1Thursday, March 7, 2024 - 8:30 am to 1:30 pm
Schedule:
8:30am Registration (Sykes - Ballroom A, B, & C) and Set-Up Begins 9:00am Welcoming Remarks (Sykes - Ballroom) 9:30am Programming Contest Starts (Ballroom) 12:15 - 12:30pm Contest Ends and Lunch Begins at Dining Hall 1:10pm Closing Ceremony and Winners Announced (Sykes - Ballroom) |
Registration: Now Closed - Was open JANUARY 27th - Feb 23rd
Host Advisor: Mr. Milt Scholl - [email protected] Site Address: West Chester University - Sykes Student Union |
Scenes from 2023 Contest
|
2024 Contest Results
|
Drop off - Pick Up Procedures
|
General Rules and How the Contest Works
General Info
What to bring?
Lunch:
Each Contestant and Advisor from the school will be given a lunch ticket at registration to access the University Dining Hall during the lunch break.
- Teams of 2 or 3 students (grades 9-12) are invited to compete in a computer programming contest.
Once again we are being hosted at West Chester University! Yea!!!!
Schools will be able to register up to 4 teams. We have space for up to 180 contestants with the expanded space! - Teams will be placed into divisions upon registration of their school's teacher. Please base this on years of computer coding experience. The Intermediate group will be 1st year coders ONLY, all others are in the Advanced group.
We limit the Intermediate problems to looping, decisions, string manipulation, and 1 dimensional arrays upon simple data types. - You may code the project solution in any language (OFFLINE) on your own personal computer. (Python, Java, C/C++ or other)
- Your computer will be in AIRPLANE mode the entire competition and NO phones or calculators are allowed out during the 3 hr contest.
- During the contest, teams will be given the chance to solve up to 10 interesting programs. We listened and some good warm-up problems first!
- Points will be earned based on correct solutions to our test data checked upon request of the team.
What to bring?
- Two (2) computers with NO previously written code or library files (other than the default libraries of the language.)
- POWER CORD and extension cord to reach an outlet if you need!!!
- Sharpened Pencils (We don't have a sharpener in the contest room.)
- Scratch paper or Handheld Whiteboards work great for sharing!
- You may bring a "Textbook" in the language you are coding in for the contest.
No ONLINE/DOWNLOADED/OFFLINE materials, including API's, are allowed. In your brain knowledge and ONE textbook only. - No other electronic devices are allowed (including calculators, phones, tablets, etc.)
- A teacher of the school must remain on campus throughout the contest and take the team(s) to lunch and return to the awards ceremony.
Lunch:
Each Contestant and Advisor from the school will be given a lunch ticket at registration to access the University Dining Hall during the lunch break.
Rules of Play
Teams will have at most 3 projects at any given time in their possession at the work-table. When you complete a project (get it scored or forfeit), you may select any project at random or strategically #4 - 10 from at the lead table and bring it back to your team to start working on it. This repeats for the entire 3 hours. Teams will continue to work together to solve the projects until either time is called or they have exhausted all projects available to them. The projects are ranked easiest (#1) to hardest (#10.) Also on the Scoresheet is a desription of the Mystery Projects so you may select "wisely."
Judges are assigned to a small group of teams and will record correct outputs and the time when asked to check a solution or upon forfeit of a problem.
You may use 1 Resubmission option for any of the current 3 projects in your posession. Not on one you have already "turned in or forfeited."
If a program crashes due to mis-typed input, yes the program can be retested from the beginning of the test data without the use of the free resubmission.
Depending on the project, it might call for multiple inputs for multple cases. The program must run all cases for testing in the order we give the test data without stopping the program. Test Data is done testing if your program stops or crashes. Points earned on displayed output up to that point will count in the teams score.
For Example: IF there are 5 inputs, the program must run all 5 inputs without stopping. Of course you may output answers before the next input, but that is up to you.
No debugging output allowed - a single prompt line with a clear answer will be deemed fine but not neccessary. Extra output will make the solution to be judged wrong and will NOT receive any points.
Clarifying Questions about a program can be asked only of the Viking Commander. Usually the answer will be "Figure it Out from the clues," and "do NOT overthink the task." All test data is valid input and was tested in our solutions beforehand.
Awards and Prizes:
We will have prizes to give out to the top teams in each division. We are attempting to gather other prizes to award the top scoring students and a separate school prize as well! So bring your enthusiasm for learning is meant to be fun! Team Names will be judged on random categories by the judges. Winning Team names must incorporate your school, mascot, teacher, or something recognizably associated with your school!
The winners will be decided by Overall Points earned over all 10 tasks. Every correct output is given point(s.)
Tiebreaker: Points earned on the most difficult program down through the easiest until the tie is broken. They will all be ranked by the Viking Commander beforehand. If the two teams scored the same on all the programs individually, the team that submitted their final task first will break the tie.
Teams will have at most 3 projects at any given time in their possession at the work-table. When you complete a project (get it scored or forfeit), you may select any project at random or strategically #4 - 10 from at the lead table and bring it back to your team to start working on it. This repeats for the entire 3 hours. Teams will continue to work together to solve the projects until either time is called or they have exhausted all projects available to them. The projects are ranked easiest (#1) to hardest (#10.) Also on the Scoresheet is a desription of the Mystery Projects so you may select "wisely."
Judges are assigned to a small group of teams and will record correct outputs and the time when asked to check a solution or upon forfeit of a problem.
You may use 1 Resubmission option for any of the current 3 projects in your posession. Not on one you have already "turned in or forfeited."
If a program crashes due to mis-typed input, yes the program can be retested from the beginning of the test data without the use of the free resubmission.
Depending on the project, it might call for multiple inputs for multple cases. The program must run all cases for testing in the order we give the test data without stopping the program. Test Data is done testing if your program stops or crashes. Points earned on displayed output up to that point will count in the teams score.
For Example: IF there are 5 inputs, the program must run all 5 inputs without stopping. Of course you may output answers before the next input, but that is up to you.
No debugging output allowed - a single prompt line with a clear answer will be deemed fine but not neccessary. Extra output will make the solution to be judged wrong and will NOT receive any points.
Clarifying Questions about a program can be asked only of the Viking Commander. Usually the answer will be "Figure it Out from the clues," and "do NOT overthink the task." All test data is valid input and was tested in our solutions beforehand.
Awards and Prizes:
We will have prizes to give out to the top teams in each division. We are attempting to gather other prizes to award the top scoring students and a separate school prize as well! So bring your enthusiasm for learning is meant to be fun! Team Names will be judged on random categories by the judges. Winning Team names must incorporate your school, mascot, teacher, or something recognizably associated with your school!
The winners will be decided by Overall Points earned over all 10 tasks. Every correct output is given point(s.)
Tiebreaker: Points earned on the most difficult program down through the easiest until the tie is broken. They will all be ranked by the Viking Commander beforehand. If the two teams scored the same on all the programs individually, the team that submitted their final task first will break the tie.