Penultimate level
Sucre
2,750m
- White-walled, walkable, forgiving.
- O2 dips, but your brain still passes pretest.
- Where you train your lungs for what comes next.
Difficulty · ★★☆☆☆
Field Manual / IOI 2025 · Sucre & La Paz, Bolivia
You have ascended
into thin air.
Your rating means nothing to the atmosphere. At altitude the partial pressure of oxygen drops, your hemoglobin files a complaint, and your O(1) brain starts running like O(n²). This is the guide that gets you down the mountain with the medal still on.
OperatorSantiago de la Torre Zamudio
IOI 2025Bronze Medal
IOI 2024Honorable Mention
OMIGold ×2
Codeforcesefishel · CM 2149
Day jobMTS at Interaction Co.
01
Elevation readout
altimeter --watch
$ altimeter --location sucre [OK] STATUS ........ SURVIVABLE ELEVATION ..... 2,750 m (9,022 ft) O2 SATURATION . ~91% resting VERDICT ....... a headache with a checkmark $ altimeter --location la-paz [CRIT] STATUS ........ FINAL BOSS ELEVATION ..... 3,640 m (11,942 ft) O2 SATURATION . ~85% resting VERDICT ....... the air is a suggestion, not a guarantee $ altimeter --delta sucre la-paz Δ ELEVATION ... +890 m of pure regret $
02
Symptom log
Tail the diagnostics. If three or more of these are firing during a contest, you are no longer debugging your code - you are debugging your body.
[ERROR]Throbbing headache. The classic. Feels like a segfault behind your left eye.
[WARN]Shortness of breath. Walking up one flight of stairs is now an open problem.
[WARN]Resting heart rate spiking. Your CPU fan is at 100% and you are sitting still.
[ERROR]Nausea and dizziness. The room is doing a slow rotation you did not request.
[INFO]Insomnia at 3,640 m. Your brain refuses to sleep but cannot stay awake either.
[FATAL]If breathing at rest feels broken, this is not a fun bug. Descend. Get help. The contest will wait.
03
Survival tactics
Hydrate relentlessly
Thin air is dry air. Drink water before you are thirsty - dehydration and altitude sickness wear the same costume.
Rest like it is a subtask
Acclimatize for a day or two before you push hard. No sprinting, no all-nighters. Your body is recompiling for the environment.
Drink the coca tea
Mate de coca is the local standard library for altitude. Warm, mildly bitter, and quietly effective. Accept the cup.
Eat light, climb slow
Heavy meals steal oxygen for digestion. Small carbs, slow movements. Treat your stamina like a tight memory limit.
04
Know your level
Final boss
La Paz
3,640m
- Highest seat of government on Earth. It earned that.
- The airport will introduce you to your own pulse.
- Beat it and the medal feels heavier - in a good way.
Difficulty · ★★★★★
05
Certificate of survival
Official record · International Olympiad in Informatics 2025
This certifies that
Santiago de la Torre Zamudio
did knowingly and voluntarily ascend to 2,750 m above sea level in Sucre, Bolivia, survive the thin air with full cognitive function intact, and return with a Bronze Medal at IOI 2025.
2,750 mAltitude survived
BronzeIOI 2025
2149Codeforces · efishel
Issued at altitudeBolivia · IOI 2025 · Survival confirmed