Korotkevich was born in Gomel (Homiel), southeastern Belarus. His parents, Vladimir and Lyudmila Korotkevich, are programmers in the mathematics department at Francysk Skaryna Homiel State University. At age 6, he became interested in his parents' work. When he was 8, his father designed a children's game he could use to learn programming.[8]
His mother consulted departmental colleague Mikhail Dolinsky, who gave Korotkevich a small book to read. Dolinsky, one of the top computer science teachers in Belarus, recalled, "A month went by, and then another one... No news from Gena. Then suddenly Lyudmila comes by and brings me a programming notebook: when summer and football were over, her son sat at the computer. As a second-grader at a national competition, he took second place, which gained him an automatic entry into a technical university without taking any entrance exams. Somehow he solved the problem of a body immersed in water. At that time, Gena didn't even know about Archimedes' principle of buoyancy."[8]
Korotkevich first gained global attention when he qualified for the 2006 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) at the age of 11, a world record by a large margin.[9]
He took the silver medal at his first IOI event and received gold medals from 2007 to 2012.[1] To date, he is the most successful competitor in IOI's history.[10]
At the 2009 IOI in Plovdiv, the then 14-year-old Korotkevich said of his success, "I try various [strategies], and one of them is the right one. I am no genius. I am simply good at it." He said he spent no more than three to four hours each day at the computer, and his preferred hobbies are football and table tennis.[11]
In the fall of 2012, he moved to Russia to attend ITMO University. In the summer of 2013, he helped ITMO defeat Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Tokyo to win the 37th International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals, held in St. Petersburg.[12] He also won the annual Google Code Jam from 2014 to 2020.
In a 2014 interview, Korotkevich said he was unsure of his career plans after graduation, saying he'd focus on his education and possibly go into science.[9]
In a 2017 interview, Korotkevich said he had received job offers from Google and Yandex, but that he had turned them down and would instead continue with his degree in computer science at ITMO.[13]
In 2019, Korotkevich was a PhD student at ITMO.[14]
Career achievementsedit
A more comprehensive list of achievements can be found at the Competitive Programming Hall Of Fame website.[15]
International Olympiad in Informatics: He won absolute first place in 2009, 2010,[55] 2011; a gold medal in 2007 (20th place), 2008 (7th place)[56] and 2012 (2nd place);[57][1] a silver medal in 2006 (26th place).[58] Currently he holds the record for quantity of gold medals (six) and absolute first places (three).
All-Russian Team Olympiad in Informatics: 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 winner and 2008 runner-up[59]
^ abVioletta Dralyuk (1 September 2011). Геннадий Короткевич – белорусский гений спортивного программирования [Gennady Korotkevich: Belarusian sport programming genius] (in Russian). Tut.By. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
^ abYelena Safronova (24 August 2014). Самый юный и известный программист Беларуси Геннадий Короткевич рассказал о своих победах, планах и мечтах [Youngest, most famous programmer in Belarus Gennady Korotkevich talks about his victories, plans and dreams] (in Russian). BELTA. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
^"I am no genius, I am simply good at it" (PDF). International Olympiad in Informatics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
^"Геннадий Короткевич: "Меня не раз звали в Google, но работа мне пока не нужна" - Rusbase". rb.ru.
^"Лауреат премии "ТОП 50. Самые знаменитые люди Петербурга" Геннадий Короткевич: Поражение тоже стимулирует победы". news.itmo.ru (in Russian). 6 June 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
^"Profile of Gennady Korotkevich - Competitive Programming Hall Of Fame". cphof.org. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
^Роман Савкив (1 August 2014). "Белорусский вундеркинд Короткевич второй год кряду стал сильнейшим программистом на "Яндекс.Алгоритм"" (in Russian). TUT.BY. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
^"Scoreboard | Facebook Hacker Cup - 2014 - Final Round". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
^"Gennady Korotkevich, third-year student, is twice Facebook Hacker Cup champion". ITMO University. 8 March 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
^"Scoreboard | Facebook Hacker Cup - 2015 - Final Round". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
^"Scoreboard | Facebook Hacker Cup - 2019 - Final Round". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
^"Scoreboard | Facebook Hacker Cup - 2020 - Final Round". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
^"Scoreboard | Facebook Hacker Cup - 2023 - Final Round". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
^"2018 Topcoder Open". 2018 Topcoder Open. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
^"Algorithm Final Results". topcoder.com. Archived from the original on 27 May 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
^Topcoder Open 2020 http://tco20.topcoder.com/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^Topcoder Open 2021 http://tco21.topcoder.com/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^Виктор Корсун (15 April 2015). "ZeptoLab Code Rush 2015: итоги чемпионата по спортивному программированию" (in Russian). App2Top.ru. Retrieved 7 June 2015.