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

Additionally, a run can be marked as “Compiler Error”. The team will be notified of this error, but no penalty will be assessed.

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. Clarification requests from teams in the Invitational Division will take precedence over requests from teams in the Open Division.

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.

Contest Environment¶

Since this is an online contest, we cannot control the contest environment of remote participants. However, to ensure an instructive and fair experience for all, we encourage teams to participate in conditions that resemble contest conditions as much as possible. This includes:

• Using a single computer per team

• Not accessing the Internet during the contest, except to submit runs and clarification requests to the judging system.

• Using only the following reference material:

  • Online Documentation provided through the NAIPC website
  • A team notebook meeting the same specifications as a World Finals team notebook (25 single-sided pages of reference material)