Mike Mirzayanov: Codeforces Founder and CEO | Generated by AI
Question: Provide an introduction to Mike Mirzayanov, the founder of Codeforces.
Answer:
Mike Mirzayanov (full name: Mikhail Mirzayanov, Russian: Михаил Мирзаянов) is a prominent figure in the competitive programming community. He is best known as the founder, lead developer, and CEO of Codeforces, the world’s largest and most popular platform for competitive programming contests.
Background and Education
- He graduated from Saratov State University (Russia) with a specialist degree in Computer Science (approximately 1999–2004).
- He has a long history in competitive programming, including participation in contests like TopCoder and IOI (as a delegation member or related involvement).
Career in Competitive Programming
- Before Codeforces, he worked at Saratov State University, where he directed the Programming Training Center, coached ACM ICPC teams, lectured on algorithms and discrete mathematics, and organized programming Olympiads.
- He later became associated with ITMO University (Saint Petersburg), where Codeforces has been maintained by a group of competitive programmers led by him.
Creation of Codeforces
- Codeforces was launched in 2010 (first round held on February 19, 2010) by a group from Saratov State University led by Mike Mirzayanov.
- He developed the platform almost single-handedly in its early days, often programming intensively for long hours.
- He also created Polygon, a powerful contest preparation system used for creating and managing programming problems — now widely used beyond Codeforces (including for ICPC, national championships, and educational purposes).
- Codeforces quickly grew to become the leading competitive programming platform, surpassing TopCoder in active participants around 2013 and continuing to dominate the field.
Current Role and Impact
- As of 2026, he remains actively involved: he writes annual reports, communicates directly with the community through blogs, AMAs, and announcements on Codeforces (under handle MikeMirzayanov), and oversees platform development.
- Codeforces now hosts thousands of contests, has millions of registered users, and serves as a primary training ground for top programmers worldwide (many Google, Meta, etc. engineers credit it for their skills).
- He is widely respected for building and sustaining one of the most important educational tools in computer science and competitive programming.
In short, Mike Mirzayanov turned his passion for algorithms and contests into a global platform that has trained and connected generations of programmers.
References:
- Codeforces Wikipedia page
- ITMO News interview with Mike Mirzayanov
- Codeforces profile of MikeMirzayanov
- LinkedIn post by Mike Mirzayanov