PLU HS Programming Contest Details

Team Composition

Each team will be comprised of 1-3 middle or high school students and you may make substitutions for contestants who are unable or unwilling to compete, provided that the team Coach/Instructor notifies the Contest Director in a timely manner. Such substitutions must not violate other rules of team composition.

Contest Rules

  1. Each team member must be a Washington State student (public, private, or home school). Students have the option of registering as novice (completed no more than one computer programming class and this is their first programming contest), or advanced.
  2. Each team will be assigned a computer and you may only use the assigned machine to solve problems.
  3. Contestants may not use their own computers, computer terminals, cell phones, calculators, or any other electronic device or media during the competition.
  4. Contestants may bring any human readable material, including books, manuals and printed code. (Teams may NOT share these resources with other teams.)

Reading Input

All problems that require input will read input from a specified file.  All output is to stdout (the monitor).

Software

The contests environment, HuskyMap, includes a cloud-based IDE. You may also code on the computers provided using the IDEs or editors below.

  • Operating System: Linux
  • Languages: Java, Python 3.x, C++
  • IDEs: Eclipse for Java, IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, IDLE, Visual Studio
  • Editors: Vim, Visual Studio Code, jEdit, Notepad++
  • Compilers: OpenJDK 11, Python 3.x, GNU g++
  • Contest Environment: HuskyMap

Scoring of the Contest

The Judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the Judges, the Head 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 will be ranked based on the following criteria, applied in order:

  1. Number of Problems Solved: Teams will be ranked primarily based on the total number of problems they successfully solve during the competition. Each solved problem earns the team points.
  2. Cumulative Time (Penalty Time): In the event of a tie in the number of problems solved, teams will be ranked based on their cumulative time taken to solve the problems.
    • Definition: For each solved problem, the time is calculated as the elapsed time (in seconds) from the start of the competition to when the problem is correctly solved. The cumulative time for a team is the sum of these times for all solved problems.
    • Example: If Team A solves Problem 1 at the 4th second and Problem 2 at the 42nd second, their cumulative time would be 4 + 42 = 46 seconds.
  3. Earliest Last Problem Solved:
    • Definition: If two or more teams are tied in both the number of problems solved and the cumulative time, the tie will be broken based on the time at which the last problem was solved. The team that solved their final problem earlier will be ranked higher.
    • Example:
      • Team A solves their last problem at the 120th second.
      • Team B solves their last problem at the 135th second.
      • Team A will be ranked higher.

This approach ensures fairness by prioritizing both problem-solving ability and the efficiency with which problems are solved.

Prizes

  • Top three teams in each division (novice, advanced) will receive medals.
  • Top team in the advanced division will receive a trophy that is engraved with their names and the name of their school. The winning team will retain the trophy for one year to be displayed at their school.
  • All participants will receive eCertification for participation and are eligible for prizes in the drawing at the end of the awards ceremony.