• Registration Deadline
• Time, Date, Place, Itinerary
• Team size
• Languages
• Divisions
• Awards
• Fees
• Contest Description
• Required Hardware/Software
• Contacts
• Rules

Registration Deadline

Deadline for registration is January 13, 1998

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Time, Date, Place, Itinerary

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Team Size

Teams may consist of a maximum of 3 students. There is a limit of two teams per school. Only the first 35 teams will be accepted for participation.

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Languages

Languages allowed to be used include: Pascal, C, C++, Visual BASIC, QBASIC

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Divisions

There are two divisions for participants:

• Novice: first year CS students
• Veterans: second year CS students

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Awards

Awards will be presented for First, Second and Third places in each division.

Each member of each team that participates will receive an event t-shirt and a meal following the contest completion.

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Fees

There is a $25.00 participation fee for each team.

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Contest Description

Teams will be given a set of problems of varying difficulty to solve in the three hour time limit. The team that solves the most problems in the shortest amount of time will be declared the winner. Teams may enter in either of the divisions.

Problems will be judged on your machine, so there should be no outside access to your hardware and little or no "virus" trouble.

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Required Hardware/Software

The LSU Computer Science Department will furnish Pentium 200Mhz systems running WINDOWS NT (1 system per team).

The LSU Computer Science Department will also provide all necessary software including either Borland Turbo C or Turbo

Pascal compilers; or Microsoft Visual C/C++ and Visual BASIC compilers.

Software should be limited to operating system and compiler. We reserve the right to erase files from your hard disk if files are found that may give your team an unfair advantage over others.

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Contacts

Any contest related questions can be directed to:

Kathy Traxler
225-578-2209
contest@contest.csc.lsu.edu

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Rules

Contest Rules for the LSU High School Programming Contest are determined by the LSU Computer Science Department. The contest director, Dr. S.S. Iyengar is solely responsible for interpretting the rules and for ruling on any unforeseen situations.

• Multiple problems will be posed in English, solutions to which must be submitted in one of the following:  Pascal, Basic, or C. Computers must not have anything on the hard drive accept the OS and the compiler. All other files should be removed before attending the contest.
• Contestants may bring any source materials intended for human use such as books, manuals, program listings, and non-programmable calculators. Contestants may not bring any machine-readable aids. All such materials must be certified during system certification which immediately precedes the contest.
• Teams MAY NOT accept help or advice on contest problems from anyone except those authorized to give advice. No one other than judges and contest officials will be authorized to give advice.
• Judges will not invite questions about the problems. A contestant may submit a written claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement to the contest officials. If the contest officials determine that an ambiguity or error exists in the statement, a clarification will be issued to all contestants.
• Solutions to problems are submitted to team judges. The team judge will accept or reject it based on predetermined test data. Accepted runs will be sent to the contest judges on a judging ticket signed by one of the team judges. Runs will be marked as follows:
• RT - run time exceeded
• IO - incorrect output
• OK - correct
• II - input incorrect
• TL - time limit exceeded
• Rejected runs will be marked and returned to the team. Rejection reasons are not guaranteed to be complete nor sufficient to identify the actual error. Normally, only the first observed error will be noted.
• While the contest is scheduled to last three hours, the contest officials have the authority to shorten or lengthen the contest in the event of unforeseen difficulties. Should the contest duration be altered, every attempt will be made to notify the contestants in a timely and uniform manner.
• Immediately after judging each team must disassemble and remove its certified system from the contest site. The system must not be unplugged or disassembled during the contest.
• A team may be disqualified by the contest director for any activity that jeopardizes the contest such as dislodging an extension cord or distractive talking.
• Any attempt to discover a judges input will result in a team's disqualification.
• Further explanation of judging codes:
• RT - runtime errors: program produces an error during run-time
• II - input errors: acceptance of invalid input or failure to accept valid input.
• IO - incorrect output: the results do not match what is printed on the test data sheet (program does not work correctly) including improper spelling, improper arrangement of items on the screen, dialogue that does not match exactly that contained on the test data sheet.
• TL - time limit exceeded: if program does not finish execution within a reasonable time (5 minutes). Execution must be interrupted.
• OK - correct execution and results.

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