The MIT Programming Contest (2004-05)

Current Contest Scoreboard

News

• Check the progress of our competitors on individual problems.
• On Feb. 26, MIT hosted a practice ACM contest over the Internet, in which 25 teams participated from all over the world.
• The two MIT teams placed first and second at the Eastern Preliminary Contest in WNEC. Velin Tzanov, Ivaylo Riskov, and David Pritchard advanced to the regional contest in Rochester and placed first, thus advancing to the international contest in Shanghai.
• The results of the individual contest have been posted. Congratulations to Anders Kaseorg for finishing first by solving all the problems!
• The contest logistics have been posted.
• How to do I/O in Java
• More information about the World Finals.
• Questions about how the contest works? See the Contest Logistics.
• Practice for the contest with the Valladolid Online Judge or previous years' problems.
• Upcoming contest: the Individual Contest on October 3, 2004 (1-6pm) in 1-115.
• To hear about contest-related updates, subscribe to the ACM Programming Contest mailing list by either:
  • on Athena, typing blanche acmpc -add $USER or
  • e-mailing pliang@mit.edu.
  We strongly encourage you to subscribe to the mailing list.

Schedule

• MIT Individual Contest: Sunday, October 3, 2004 (1-6pm); Room 1-115
• MIT Team Contest 1: Monday, October 11, 2004 (1-6pm); Room 1-115
• MIT Team Contest 2: Sunday, October 17, 2004 (1-6pm); Room 1-115
• MIT Team Contest 3: Sunday, October 24, 2004
• Prelimiaries: Saturday, October 30, 2004; Western New England College
• Northeast North America Regionals: Saturday, November 13, 2004; Rochester Institute of Technology (rules)
• World Finals: April 3-7, 2005; in Shanghai, China

About

If you like programming and solving problems, we invite you to participate in the MIT Individual Programming Contest. If you're one of the best out there, this is your chance to shine, and join a team consisting of the top programmers at MIT. Even if you don't think you're good enough to compete in the World Programming Finals, you can see how you compare to the best at MIT, and possibly surprise yourself.

We're particularly interested in people who have:

• extensive C/C++/Java programming experience
• experience in contests such as the IOI, USACO, IMO, or USAMO
• taken classes like 6.001, 6.046, 6.170

Contestants must be at least half-time undergraduates or first or second year graduate students. (Students in coop programs such as 6A can participate as well.)

If you are interested or want more information, e-mail pliang@mit.edu.

Contests

The top performers of the MIT Individual Programming Contest will not only earn glory within MIT, they will also be invited to join the MIT Programming Team, and participate in the 2004 ACM Programming Contest. We will use the results of the individual contest to choose several top teams. Each of these teams (and any other teams formed by interested students), consisting of three people sharing one computer, will compete in the MIT team contest, with the results of both contests used to help select the team chosen to represent MIT in the ACM programming contest. The individual contest is mandatory for anyone who wishes to represent MIT in the ACM contests.

The team contests will be 4-5 hours in length, and the teams will use C/C++/Java on Unix boxes. The MIT team will participate in the Preliminary ACM contest, at Western New England College. The top teams in this contest advance to compete in the Northeast Regional ACM contest, at Rochester Institute of Technology. A top two finish in this contest should guarantee a spot in the prestigious ACM World Finals, to be held in Shanghai. All travel expenses for team members will be covered by MIT and the ACM.

The organizers at MIT

This year the MIT Programming Contest is organized by professor Martin Rinard and students Percy Liang, Alex Andoni, and Mihai Badoiu, and publicity manager Ashley Kim. All organization and coaching work is done on a volunteer basis in a limited amount of time. We will do our best to run the contest as smoothly as possible, but be prepared for some glitches.

Contest Tips

• Practice! There are hundreds of practice ACM problems available at the Valladolid Online Judge. You can do problems and submit them for automatic grading.
• Since all problems regardless of difficulty have the same weight and the time recorded for each problem that you solve starts counting from the beginning of the contest, it is advisable to solve easier problems before harder problems.