Rules¶

Conduct of the Contest¶

Solutions to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged as accepted or rejected, and the team is notified of the results. Rejected runs will be marked as follows:

• run-time error
• time-limit exceeded
• wrong answer

Notification of accepted runs may be suspended at the appropriate time to keep the final results secret. A general announcement to that effect will be made during the contest. Notification of rejected runs will continue until the end of the contest.

A contestant may submit a claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement by submitting a clarification request. If the Judges agree that an ambiguity or error exists, a clarification will be issued to all contestants.

While the contest is scheduled to last five hours, the Contest Director has the authority to lengthen the contest in the event of unforeseen difficulties. Should the Contest duration be altered, every attempt will be made to notify contestants in a timely and uniform manner.

Scoring of the Contest¶

The Contest Judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the Contest Judges, the Chief Judge is responsible for determining the winners of the Contest. They are empowered to adjust for or adjudicate unforeseen events and conditions. Their decisions are final.

Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams who solve the same number of problems are ranked first by least total time and, if need be, by the earliest time of submittal of the last accepted run.

The total time is the sum of the time consumed for each problem solved. The time consumed for a solved problem is the time elapsed from the beginning of the contest to the submittal of the first accepted run plus 20 penalty minutes for every previously rejected run for that problem. There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.

Computing Environment¶

The Contest programming language tools include Java, and C/C++. See the Programming Environment page for detailed configuration information.

Each team will be provided with a single computer. All teams will have equivalent computing equipment.

Contestants may not bring any printed materials or machine-readable versions of software or data to the Contest Area. Contestants may not bring their own computers, computer terminals, calculators, or other electronic devices to the Contest Area.

On-line reference materials will be made available as described in the Reference Materials section of the Programming Environment page. Each team will be permitted three copies of a Team Reference Document meeting the same requirements set forth in the World Finals:

This document may contain up to 25 pages of reference materials, single-sided, letter or A4 size, with pages numbered in the upper right-hand corner and your university name printed in the upper left-hand corner. Text and illustrations must be readable by a person with correctable eyesight without magnification from a distance of 1/2 meter. It may include hand-written comments and corrections on the fronts of pages only. The document should be in some type of notebook or folder with the name of your institution on the front.

Contestant Conduct¶

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING at the team workstations until so directed by the Contest Director.

Contestants are not to converse with anyone except members of their team and personnel designated by the Contest Director. Systems support staff may advise contestants on system-related problems such as explaining system error messages.

A team may be disqualified by the Contest Director for any activity that jeopardizes the Contest such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification of contest materials, or distracting behavior.