About

The Alberta Collegiate Programming Contest (ACPC) is an opportunity for university and college students in Alberta to excel in a programming competition.

Students will test their aptitude and their knowledge of computer science against a set of programming puzzles requiring problem-solving, programming, math, and teamwork skills. Teams are ranked according to the number of problems solved within five hours. The event will begin on Saturday, November 23rd with a warm-up practice, followed by a five-hour competition to decide the winners.

The ACPC is sponsored by Arcurve who provides a platform for the next generation of computing professionals to pursue excellence.

Prizes Sponsored by
Division 1
First Place $1200
Second Place $600
Third Place $300
Division 2
First Place $300
Second Place $150
Eligibility

Anyone is welcome to compete.

In order to be eligible for prizes, you must be:

  • Enrolled in a post-secondary institution/high school in Alberta as an undergraduate/full time graduate student.
  • In a team of up to three members
  • Participating in the same division as everyone else on your team
  • Please note: high school students are STRONGLY encouraged to register in Division 2.
  • Participating in person in an official contest site.
  • (Extra requirement for Division 2) Students who have not taken (or not currently taking) a data structures course, i.e. CPSC 319/331

Registration

Register here. The registration deadline is at 10:00pm on Wednesday, November 20th.

Time and Location

The contest is set for Saturday, November 23rd, 2019.

In Calgary, the contest will be held in the CPSC lab on the main floor of the Math Science building at the University of Calgary.

10:00 - 10:15 Coffee and mingling!

10:15 - 10:30 Contest Rules in ICT 122

10:30 - 11:15 Practice Contest in the CPSC lab

10:45 - 11:30 Lunch will be served

11:30 - 16:30 Official Contest

16:30- 16:45 Solutions to Problem Set

16:45 - 17:30 Arcurve Presentation + Awards Ceremony + Door Prizes

Cities in Alberta other than Calgary will have their own designated contest location, and teams outside of Alberta will compete remotely as guests from a location of their choice.

Contest Details & Rules

Teams of up to three students enrolled in an Albertan educational institution, meeting the criteria linked to in the "Eligibility" section above may compete for prizes. Teams not meeting these requirements may participate as guests. The contest is free of charge for entry; lunch will be provided to official competitors at the Calgary location.

The contest itself is a collection of 6-10 problems to be solved using C, C++, Java, and Python. Team rankings are decided first by number of problems solved, and second by time taken to solve.

During the contest, the following rules are in effect:

  • Each team has access to exactly one computer, to be used for writing, testing, and submitting code solutions
  • Participants on different teams are not permitted to discuss problems.
  • Internet/network access is restricted to standard library and language documentation, the contest website, and the I/O cheat-sheet (linked below)
  • Teams have unlimited access to written material such as textbooks, notes, and printed example code
  • Use of electronic devices other than the computer is strictly prohibited
  • Teams are ranked according to which has solved the most problems, with ties broken by time taken to solve

You will be provided with a printed copy of the problem set.

You will need a login and a password provided by the organizers to access the contest and practice contest; the main contest will start at 11:30AM MDT on Saturday, November 23rd. The practice contest starts one hour before the main contest and will last 45 minutes. Participation in the practice is optional but recommended for new competitors.

Any disrespectful behavior towards the Competitive Programming Club, our sponsors or participants can result in disqualification from the event.

Permissible Internet resources:

Preparation & Strategy

If you want a leg up on the competition, there are some preparation opportunities available:

Some time-tested strategies for during the competition:

  • Read all the problems, identify the easy ones, and solve them first
  • If you're having trouble identifying easy problems, look at the scoreboard to see what others are solving
  • Computer time is very valuable, so sketch out your program on paper before coding it (unless it's trivially simple)
  • Debugging a program on paper is more effective than sticking print statements everywhere, 99% of the time
  • Come up with your own test cases for your program, especially edge cases