Ten years after its first participation, the University has once again positioned itself as a benchmark in Latin America.

La Universidad Nacional de Rosario was once again present at the World Programming Championship, a competition that brings together the best university teams in the world. Following its outstanding performance at the 2025 Programmers' Cup of America (PDA), the team earned an Honor Award, finishing third in Latin America.

This year, the top competition was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from August 31 to September 5. Also representing Argentina were the National University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and the National University of La Plata (UNLP).

Over the past decade, UNR has built a solid track record on the ICPC (International Collegiate Programming Contest) circuit, consistently standing out since 2015. In 2016, it reached a milestone by becoming Latin American champion, and has maintained a level of excellence in each new edition since then. Including this current participation, it has qualified eight times in total: consecutively from 8 to 2015, and in the last two years, traveling to the 2019 World Championships in Egypt and 2 in Kazakhstan. 

The Rosario team, made up of Julián Cabrera, Matías Raimundez, and Francesco Mozzatti, was named "Red-Black Tree." The three members share a common background at the Instituto Politécnico Superior, where they began their careers in mathematics and computing. This background led them to choose a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, where they continue to improve their skills.

They were supported by high-level coaches: Franco De Rico, Sebastián Mestre, and Mariano Crosetti, all former World Cup players who shared their experience to strengthen the participants' training. 

De Rico and Mestre participated in the last two editions of the World Cup, while Crosetti was part of the historic team that won Latin American championships in 2016. He has also competed in two World Cups and has led several UNR teams on their path to the international elite.

To achieve this World Cup qualification, the team managed to reach the world stage after passing three events: the Argentine Tournament last August, the South American Regional in November, and the Copa Programadores de América in March, held in Brazil, achieving first place in Argentina and seventh in Latin America.

“The kids really gave it their all. They started off a little slowly, but they stayed focused and climbed the ladder as the race progressed,” explained De Rico. 

The test featured 12 problems of varying difficulty that the teams were unfamiliar with beforehand. "For each one, you have to write a program to solve it and execute it very quickly. You have 5 hours to try to solve them all, although the problem creators try to ensure that no team can solve them all: the champion completed 11, while the 4th-place team had 9," the coach explained. 

“It was a wonderful experience. We had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world with a passion for programming, analytical thinking, and problem-solving,” Cabrera commented, minutes before the tournament ended.

During the competition, all teams can view a live leaderboard showing the problems each team solved. However, when the final hour approaches, the leaderboard freezes for both participants and spectators. “The team realized they had to aim for two problems in this final hour (something that is very difficult) if they wanted to be Latin American champions. They pursued that goal even at the risk of coming up with two different ones and failing to get one right. With five minutes left, they achieved a correct verdict on one of the problems, but the other wasn't executed quickly enough,” De Rico said.

“The competition is challenging, as the exercises require creative solutions that must be implemented without programming errors. Additionally, since each team can only use one computer, it is essential to have good coordination regarding who will use it at any given time and what problem they will try to solve. For this reason, team decision-making becomes essential, especially near the end of the competition,” Cabrera emphasized.

Thus, the UNR team finished with six problems, tying with the University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), the Latin American champion, and the UBA. "The Minas Gerais team took first place for being faster in solving the problems. In any case, it's a great result that improves on last year's performance. In November and March, the team has two more Latin American competitions to compete in to qualify for the 6 World Cup," explained De Rico.

Driving growth in programming skills

"The growth of our students in these types of competitions is a testament to the quality of public education and the sustained effort of those who prepare year after year," said Mariano Crosetti, emphasizing the importance of competitive programming training.

With this objective, in 2022 the Universidad Nacional de Rosario launched a training program aimed at strengthening its students' preparation for these types of challenges. The initiative seeks to consolidate knowledge, foster teamwork, and promote the exchange of experiences in a strategic area for technological development.

This commitment deepened in 2024, when UNR organized the Argentine training camp at the Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering, and Surveying. Three hundred students from different universities across the country participated, consolidating Rosario as a benchmark for programming skills training.

Journalist: Gonzalo J. García.