interested to learn more and enjoy coding, while sharing their knowledge and experience to other schoolmates. Meanwhile, students are also given the chance to join external competitions and get to face talents in other schools, bringing precious experiences and memories.