LCPC Contest Rules
General Preparation Information:
Each team may use one and only one computer system.
Each team may elect to use a computer system provided by the UL Computer Science Department (see below for available software) or may elect to bring a complete system complete with computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, printer paper, surge suppressor and all necessary cables. (A limited number of spares will be available for teams that furnish their own systems in the event of a failure. This includes printing files transported via a USB flash memory stick as a last resort.)
Computer systems provided by the UL Computer Science Department will be networked to a printer and include Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Linux partitions will include the Gnu and Sun C and C++ compilers, the Sun Studio IDE, Sun Java, the NetBeans IDE and PHP, plus basic editors such as nedit and gedit. Windows partitions will include the Visual Studio (with VB, C, C++, C#), Sun Java, the NetBeans IDE and the Dev-C++ IDE (with an older Gnu compiler). We are able to provide some customization on request as long as the software is open source or free for use in an academic environment and you are able to provide installation information at least one week in advance. We regret that provided systems are not be customizable on the day of the contest or the week immediately prior to the contest.
Teams may bring system manuals or other documentation of language syntax and function libraries, but programming textbooks or examples of problem solution code are not permitted.
Code on the system should be limited to the help found in the programming environments. While we don't expect you to wipe a drive for this contest, please remove programming tutorials and collections of source code not normally part of an IDE.
Each team must create a directory (folder) on your system, which will be used to develop all the problems of the programming contest. Initially no source code may reside in this directory. The only exceptions to this rule are 3rd party classes (such as provided by the College Board, text book authors, etc.) that students normally use to develop code.
Access to the Internet will not be allowed during the contest.
Teams will be ranked according to these criteria:
Number of problems solved correctly. Problems will be judged just on correctness, not on style or comments. No explanations will be given for incorrect solutions during the contest. Correctness means that the submitted code solves the problem described in the specifications, not just one that outputs the correct information for the sample data entered.
If two or more teams solve the same number of problems, they will be ranked by the total amount of time it took to solve the problems.
If two or more teams tie for 1st or 2nd, ranking in their division, placement will be decided by a "sudden death" round of computer oriented quiz bowl style questions.
Timing Explained:
When the contest begins, the go signal starts the contest clock. This is the "start time" for all of the problems. (Each problem has its own clock, which starts from the start of the contest.) When a team completes a problem, they must submit a printed copy of the source code and the outputs of each test run (screen dumps are OK) with the team # and problem name on the printout.
To submit code, a team member must raise a hand and a runner will come and take the solution to the stage area to be time-stamped and judged. (At this point, the team should go on to another problem.)
While your solution is being judged, the clock will stop for that problem only. If the problem is correct, you will receive a "Correct" slip with the team number and program number. (Save these for insurance!)
If the problem is incorrect, you will receive an “Incorrect” slip with the team number and problem number. At this point, the clock starts up again for this problem.
Submitting Questions:
If you have a question for the judges, write it on a piece of paper, put your team # on the paper, and raise your hand to get a runner to take it to the judges.
If the judges consider the question appropriate, substantial, and have time to answer it, the question and the answer will be distributed in writing to all teams or given in an announcement.
Miscellaneous:
If you need to go to the restroom, raise your hand and a runner of the appropriate gender will escort you. If you leave the contest floor unescorted for any reason, you cannot return while the contest is in progress.
When you are finished, you may leave the contest area, but you cannot take down your equipment while the contest is in progress.
Only contestants and contest staff are allowed on the contest floor.
Snacks are allowed, but calculators, radios, tape players and any activity that may disturb other contestants are not allowed.
If you experience technical problems during the contest, please bring this to the attention of one of the runners. If a monitor dies or a printer refuses to operate, we may be able to help.
THE DECISION OF THE JUDGES IS FINAL!
Important Note: The personnel serving you at this contest are volunteers. They are giving up their time because they feel it is important to encourage high school students to learn about computing. This includes the judges. We understand that everyone attending the contest wants to win, but please, only communicate with the judges in writing so that they can do their job fairly and efficiently.