World’s top coder, IIT-D student: No plans for the USD 10,000 prize yet

Delhi boy Kalash Gupta, a student of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, won the world’s largest coding contest TCS CodeVita by defeating over 100,000 students from 87 countries.

When Delhi boy Kalash Gupta, a student of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, recently bagged the coveted title of World’s Greatest Coder, everyone applauded the young lad on social media, for his achievement. But even after winning a grand cash prize of USD 10,000 — at the global computer programming competition, CodeVita that had one lakh participants from 87 countries this year — Gupta chooses to stay humble, and keep solving harder problems.

Kalash Gupta, a student of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, recently bagged the coveted title of World’s Greatest Coder. (Photo: Twitter)

“It feels great to be able to compete with strong, competitive programmers and perform well. It was an enjoyable learning experience,” says the 22-year-old, about his experience at the competition, and adds: “I have no immediate plans for the prize amount. I will likely save it for any goals I might have in the future.”

The 22-year-old plans to save the grand cash prize of USD 10,000 for goals that he might have in the future.

His first tryst with the world of competitive coding dates back to the time when he was in grade XI. “I was introduced to competitive programming in class 11, and immediately liked it. I have enjoyed pursuing it as a hobby, and it was this that acted as a motivating factor for me to pursue a bachelor’s in computer science and engineering.... Today, I would encourage everyone to try out competitive programming and stick with it if they enjoy it. It is also important to keep increasing the difficulty of tasks that you practise to improve one’s problem solving skills and become a stronger competitive programmer,” he says.

Gupta feels strongly in the power of technology. “I believe technology will continue to be deeply intertwined with our lives. Continued advancements will likely enable us to solve tougher problems and improve the quality of our lives,” he says, adding how he has a relatively low screen time and is still trying to reduce it.

One would think that he would have now reached a step closer to his dream, after winning an international competition, but Gupta, on the contrary, says, “I have always treated competitive programming as a hobby and not just as a stepping stone for advancing in my career. Two-three years down the line, I might pursue a master’s degree. And I would like to work on challenging problems.”

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