ICPC World Finals Results & Swiss Subregional 2022-23

First things first, HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to the amazing team of Marcel Bezdrighin, Antti Röyskö and Yuhao Yao for achieving the 5th place at the ICPC World Finals Dhaka, winning a silver medal, and becoming ICPC Europe Champions! This is ETH’s first silver medal, and the best performance of any SWERC university in the history of the contest! There are some images in the end of this article.

On another note, the ICPC Swiss Subregional 2022-23 will happen on December 10th, 9:15! For more information, including signup, please go to https://vis.ethz.ch/en/events/457/.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

ICPC Swiss Subregional Contest 2021-2022 & World Finals Photos

The VIS ACM committee invites you to the ICPC Swiss Subregional Contest 2022 sponsored by Citadel | Citadel Securities on Saturday, November 27th at 9:15 to 16:30! Meeting point: HG G1.

ICPC is the world’s largest collegiate coding contest, and once again we are looking for talented programmers who are skilled enough to represent ETH! The first step is to participate at the Swiss Subregional, happening right here in Zurich.

Fortunately, the situation is looking better than last year and we’ll be able to hold the contest in real life! A valid COVID certificate and a mask worn at all times is mandatory.

The competition is individual (no teams) and held according to the usual ICPC format: 5 hours, 5 to 12 problems. There will be food served for lunch and after the contest. Here’s a rundown of the rules:

  • You will be able to choose between a variety of languages, including ICPC’s official languages: C, C++, and Java.
  • The contest will be held on ETH computers in a closed-book format; no online resources of any kind are allowed, and you are not allowed to use any code that you didn’t write during the contest.
  • Each solved problem gives exactly one point. There are no partial points and ties will be broken using a time-based penalty.
  • You will need a Codeforces account to participate. You should create this account in advance of the contest on https://codeforces.com

The contest is open to all ETH students. Among the best students satisfying the ICPC eligibility criteria [1], two teams of three students each will be selected to represent ETH at the regional contest of south-west Europe, SWERC [2].

This year’s contest is sponsored by Citadel | Citadel Securities!

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Citadel Securities is a leading global market maker across a broad array of fixed income and equity securities. Our world-class capabilities position us to meet the liquidity demands of our diverse group of institutional clients in all market conditions. In partnering with us, our clients, including asset managers, banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, government agencies and public pension programs are able to gain a powerful trading advantage and are better positioned to meet their investment goals.

Interested? Sign up now before November 26th at https://vis.ethz.ch/en/events/298!

If you have any questions regarding the contest, please do not hesitate to contact us at acm@vis.ethz.ch.

PS: Wondering how this looked like last year? Take a look at the photos below by our wonderful contestants from the last ICPC World Finals! 🙂

[1] https://icpc.global/regionals/rules

[2] http://swerc.eu/

SWERC 2020-21 Results

This weekend, six delegates of ETH competed in an online contest for the SWERC crown amongst 109 teams, and they scored the best result in over a decade!

  • Team lETHargy of Antti Röyskö, Marcel Bezdrighin and Yuhao Yao ranked second, just one problem behind first place!
  • Team promETHeus of Ari Jordan, Atli Fannar Franklìn and Long Truong ranked fifth, the best second-team performance in ETH history!

While qualification rules for ICPC 2021 have not yet been announced, it’s likely that team lETHargy will qualify. Congratulations!

You can find the full results here.

ICPC Local Qualifier 20/21 – Important Update

This year’s edition of the ICPC Local Qualifier was held on Saturday. Before the contest, we made it clear that we would post information both on this blog and the VIS mailing list, however, due to a mistake on our side, we only published the announcement on the latter. Unfortunately, many have now missed the contest, as they expected to find details here. Clearly, this is not fair.

As you can understand, it is our responsibility to find the best competitors for SWERC and ICPC, and fairness is our highest priority. We knew we couldn’t auto-qualify any contestants as this would be unfair towards everyone else. Hence, we decided that our best bet is to create a Local Finals round. This round will happen on the weekend of February 6-7th (exact time TBA). We know that this is in the middle of the exam period, but unfortunately time is tight.

The Local Finals will follow the same rules as the Local Qualifier contest, but with a reduced number of participants. First, everyone who solved at least 6 tasks in the Local Qualifier and is eligible for SWERC (this year) will automatically qualify for the Local Finals. This ensures that the participants of the Local Qualifier receive a fair chance.

Additionally, those who missed the Local Qualifier may qualify to the Local Finals by solving at least 6 tasks when participating in a virtual contest with the same tasks as the Local Qualifier. We trust you and hope that you play fair by not asking other participants for the tasks in advance. We’ve had several participants who were strong enough to score 6 or more points this year, so by cheating you will only make it more difficult for us to schedule & organize the Finals.

Now, we understand that some of you already talked to people who participated at the Local Qualifier and they might’ve told you about some of the problems. That’s fine – in that case, please e-mail us at acm@vis.ethz.ch as soon as possible, and we’ll work something out.

The rules for the virtual contest remain the same as for the physical contest:

  • You will be able to choose between a variety of languages, including ICPC’s official languages: C, C++, and Java.
  • The contest will be open-book; you are allowed to use any online resources (incl. docs and tutorials) that were made before the contest started.
  • However, all code must be written by yourself, either before or during the contest. This means that you are not allowed to copy code from other users or the internet.
  • All communication about the tasks between participants or with non-participants is strictly forbidden.

In order to participate at the virtual contest, please e-mail us at acm@vis.ethz.ch with your Codeforces name – we will send you instructions within 24 hours. You will be able to start the contest whenever works best for you, but you need to solve it before January 31st.

Of course, you are also allowed (and encouraged!) to participate at the virtual contest even if you are not looking to qualify. However, if you’re not eligible for SWERC, we ask you not to participate in the Local Finals, as that will make scheduling easier for us.

We hope that this is fair for everyone. If you still have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at acm@vis.ethz.ch!

Thanks!

The VIS ACM committee