On the Evolution of Cod[ing]

Cod, or Gadus morhua, is a cold-water fish found on both sides of the Atlantic. With soft, flakey, white flesh, the Codfish is fished commercially and commonly served with chips. However, all this comes at a cost. It is particularly hard to catch cod, because of their substantial size and strength. Much practice is needed from the fisherman, as well as much effort.

The Delbarton Coding Club dedicates itself to learning about computer science. Run by William Du and moderated by Mr. Diaz, the club mainly focuses on Java and Python, though members can use any language with which they have familiarity. Students may also code in integrated environments: Replit, VSCode, or IntelliJ. The club is composed of two branches: “exploratory” and “competitive” and each meets on alternating weeks. Members can attend either one in accordance with their skill level or preference. 

The exploratory group, which started this year, requires no prior experience and focuses on learning about application. Scratch or GitHub are used to create projects such as websites or animations, though students mostly use Java and Python to accomplish these projects. The program also hosts events called “Hackathons,” which focuses on collaborating and developing software. 

The competitive group, on the other hand, focuses on tournaments such as the United States of America Computing Olympiad (USACO). USACO is an individual, national coding competition that requires competitors to solve logic and computational problems. With five levels of difficulty, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, the USACO gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability. Each USACO competition consists of three problems with a total point value of 1,000, and those who score well will be able to advance on to the next level. The problems test both analytical thinking and calculations and software and application. Therefore, members in the competitive group learn more advanced algorithms such as prefix sum arrays, topographical sorting, and recursion. The ultimate goal is the International Olympiad in Informatics, IOI, where four of the top coders in the country compete in a global programming tournament. The competitive group started on Monday, September 20, with meetings every other week. 

If you want to join the Coding Club, contact William Du at [email protected], Mr. Diaz at [email protected], or join the Schoology group.