April 17, 1999
Contest Rules


1. The contest participants will compete in teams of three or fewer registered students who attend the same college. Each team will use one computer connected to the contest computer. Multiple logins, using the team ID, to the contest computer are permitted.

2. The teams will arrive at the contest site in Pearson 104 by 12:00 noon for a pre-contest briefing. The contest will take place from 1:00pm until 4:00pm. Team advisors must leave the contest site by 1:00pm

3. Each team will try to solve as many of the six contest problems as fast as they can. A solution consists of a source code file, written in C or C++, which satisfies the problem specifications in the opinion of the judges. The judges' decisions are final.

4. The judges will not invite or accept questions about the problems. A problem query can be initiated for clarification purposes by execution of the "query" script.  If the judges answer a problem query, it and its answer will be delivered to all teams, where relevant. Questions concerning the contest environment can be addressed to one of the student "runners".

5. A "System Fault Report" may be initiated by notifying a runner. If your system is found to be defective, you will be moved to one of the spare workstations.

6. Input and output for all problems will be standard (keyboard and terminal), but the programs are not intended to be interactive. Do not include any prompts for the user. The judges will redirect IO in order to supply input from test files.

7. To submit a solution for judging, the "submit" script should be executed. Make sure that you specify your source code file, your team number, and the problem number. The submission will elicit an email response marked SUCCESSFUL or UNSUCCESSFUL. If UNSUCCESSFUL, the receipt will be marked:

(1) Run-time error

(2) Time limit exceeded (2 minutes)

(3) Wrong answer

(4) Too little/too much output

(5) Wrong output format

(6) Check clarifications (from queries)

(7) Syntax error

Only one of the categories will be marked (the most appropriate one in the opinion of the judges).

8. The winning team will be determined by the number of SUCCESSFUL judged solutions submitted before 4:00pm. Ties will be broken by means of total time for all successfully solved problems. The total time for a problem is calculated as the elapsed time from 1:00pm until the problem was judged as a success, plus 20 minutes for each failed judging attempt for that problem. There is no penalty for a failed judging attempt on a problem, which is not subsequently solved.

9. Teams may bring in manuals, books, notes, and program listings. The teams may NOT bring in any diskettes, calculators, or computers.

10. Teams will not communicate with each other in any manner during the contest. In addition, teams are not allowed to telnet or ftp to any computers other than the contest computer. Teams may not make use of any source code files other than those that they generate during the contest. Teams are also not permitted to "surf" the Internet during the contest. Failure to observe this rule may result in the disqualification of the team(s).

11. Contest standings will be posted in the contest site during the first two hours of the contest.

This set of rules is modified from those written
by W. G. McArthur for the 1997 ESCCC contest.