Hello, Codeforces!

I’m excited to introduce to you Neowise Labs. We’re going to host an upcoming Neowise Labs Contest 1 (Codeforces Round 1018, Div. 1 + Div. 2) and have prepared presents for you. Neowise Labs was founded by Max (dark_ai), Igor (Igor_Kudryashov) and me, and here is our story.

Igor_Kudryashov and I have been in the same ACM ICPC team for many years while studying at the Saratov State University. dark_ai was in the Saint Petersburg State University team so we were competitors back then :) Those years in the university we were doing the same as all other competitive programmers: solve problems, make contests, practice, practice and practice again (and sometimes study). I’ve even enjoyed being a Codeforces platform developer in my final year of study.

ICPC World Finals 2013, left to right, Mike, Max (a different Max though :), not dark_ai), Igor and I

After graduation our paths went different directions. I gave another try at ICPC World Finals 2016 while also preparing Educational Rounds on Codeforces. Igor moved away and joined a startup called Looksery which later became part of Snapchat. Max first joined a startup Zenefits in Canada, then moved to London working at Facebook.

Our paths crossed again in Zurich in 2018 when we all joined Google and have been working on separate floors of the same building (Search and Assistant teams). We hung out together very often. At some point we got the thought that it would be cool if the work were like an ICPC contest: a team of 3 solving challenging real world problems. At some point, we took the leap and left our jobs into the wild.

As all of us were very competitive and loved solving problems under very tight time restrictions, the natural choice fell on HFT (Max and I also had some experience in the area). So we founded the company and worked hard to make it sustainable. I’m not telling all the ups and downs along the way but we had a lot of fun and learned many new skills.

Our team has been slowly growing and has now become a small trading firm. We’re open to welcoming new members to our team, whether for full-time roles or internships. We uphold high standards for work in an environment that’s respectful, inclusive, and driven by creativity, responsibility and passion. At the moment, we mostly consider remote positions.

We offer diverse opportunities that may interest you, including but not limited to:

1. The research of trading strategies, which is like an endless marathon contest where you challenge other smart people worldwide.
2. Development of trading platforms, requiring you to build systems within the tightest latency constraints.

If you’re interested, apply here:

Enjoy the contest, good luck and have fun!

P.S.: I’m taking part in Helvetic Coding Contest 2025 in Lausanne tomorrow, if you’re there feel free to say hi.