Coding 10 hours a day propels Vietnamese teen to top national exam for gifted students

Giang Trung Minh Duc is now the national top scorer in Informatics, after years of coding up to 10 hours a day.

On the afternoon of Jan. 19, 12th-grade Duc and his classmates sat anxiously in the computer lab at Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, refreshing the screen as they waited for the results of Vietnam's national excellent-student exam. When the list finally appeared, they rushed to the nearest computer.

Candidate No. 04 had won first prize with 32.557 out of 40 points. Duc jumped up in disbelief.

"This was completely unexpected," he said. "I froze for a moment. Then it hit me, and I just shouted, ‘I’m the top scorer!’"

This was Duc’s third time taking the exam. After winning first prize last year, he had hoped to advance to Round 2, the selection stage for Vietnam’s team at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). Becoming the national top scorer had not been part of the plan.

His path to Informatics began in Grade 8, initially out of curiosity and a love for video games. Friends invited him to try coding competitions, and at first, he assumed Informatics was limited to office software or web design.

That perception changed when he began studying under Nguyen Thanh Tung, his homeroom teacher and the school’s Informatics team coach. Exposure to competitive programming, algorithmic thinking, and stories of former students’ achievements convinced Duc to pursue the subject seriously.

What drew him in, Duc said, were the problems themselves.

"They’re difficult, but interesting," he said. "Even when I spend a long time thinking or experimenting, it doesn’t feel stressful."

Early setbacks, however, tested that enthusiasm. Duc initially failed to make his school’s city-level competition team. He kept going, passed the entrance exam to Hanoi-Amsterdam’s Informatics track in 2023, and was selected for the national team as early as Grade 10.

As the youngest member, he struggled to keep up. In his first national exam, nerves got the better of him. He mistyped repeatedly, deleted lines of code, and ultimately finished without a prize.

"That was when I really doubted myself," Duc said.

In Grade 11, he responded by doubling down. He focused on eliminating small mistakes, coding faster and more accurately, and building endurance. On many days, he spent 8-10 hours studying and practicing, often continuing late into the evening at home. Some problems took him two to three days to fully solve.

The persistence paid off. Last year, Duc bounced back to win first prize.

By this year's exam, he felt more composed. Confident in his coding speed, he devoted more energy to deeper reasoning and algorithm design.

His favorite problem involved an algorithm for wrapping gifts for Santa Claus. Time pressure forced a strategic decision: finish other problems first, then return later. The approach worked.

The most challenging task was a geometry problem involving circles, a topic he had not prepared for.

"When I read it, I was shocked. It felt completely unfamiliar," Duc said.

That discomfort made him cautious. He secured points on other problems first, then returned to the geometry question near the end, completing part of it using a conservative approach.

Duc said his strategy was simple: avoid unnecessary risk.

"In coding, one small mistake can cost everything," he said. "I'd rather check carefully than try something beyond my limits."

The final score matched his expectations.

Teacher Nguyen Thanh Tung said Duc stands out not only for his sharp thinking, but for his intensity and passion.

"There are days when he spends almost all his time coding," Tung said. "When he meets a hard problem, he doesn't give up. He keeps thinking about it for days."

Duc is now completing applications to overseas universities, aiming to study computer science or optimization. His immediate focus, however, is Round 2 of the national selection process for international competition.

"I’m very happy," he said. "But it's also a lot of pressure. Every exam is different, and I still have to give it everything I've got."