Important: Look at the official rules, and pay special attention to the Contestant Eligibility Rules.

General Rules

Mission

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC) provides college students an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem-solving and computer skills.

The South America Programming Contest is the regional event for South America of the ACM Collegiate International Programming Contest.

General Description

During the contest, teams composed of up to three students work on 6 to 8 problems of project and implementation of algorithms within a limited amount of time (5 hours).

Winners of the South America Programming Contest will automatically advance to the World Finals.

Organization

The rules of the Programming Contest follow the directions set by the Steering Committee of the ACM Collegiate International Programming Contest, presided by the Contest Director, William B. Poucher, Ph.D., Baylor University, Waco, Texas. The Contest Director names a Regional Contest Director, who, in conjunction with the Regional Steering Committee, is responsible for adapting the rules for each region.

The Regional Steering Committee for South America is composed by:

• Carlos Ferreira, Brazilian site director;
  
  
• Pablo Coll, Argentinian site director;
  
  
• Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Chilean site director;
  
  
• Ricardo Dahab, Regional Contest director.
  
  

Conditions for Participating

Undergraduate and graduate students in the area of Informatics and related who belong to South American institutions may participate in the contest.

These students will constitute teams of up to three elements. Two of them must necessarily be undergraduates; only one graduate student will be allowed per team, provided that he/she has not concluded the second year of his/her graduate program, and has not obtained a previous graduate degree.

Qualification of each of the members of the team must attested in a written statement, sent to the Organizing Committee by a professor of the institution. This professor must also act as (or appoint) the coach of the team. The coach will represent the team, acting as a contact between the team and the organization during the contest activities.

This year, each school within an university may have one to three teams competing. There is a limit on the number of teams which will be accepted at each site. This number depends of the site's capacity and may change from one to another. If the number of registered teams exceeds the capacity, the criteria for selecting the ones that will participate in the contest is (in order of decreasing priority):

1. Coverage: as much as possible, the Organizing Committee will select teams coming from different states and countries.
   
   
2. Date of registration: teams with earlier registration dates will have preference, as long as their registration papers are complete.

Important Dates

• 14 October, 2005, deadline for schools to preregister their teams on the ACM Site and by sending an e-mail to the site coordinator: fmeza@utalca.cl. It is not necessary to register the team members by this date.
  
  
• 31 October, 2005, deadline for team member's registration.
• 11 November, 2005, deadline for fee payment.
  
  
• 11 November, 2005, deadline for delivering the Qualification Statement , filled out and signed by the School Advisor (Team Advisor), who must be a professor from the same school as the team members.
  
  
• 11 November, 2005, presentation session and warm-up.
  
  
• 12 November, 2005, contest date.

In the event the capacity of a site is exceeded, the actual list of selected teams will be made available by October 31th.

Programming Contest Procedures

1. Sites.
   The South American Regional ACM Programming Contest will take place in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Perú, and Venezuela, at the same day and hour.
   
   
2. Timetable.
   Click here to see the event schedule.
   
   
3. Language.
   Printed material related to the Programming Contest will be distributed in English only.
   
   
4. Resource Materials.
   Contestants may take to the contest site printed resource materials, such as books, manuals and program listings. Magnetically stored materials, such as versions of software or data, will not be allowed.
   
   
5. Computing Environment.
   The programming languages of the contest are C, C++, and Java.
   
   Computer facilities will vary depending of each site. Each team can use a single computer.
   
   Click here to get more information.
   
   
6. System Support.
   System support (Staff) will be available during the contest, as well as backup equipment, to guarantee smooth operation of the programming environment.
   
   
7. The Contest.
   The Programming Contest consists of a collecion of 6 to 8 problems to be solved within 5 hours.
   
   Teams should submit a possible solution to a problem to the Judging Committee, thereby obtaining an acceptance or rejection of the solution. In case of rejection, new solutions may be submitted (see scoring below).
   
   A contestant may submit a claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement by filling and sending a Clarification Request to the judges. If they agree that an ambiguity or error exists, a clarification will be issued to all contestants.
   
   
8. Discipline.
   Contestants must not talk to anyone except members of their team and personnel designated by the Regional Contest Director.
   
   Any system problems that may occur must be communicated to the support staff according to pre-established procedures.
   
   Any irregular behavior of a contestant that jeopardizes the contest, according to the Contest Director's criteria, may cause the team to be disqualified.
   
   
9. Alterations on the Contest Duration.
   The Regional Contest Director may alter the length of the contest in the event of unforeseen difficulties. Should the contest duration be altered, all contestants will be notified in a timely and uniform manner.
   
   
10. Scoring.
    The first criterion for ranking the teams is the number of problems correctly solved. A solution will be considered incorrect if:
    
    
    a. the program cannot be compiled correctly;
    
    b. its running time exceeds a "reasonable" amount, or a runtime error occurs;
    
    c. the program provides an incorrect answer;
    
    d. the output format differs from the one specified in the statement of the problem.
    
    
    If the first criterion leads to a tie, teams who have obtained their solutions in less total time will be better ranked.
    
    The total time is the sum of the times consumed for each problem correctly solved. The time consumed for a solved problem is the time elapsed from the beginning of the contest to the submission of the accepted run plus 20 penalty minutes for every rejected run for that problem regardless of submittal time. There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.
    
    The Programming Contest Judging Committee is the only responsible for deciding the correctness of the solutions presented for each problem. By consulting them, the Contest Director will determine the winners of the competition. The Contest Director and the Judging Committee have power to judge unforeseen situations, and their decisions are final.

Appeals

Contestants may report claims of rule violations or misconduct of the contest within 7 days of the Regional Contest to the Director of Regional Contests, who will in turn make a recommendation to the Contest Steering Committee of the ACM Collegiate International Programming Contest. This committte may, by a 2/3 vote, overturn the results of the Regional Contest. Only rule violations and misconduct may be appealed. The decision of the judges in accepting or rejecting problems are final.

Required Activities

All contestants must participate in every required activity of the Programming Contest, which are:

• the presentation session;
• the warm-up;
• the test itself;
• the Awarding Ceremony and Lunch.

Unjustified absences will automatically disqualify the team and cause the prizes to be suspended.

Prizes

Prizes to be defined.

Winners will receive a Certificate and all contestants will receive a Certificate of Achievement.

Any doubts about details not mentioned here shall be submitted to the Steering Committee, which has the power to judge unforeseen situations.