ICPC @ ETH Zurich

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!

Citadel is a global investment firm built around world-class talent, sound risk management, and innovative leading-edge technology. For thirty years, Citadel’s hedge funds have delivered meaningful and measurable results to top-tier investors around the world, including sovereign wealth funds, public institutions, corporate pensions, endowments and foundations.

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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/

The first-ever ICPC Gaming AI Challenge is June 25-28! 

Find out more and register here: https://u.icpc.global/deviation-games/

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.

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

The next edition of ACM-ICPC Swiss Subregional Contest is postponed presumably to early 2021 due to the current strict event regulations at ETH Zürich. We will keep you updated on this blog and we will also send an invitation to all students if we can organize the event in some form in the future.

The regional round SWERC has also been postponed to March 6-7, 2021. You can find more information here.

SWERC 2019-2020 is over and we are happy to announce that our teams achieved amazing results. The first team mETH (Marcel Bezdrighin, Yuhao Yao, and Nikola Jovanovic) has ranked on the third place, winning a silver medal, and will thus be able to represent ETH at the ACM-ICPC World Finals 2020 in Moscow, Russia. The second team ETHanol (Matthias Hasler, Ari Jordan, and Teodor Stelian Ionescu) also did well and placed seventh, earning a bronze medal. In total, 95 teams from South-Western Europe participated. Please checkout the full results and a collection of photos and videos.

You can find solutions of the problems from the contest here.

The Swiss Subregional Contest 2019 organized by ETH Zurich was a great success with 45 participating students.

The winners at ETH Zurich:

Team 1:
1. Marcel Bezdrighin
2. Yuhao Yao
3. Nikola Jovanovic

Team 2:
4. Matthias Hasler
5. Ari Jordan
6. Teodor Stelian Ionescu

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The contest is booked out – you can still register, but you are not guaranteed to be let in unless somebody registered before you does not show up.

The registration is now open – please register here!

Note that you need to be registered with Codeforces and provide your handle at registration.

Further information can be found in a recent post.

The ACM-ICPC Swiss Subregional Contest 2019 will take place on Saturday, October 19, 2019.

The competition is individual (no teams) and held according to the usual ACM format: 5 hours, 5 to 12 problems, allowed languages: C, C++, Java. Two teams will be formed from the best eligible participants (enrolled at ETH and meeting the eligibility requirements).

The first three eligible participants will form the first ETH team in the Regional Contest. The second ETH team will be formed from the next three eligible participants who are also eligible and willing to compete for ETH next year. In case a participant selected according to this rule solved less than three problems, the committee reserves the right to select another person instead.

Those teams will represent ETH at the Southwestern Europe Regional Contest in Paris, France, held in January 2020 (exact date TBD). Similar to last years, we are delighted to hold the contest together with EPFL in Lausanne (PolyProg, note that the contest is joint, but SWERC teams are not).

Schedule of the contest: 19 October 2019

• 11:00 Meeting in the VIS Bureau (CAB E 31), breakfast, late registration.
• 11:20 Short presentation by DeepCode/SRI.
• 11:40 Grader information, Q&A.
• 12:00 Dry run.
• 12:30 Contest starts (CAB H56/H57).
• 17:30 Contest ends.
• 17:45 Announcement of results & apéro.

The contest is booked out – you can still register, but you are not guaranteed to be let in unless somebody registered before you does not show up.

Please register here!

Note that you need to be registered at Codeforces and provide your handle at registration.

Should I show up? Why not? In particular, consider coming if any of the following holds:

• You have any sort of interest and/or experience in competitive programming.
• You like mathematical puzzles and don’t mind implementing solutions in C++/Java.
• You simply suspect that this sort of competition might be fun.

There are no prerequisites except for basic C++/Java (in particular basic I/O and STL in case of C++). Before the contest we will introduce the rules and the system to the newcomers.

Rules. The contest is a “closed-book” competition. No material is allowed, i.e., no books, cheat sheets, Internet etc. You are not allowed to bring your own keyboard either. The language references for C, C++, and Java will be available. You may not use any machine-readable versions of algorithms or data, i.e., all submitted programs must be typed during the contest.

Ranking. We use the official ACM-ICPC rules:

1. The contestant that solved most problems is ranked first.
2. Contestants that solved the same number of problems are ranked by the least total time.
3. The total time is the sum of the time consumed for each problem solved. The time consumed for a solved problem is the time elapsed from the beginning of the contest to the submission of an accepted run plus 20 minutes for each rejected run. There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.

Lastly, note that you need access to the CAB Building. All CS students should be able to access the building with their legis. Otherwise, you can request access here.
If you are not a CS student and cannot access the building, please contact us at acm_at_vis_dot_ethz_dot_ch, so that we can open the door.

If you have any questions regarding the contest, please do not
hesitate to ask: acm_at_vis_dot_ethz_dot_ch

Best of luck at the contest!