[seanwitte]

The problems are clearly defined, you just need to read it carefully. They aren't meant to test your ability with a programming language, they're meant to test your ability to solve a problem that could not be solved without a computer.

They take an input file containing data sets and produce an output file with the results. This will be a common practice when you get to college, its impossible for profs to grade projects if they have to enter the data through a gui.

Take problem A for example. You are given a rectangular box and a set of data points. You are supposed to figure out the maximum volume that would be occupied by placing balloons at the data points, one by one, inflating them until they either hit the side of the box or another balloon. You can use the data points in any order you want, and you don't necessarily have to use them all. Depending on the order applied, they may not all be available if the space is already occupied by a previously placed balloon. The output is the total volume within the box that is not occupied by any balloons. You're trying to minimize that volume.

Its a complex problem. You have to think "inside the box". Once you break it down you will loop through every possible combination until you find the best solution. This is similar to game theory used in AI.