\chapter*{Preface}
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The purpose of this book is to give you
a thorough introduction to competitive programming.
The book assumes that you already
know the basics of programming, but previous
background on competitive programming is not needed.

The book is especially intended for
high school students who want to learn
algorithms and possibly participate in
the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).
The book is also suitable for university students
and anybody else interested in competitive programming.

It takes a long time to become a good competitive
programmer, but it is also an opportunity to learn a lot.
You can be sure that you will learn a great deal
about algorithms if you spend time reading the book
and solving exercises.

The book is under continuous development.
You can always send feedback about the book to
\texttt{ahslaaks@cs.helsinki.fi}.
