Algorithm-driven team building
Programming Snapshot – Go Algorithms
© Lead Image © bowie15, 123RF.com
Instead of the coach determining the team lineup, an algorithm selects the players based on their strengths for Mike Schilli's amateur soccer team.
At the weekly pickup soccer game in my adopted hometown of San Francisco, with 16 players signed up for an eight-on-eight match, there is always the question of who is going to compete against whom on match day. Preparing the team sheet is usually something taken care of by experienced players, but it is time-consuming and it leads to endless discussions about whether the eight players on one side are simply too skilled for the other eight players, leading to a lopsided game that is no fun to play. To resolve this, I've developed an algorithm to generate the team lineup. This allows me to take an interesting excursion into the world of combinatorics and explore the development of suitable algorithms in this month's column.
How many ways are there to assign 16 players to two teams of eight players each? If one team is fixed, the opponent's team is automatically derived from the remaining participants; this means that the result is written in combinatorics style as "8 over 16," which you compute as
(16*15*...*10*9) / (8*7*...*2*1)
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Digital Autonomy
• The Answer Was Already on the Shelf
• Changing the Chip Industry: How Public Investment Has Grown Open Silicon
• United Nations Open Source Portal Goes Live
• EU Open Source Strategy Plays Key Role in Tech Sovereignty Package
• France Says “Au Revoir” to Microsoft
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
The Linux Kernel Dev Staging Area Now Rejects AI-Generated Patches
Unless a kernel patch is a valid security fix, it will be rejected if it was created using AI.
-
Linux Surpasses Double-Digit Market Share
According to two sources, the Linux operating system has hit a major milestone in market share that naysayers thought would never happen.
-
AI Helped Develop a Linux Exploit
A use-after-free race exploit was discovered and exploited on CentOS Stream 9.
-
Yet Another Linux Kernel Vulnerability Discovered
Affecting millions of systems, a kernel flaw discovered by Qualys could allow users to gain root privileges.
-
Ubuntu 26.10 to Include Ubuntu Certified Hardware Check
If you've ever wondered if your laptop or PC is officially certified to run Ubuntu, that curiosity will soon be met.
-
Substantial Update to IPFire Now Available
The lastest version of IPFire features a fundamental change to how the system handles DNS.
-
Gnome Working on Test Center App to Make Testing Easier
It's now possible to test experimental features on the Gnome desktop without worrying that you'll break things.
-
New Vulnerability Discovered in Linux Kernel
Hiding out for nearly 15 years, the Ghostlock vulnerability allows a standard logged-in user to gain root privileges.
-
New Linux Flaw Lets Attackers Escape VMs
A 16-year-old vulnerability allows an attacker to escape a virtual machine, gain access to the host, and execute malicious code.
-
Hannah Montana Linux Is Back!
Developer Noah Cagle decided the world needed the once obscure but beloved Linux distribution and gave it a decidedly pink refresh.