Has anyone done anything like this before? If so could you share some of your experiences with us?

At first glance I figured the problems would be something similar to Project Euler (projecteuler.net) which I have spent some time with. After reading up it seems to be more in line with topcoder competitions (http://www.topcoder.com/tc). Nonetheless I am glad this was brought to my attention and I will be brushing up on my skills to try it!

You may also find Sphere Online Judge: http://www.spoj.pl and http://acm.uva.es/archive/nuevoportal/ useful. Both contain problems from a multitude of sources, namely ACM-ICPC. I've never participated in the Google Code Jam, but presumably, these problems should serve you well.

I had a look at some of the previous questions and I must admit that this is way out of my league. I'll have to learn _a lot_ more about algorithms or enroll in university.

Quebec is not in the list of provinces for Canada :( Does this mean I can't participate?

I read the terms of the contest and noticed that myself:

  The Contest is void in Quebec and where prohibited by law.

(http://code.google.com/codejam/contest/static/terms.html Section 2 - Eligibility)

Why? Anyone familiar with the law?

They want legal registration, 10% of the prize, and written reports after the contest is over. Too much hassle.

http://contests.about.com/od/sweepstakes101/f/VoidinQuebec.h...

Can someone actually explain this for me? I just.. don't think I get it. What do you, well.. do?