Competitive Programming Expert - Freelance AI Trainer

Mindrift; France; Remote; EUR 74,000 - 111,000; Full time

Job summary

Mindrift connects specialists with project-based AI opportunities for leading tech companies, focusing on testing, evaluating, and improving AI systems. Participation is project-based, not permanent employment.

You'll build competitive-programming problems, design test cases, and write solutions in C++ and Python. Expect a flexible schedule, remote collaboration, and compensation per accepted task up to $90/hr.

Qualifications

• Strong competitive programming background with public profile or IOI/ICPC medal/record.
• Fluent contest C++ (STL) and comfortable with Python.
• Ability to explain why a solution is wrong and build inputs that break it.
• Excellent written English (C1+).
• Experience creating or testing contest problems is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Write original algorithmic problems with clear statements and constraints.
• Write correct solutions in C++ and Python.
• Create realistic wrong solutions to test against.
• Build robust test cases with generators, edge cases, stress tests.
• Write checkers/interactors (testlib) for multi-answer problems.
• Ensure quality: correct solutions pass and wrong ones fail within time limits.

Skills

Competitive programming

C++ (STL)

Python

English writing

Problem setting

Tools

Testlib

Job description

Mindrift connects specialists with project-based AI opportunities for leading tech companies, focused on testing, evaluating, and improving AI systems. Participation is project-based, not permanent employment.

What this opportunity involves

We're building competitive-programming problems and their automatic graders (test cases + checkers) used to train advanced AI coding models. You'll create problems, write both correct and deliberately-wrong solutions, and design the tough test cases that catch subtly-broken code. Your work is what makes the training signal trustworthy.

What you'll do

• Write original algorithmic problems — clear statement, sound constraints, an intended solution;
• Write correct solutions in C++ and Python;
• Write realistic wrong solutions (common mistakes) to test against;
• Build and harden test cases: generators, edge cases, stress and "hacking" tests;
• Write checkers/interactors (testlib) for problems with more than one valid answer;
• Confirm the quality bar: correct solutions pass, wrong ones fail, within time limits.

What we look for

• Strong competitive programming background, shown by a public profile — a Codeforces rating (see levels below), OR an IOI / ICPC / national-olympiad record;
• Fluent contest C++ (STL, complexity); comfortable writing Python;
• Can explain why a solution is wrong and build an input that breaks it;
• Strong written English (C1+).

Levels (by Codeforces rating, or equivalent olympiad achievement)

• Associate — 1700–2100 (Expert / Candidate Master): easier problems;
• Expert — 2200–2600 (Master / Grandmaster): harder problems;
• Senior / Reviewer — 2600+ (Int'l Grandmaster) or IOI/ICPC medalist: hardest problems + quality review.

Nice to have

• IOI / ICPC alumni and top competitive programmers especially encouraged to apply;
• Experience setting or testing problems for real contests (Codeforces rounds, ICPC, national olympiads, online judges);
• Testlib experience (checkers, validators, generators);
• Experience creating data for LLM code benchmarks or similar RL / evaluation datasets.

Project time expectations

For this project, tasks are estimated to require around 10-20 hours per week during active phases, based on project requirements. This is an estimate, not a guaranteed workload, and applies only while the project is active. Tasks must be submitted by the deadline and meet the listed acceptance criteria to be accepted.

Compensation

Paid per accepted task. Your rate depends on the qualification tier you reach and how efficiently you complete tasks — up to the equivalent of $90/hr.