For the convenience of tracking, a solution to a problem that is submitted for judging is called a run. Each run will receive a binary decision, namely accepted or rejected by a nominated judge panel and the respective team will be notified the decision afterwards. It is noteworthy to mention that only source codes are allowed to submit, not the executable or any other files.
The contest will be conducted using the PC2 software, a.k.a., Programming Contest Control (PC2). Only this software will be accessible from the contestant's PC. Any attempt to access other websites or the Internet will result in disqualification.
In case of experiencing any ambiguity in a problem, a contestant may submit a clarification request to the judge panel through the PC2's clarification system only. Once the claim found valid, a clarifying message will be disseminated among the contestants. Conversely, the judge panel can decline a clarification request by marking it as IGNORED in the PC2 clarification page.
If a team discovers any anomaly in a problem test case, they are strongly advised to communicate with the judging panel through the PC2's clarification system rather than meeting in person after the contest.
The contestants are prohibited to converse with anyone other than their own team members and the personnels designated by the organizing committee, while seated at the team desk. They may not even talk to their team members when they are walking around the contest floor during breaks, including lunch/health break or any other purposes.
Even though the contest is scheduled for a fixed time length of five hours; however, the judging director may extend the length after consulting with the chief judge and/or contest director to tackle any unforeseen difficulties. Every such change will be notified to the contestants in a timely and uniform manner.
A team may be disqualified for any activity that jeopardizes the contest, including dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification of contest materials, distracting behaviors, communicating with other teams, and several others. In addition, the judges can also recommend penalizing a team with the additional penalty minutes for their distracting behaviors.
8-12 problems will be posted on the contest platform. To the greatest extent, problems will be designed considering their independence of detailed knowledge of a particular application area or a particular contest language.
The rank-list that presents the performance of different teams during the contest will be frozen in the final hour of the contest. However, during this period, teams will only receive verdicts of their own submissions without the rank-list.
Every team needs to submit the Team Reference Document to the host volunteers on the opening day for inspection. They will receive it back on the next day before the onsite contest starts. If any team fails to do so may result in receiving the document late (to their team desk) due to the inspection delay.
No team is allowed to bring any electronic devices, including calculator, CD, DVD, Pen-drive, iPod, MP3/MP4 players, floppy disks, watches(smart, digital, analog), and others. In addition, a team CANNOT bring their own keyboard, mouse, and others.
A team can only touch their assigned workstation after the contest starts.
Each team needs to seek attention to the volunteers for printing their codes during the contest. In each call, a team can ask for a printout of up to 10 pages. Thus, a team can ask for printouts of at most 50 pages in total.
A team must inform the volunteers/invigilators/judges for not receiving any verdict/reply within 10 minutes of their submission/clarification. Again, a team should also notify the volunteers if they fail to log into the PC2 platform. These sorts of complaints will not be entertained after the contest.
The submitted codes must not use any system command or multi-threading approach. The contestants must not attempt to access any other computers other than their own in the network. Violating these rules may result in disqualification.
Any member of a team, if late, may not be allowed to enter the contest premises AFTER THE START OF THE CONTEST.
The decision of the judges is final.