Programmers Day has been celebrated in Russia since 2009. It is set on the 256th day of the year and usually falls on September 13 (in a leap year – on September 12). The number 256 is symbolic for programmers – it is the number of integers that can be expressed using one eight-bit byte, and it is also the maximum power of the number 2, which is less than the number of days in a year (365).

At Saratov State University, Programmers Day is considered a professional holiday by the staff of the Office of Digital and Information Technologies, SSU, the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies and the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, the Institute of Physics and the Programmers Olympiad Training Centre named after N.L. Andreyeva, which this year also celebrates 20 years since its foundation.

The students of the centre have repeatedly won championships and tournaments in programming of various levels, glorifying Saratov internationally. Read about the achievements of the graduates of the centre, the history of its foundation, and the people who were involved in these events, about how the current centre news in the new material of the Research City section entitled POTC – 20 years: Programming Success.

In addition, for Programmers Day, we have prepared an interview with Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies Sergei Mironov – Programming Code. He answered many questions: which IT areas are particularly in demand today, whether young people have become more interested in IT, the people who have made the faculty famous, what are the obvious features of a programmer, etc. Read the full text of the interview here.