The N-Squared 2008 LOLCODE Challenge

To see the 2009 challenge, please visit the 2009_piet_challenge page.

N-Squared is pleased to announce the results of our 2008 LOLCODE Challenge. Congratulations go to Dale Halliwell, Brendon Collecutt and Carlos Crasborn for their outstanding square root LOLCODE programs. With quality routines like these, we're sure there is a fine future in LOLCODE programming.

The top three entries were:

We found the quality of these three entries excellent, The test cases were great, the LOLCODE style adherence was great to see and best of all each worked!

To all those that entered we hope you had fun, and look forward to providing you with another exciting challenge next year in 2009.

As part of our interest in supporting local IT talent, N-Squared Software has decided to run a programming challenge for 2008 Massey University students. This challenge is designed to be completed individually, in your own time. It is not a timed or group challenge.

We have designed this challenge to take about an evening to complete. For those who take this challenge on, we hope you find it a worthwhile escape – a brief interlude from worldly pressures.

Prizes will be cold, hard, cash in the following amounts:

All prizes are in New Zealand dollars.

The Babylonian method of calculating the square root of a number is a simple approach which through iteration converges on the square root of a number. An initial seed value is used as a guess.

LOLCODE is a humorous programming language that arose from the LOLCats internet meme.

Your challenge is to write, in the LOLCODE language, a program that when given a single number calculates the square root of that number. For the purposes of this challenge, please use this python-based LOLCODE interpreter.

To test functionality, we will execute your program from the command line. An example of executing such a program, we might run the following command:

$ python lolpython.py sqrt.lol 43
6.5574385243

Please send your submission to:

The following must be provided in your submission:

• The LOLCODE source code for your program.
• Associated documentation, test cases and notes.
• Your name and contact details.

Please note:

• Only full time 2008 Massey university students are eligible for prizes.
• The submission deadline is 5pm NZDT, Monday the 1st of December 2008.
• All winning contestants will be notified by the 9th of December 2008. The competition results will be posted on this website by this date.
• All prizes must be collected in person in Palmerston North.

Marking will be based on the following:

• [6] Completeness and Robustness:
  • Accuracy of result.
  • Handling of special cases.
  • Robustness against unusual input data.
• [4] Ease of use:
  • Installation.
  • Running.
  • Cleanliness of output.
  • Usefulness of error and warning messages.
  • Documentation of program use and parameters (your choice of document format).
• [4] Good development:
  • Quality and usefulness of comments.
  • Well chosen variable names.
  • Structure of program.
  • Overall “literacy” of application.
• [4] Quality of Testing:
  • List of unit tests and test results.
  • Documentation of unit tests.
• [2] Use of LOLCODE style.

Marks will be awarded out of 20.

Note that for the purposes of these rules, “we” and “us” refers to N-Squared Software and agents acting on their behalf. “you” and “your” refers to the person who submits an entry for this challenge.

• Only full time 2008 Massey University students are eligible for prizes. You must hold a current Massey University ID card.
• The judges decision will be final and no correspondence over the final decision will be entered into.
• Employees of N-Squared software and their immediate families are not allowed to enter.
• You may enter the challenge only once, though you may submit a program as many times as you like. We will consider your last submission only.
• We reserve the right to exclude any person from participating in the challenge on reasonable grounds.
• We reserve the right to refuse to award any prize to an entrant who we decide (at our sole discretion) has violated the Rules, gained unfair advantage in participating in the promotion or won using fraudulent means.
• By submitting a program for this challenge, you grant N-Squared Software a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, publish and distribute your program and associate your name with your program.
  • If you would like your entry to be published anonymously, please notify us when submitting your entry.
• We reserve the right to extend or discontinue a Promotion at any stage, for any reason.
• All prizes must be collected in person in Palmerston North.
• Entry into the challenge is deemed to be acceptance of these rules.

The challenge organisers are:

• Jonathan Couper-Smartt. General Manager, N-Squared Software.
  • Phone: 06 358 1140
  • Email:

• Jamie Love. Technical Director, N-Squared Software.
  • Phone: 06 358 1140
  • Email:

Details on the Babylonian method for calculating the square root of a number can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_computing_square_roots

Basic details on the LOLCODE language can be found at: http://lolcode.com/. Please note that the LOLCODE interpreter we are providing for this challenge extends the basic language somewhat.

The provided Python based LOLCODE interpreter is based off Andrew Dalke's interpreter available at http://www.dalkescientific.com/writings/diary/archive/2007/06/01/lolpython.html with a minor addition to the syntax to help with this challenge.