Rules
Contestant Eligibility
To be eligible as a contestant, you must be an undergraduate student.
Contestant Conduct
This is an individual competition and conversation with other contestants is not allowed. There will be advisors available to answer questions that you may have. You are required to remain in the VCC for the duration of the competition. People leaving the labs temporarily will be required to sign out and sign back in once re-entering.
Contestants may be disqualified for any activity that jeopardizes the integrity of the competition.
Computing Environment
Contestants are allowed to use their own computers or the workstations available in the competition rooms.
Web access will be permitted, though there is a strict moratorium on applications used to communicate with others. This is entirely based on a code of honor, though advisors will be patrolling the competition areas looking for violations of this trust.
Submissions will be either through a web-based tool or by email.
Programs must be written in C, C++, or Java.
Conduct
Solutions to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged as accepted or rejected by a judge, and the team is notified of the results. Rejected runs will be marked as follows:
- Run-time error
- Time limit exceeded (Time limit is 30 seconds)
- Compile-time error
- Wrong answer
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.
The competition is scheduled to last three hours, though the contest may be lengthened in the event of unforseen difficulties.
Scoring
Individuals are ranked according to the most problems solved. Ties are resolved by ordering by the earliest time of submittal of the last accepted run.