IT students showed off their programming skills at an international competition in Stockholm. A team from St. Petersburg defended their championship title, scoring first among the world's 100 strongest teams.

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest is held annually, and dates back to the 1970s. For the last 10 years, the event has been a large-scale competition involving thousands of universities.

The teams are given a dozen computer programming problems, such as connecting a number of shafts rotating in different directions with a belt, so that it does not cross itself, or stop the machine. The students are given several hours to find a solution to as many tasks as possible.

This year’s finals were dominated by Russian teams. Out of four gold medallists, three were from Russia. A team from St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics, and Optics defended their title, closely followed by Chinese competitors from Tsinghua University. Third and forth places were won by St. Petersburg State University and Saratov State University.

The award ceremony took place in Stockholm Town Hall's Concert Hall, where Nobel Prizes are awarded.