[orangecat]

We're far more proficient than they are

I wouldn't be sure of that. Check out the country distribution of Google's Code Jam participants: http://www.go-hero.net/jam/11/regions

[BasDirks]

And more importantly, the distribution in subsequent rounds. Especially the Polish and Russians are beast, but China is up there too.

(Ex-)communist countries are on top. I don't mean to imply anything with that, because I have no clue, just sayin'.

[bgurupra]

Interestingly India has so many people in qualifiers but none in the finals, now I don't know what that says about India!

[ajross]

Seems to me like it correlates with economy more than anything else. The best American (and to a lesser extent western european) programmers are making six figure salaries working on world class products and/or getting funding for their own startups. The best Russian and Chinese programmers are doing ... Google Code Jam.

[rpearl]

Because the ability to code algorithms quickly is the same as the ability to break into systems.

[sukuriant]

The same type of mind is likely to be good at both, yes. [I would expect]