These rules are taken from the rules of the Southeast Regional Contest of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, which has been conducting these competitions for over 30 years. Please see the rules below and the following PDF file:

Basic Rules available here (PDF).

Introduction

The Programming Competition is an opportunity to exercise problem-solving and programming skills in a timed (i.e., high-stress) format. The problems do not require any specific knowledge beyond high school mathematics and basic data structures and algorithms (and their implementation in one of the programming languages of the contest).

Eligibility

Eligible participants are undergraduates who are enrolled as at least half time at a post-secondary institution. A team is comprised of three people and a faculty sponsor/coach. All must be registered in advance with the online registration system. Every team must be sponsored by an appropriate institution.

Reference Materials

No electronic media and no electronic devices of any kind (calculators, cell phones, pagers, pdas, etc) may be brought into the contest area. Each contestant may bring books and notebooks (no loose paper, please) for use during the contest.

Conduct

During the contest the team may not receive outside help in solving the problems. The participants may not communicate with anyone other than their teammates (if necessary, participants may talk with the contest staff). A team may be disqualified for trying to obtain any outside help, or for any activity that disrupts the contest or disturbs others.

Contest

Each team will have access to one personal computer, equipped with C, C++, and Java compilers and simple unix text editors. At the outset of the contest, each team will receive, on paper, six or more problems. The problems are independent and may be solved in any order. Each team's goal is to solve as many problems as it can within the five-hour contest period.

Scoring

The team that solves the most problems wins. In the event that there is a tie, the team with the shortest total "time" wins.

Time is calculated by summing the time required for each [solved] problem. The time assessed for a solved problem is the time elapsed from the beginning of the contest to the submittal time of the earliest correct submission. Twenty penalty minutes are added for every incorrect submission for that problem no matter what the submittal time (even after a correct submission). There are no penalty minutes for correct submissions (no matter how many), and no penalty minutes for a problem that is not solved.

In the event of a tie even after considering total time, the teams will be declared co-winners.

Appeals

If irregularities or misconduct are observed during the contest, team members or coaches should bring them to the attention of the contest officials so that action may be taken as soon as possible. The decision of the officials is final.