Competition Info

Official Rules

Mission

The Lewis College Programming Challenge (TLCPC) provides college students with opportunities to interact with students from other colleges and to sharpen and demonstrate their problem-solving, programming, and teamwork skills. The contest provides a platform for industry and academia to encourage and focus public attention on the next generation professionals as they pursue excellence.

Introduction

TLCPC is a 2-category competition among, but not limited to, Computer Science, Information Management, Information Systems, and Information Technology students among institutions of higher education. The categories are:

1. Individual Category

This category is limited to TLC students.

     b. Team Category

This is open to all students among higher education institutions in Sorsogon.

Organization

The Lewis College is responsible for establishing the following committees:

1. The Executive Committee formulates and reviews contest rules, policy and guidelines; oversees the conduct of the contest; resolves issues and appeals; recommends ways to make the contest attractive to participants; and selects the contest judges.

The Contest Director heads this committee along with the Chief Judge, and Contest Officials.

2. The Secretariat creates and disseminates official communication, invitation, and information (i.e. letter to sponsors, judges and guests, contest guidelines); facilitates contest registration; documents the competition, and creates any similar documents thereof.
3. The Program and Awards formulates and/or implements the flow of the contest, solicits sponsorship, and takes care of the tokens and certificates that will be given to the participants and winners.
4. The Food and Logistics ensures the availability of food; and the reservation, preparation, and restoration of the contest venue and the necessary equipment before, during, and after the contest.

Team Composition

A representative of the sponsoring institution of higher education, typically a faculty member, must serve as or designate the team coach. The coach certifies the eligibility of contestants and serves as the official point-of-contact with the team prior to and during contest activities. A team may only have one coach.

The coach must fully register teams within the time set by Executive Committee which is no later than the earlier date of 10 days before the contest. A team is not eligible to compete in the contest until the contest director has accepted the team. Teams failing to comply with any of these requirements will be ruled ineligible to compete. Only registered reserves may be substituted for contestants. Such substitutions must be approved by the contest director before the contest begins.

Each team consists of three contestants. The team's contestants must satisfy the following eligibility rules.

Contestants Eligibility

Participants’ eligibility shall be determined by the following:

a. Individual Category

· He/she is a bonafide student of The Lewis College

· He/she submits a fully accomplished registration form;

· Knowledgeable in C++ or Java;

· Approval of the Executive Committee;

· Contest Fee

b. Team Category

· Students must be enrolled in degree programs at the sponsoring institution.

· Official Certification from the sponsoring institution’s Registrar’s Office;

· Fully accomplished registration form;

· Contest Fee

Contest Conduct

Five or more problems will be posed.

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 by one of a limited set of diagnostic messages, inclusive of the following:

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

To keep the final results secret, notification of accepted runs may be suspended during the last hour of the competition.  An announcement to this 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 three 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

A problem is solved when it is accepted by the judges. The judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the Chief Judge, the Contest Director 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.

The score is based on three components: the number of problems correctly solved, the time from the beginning of the contest to the submission of a correct solution for each problem, and the number of incorrect submissions to a problem for which a correct solution is eventually submitted. First, contestants/teams are ranked in order of the number of correct solutions. When two or more contestants/teams have the same number of correct solutions, they are further ranked by penalty minutes computed as the sum of:

1. For each solved problem, the number of minutes from the beginning of the contest until the correct solution was submitted.
2. For each solved problem, 20 minutes for each incorrect solution submitted before the correct solution.

There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.

Example Scoring

Consider three contestants/teams: Red, Green, and Blue. The contest starts at 1:00PM and the submissions are as follows:

· Red submits a correct solution to Problem A at 2:15.

· Green submits a correct solution to Problem B at 3:00.

· Red submits an incorrect solution to Problem H at 3:01.

· Green submits a correct solution to Problem A at 3:50.

· Red submits a correct solution to Problem H at 4:00.

· Green submits an incorrect solution to Problem C at 4:00.

· Red submits an incorrect solution to Problem G at 4:15.

· Blue submits a correct solution to Problem C at 5:00.

The scores are as follows:

· 1st Place: Red with 2 correct, 275 penalty minutes.

· 2nd Place: Green with 2 correct, 290 penalty minutes.

· 3rd Place: Blue with 1 correct, 240 penalty minutes.

Tie Breakers

It is possible for a tie to occur - exactly the same number of penalty points and number of questions answered. The following tie breaker will be applied only where prizes or finals berths are at stake:

If two or more contestants/teams have exactly the same score (number of questions solved and penalty points) the contestant/team that achieves its final score first will be deemed the winner. If there is still a tie, then the contestant/team which solved a problem first will be deemed the winner.

Computing Environment

The TLCPC programming language tools include Java, and C++. 

Each participant/team has access to one computer workstation, and is given a set of independent problems which may be solved in any order. (Note: For those registered in the team category, only 1 computer workstation is given). TLCPC will provide C++ and Java compilers only. IDEs will likewise be provided.

Participants may bring books, notes, or papers for reference, but may not use any electronic or programmable devices other than the single computer workstation supplied.    

System Settings     
       - Operating System: Ubuntu 11.10     
       - Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 540 @ 3.07GHz    
       - RAM: 4.00 GB

    Installed Compilers     
     - javac     
     - g++

Installed IDE    
     - gedit  

Contestant Conduct in the Contest Area

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. Contest Officials 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 TLCPC such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification of contest materials, or distracting behavior.

Contest Fee

An amount shall be determined by the Executive Committee for the Registration Fee to cover the cost of the contest shirts, kits, food, and other relevant contest materials and services.

Problem Set Domain

Typically five to eight problems are attempted in a three hour period. The problems are of varying difficulty and flavor. Two problems are given that could be solved in an hour by a first or second year student, two that could be solved in an hour by a third year student, and one that will likely determine the winners. Our goal is that every participant/team solves two problems, that every problem is solved.

Most problems are based on real-life problems such as searching for a missing boat at sea, triangulating the location of a faulty transmitter, computing golf handicaps, stacking pipes of varying diameters in a fixed width bin, coding or decoding messages, printing braille, seeking an exit to a maze, processing satellite images, solving a math problem, and so on. The underlying algorithm is the problem, not the problem statement.

All problems are written in English and most are presented with no more than a page of text, a helpful illustration, a sample input set with an accepted output set.

Appeals

Disclaimer: The Lewis College works, at all times, for the best intent of the students. Any decisions or judgments are based on the information at hand, and are predicated on fairness to all.

After the conclusion of the contest and the results has been made public, contestants may file complaints or appeals if it is deemed necessary.      

*These rules are patterned from APC/ACM-ICPC.