Rules

Changelog

The changelog tracks changes from 12 September 2019 onwards.

12 September, 2019: added information related to photos taken.
14 September, 2019: added rule forbidding electronic devices in computer rooms.
20 September, 2019: added information related to the award ceremony livestream.
16 October, 2019: added Kotlin as supported language.

General Rules

Definitions

BAPC: The Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2019. It will take place on October 19th, 2019 and is hosted by study association Thalia and mathematics study association Desda.
Organisation: the members of the organising committee, appointed by the organizing study associations.
Website: The website, maintained by the organisation and available at 2019.bapc.eu.
Jury: The group of people responsible for making the problems and checking the solutions submitted by the participants.
Technical staff: The group of people responsible for the system (the digital environment, jury system, printing, etc.).
Runners: Volunteers responsible for delivering print-outs, answering questions and various other tasks supervised by the organisation.
Crew: Organisation, members of the jury, tech and runners.
Participant: Member of a participating team that computes in BAPC.
Run: The submission of a solution by a team.
Institution: A university in the Benelux.

Organisation

The organisation consists of members of study association Thalia and members of mathematics study association Desda.
The organisation has formed a jury which consists of students, staff of different universities, and professionals from industry.
The organisation has formed a technical staff, a group which consists of students of the Radboud University.
The organisation will appoint runners who will support the organisation, tech and jury during the contest.
All crew members will be recognisable during the BAPC by their shirt and/or badge.

Participation

Introduction

Participation is only possible in teams of up to 3 persons.
There are two team classifications: one for student teams and one for business teams.
Changing the composition of a team is only possible with the permission of the organisation and only before the start of the contest.
The organisation decides how many teams from each institution are allowed to compete. The organisation will consider the number of interested contestants from each institution. Teams consisting of 3 team members will get preference over teams with less members.
The organisation has the right to deny the participation of teams before the start of the contest.

Photos and videos

Participants and coaches agree that on the day of the contest, on-site, photos will be taken. Objection may be made to a photographer at any point.
The photos taken will be published on the website afterwards. In case someone objects to a photo in which he or she is recognizable, the photo will be immediately removed from the website.
There will be a public livestream of the award ceremony available on the website. The recording will be publicly available afterwards too. If you do not want to appear on this livestream or want to be removed from the footage afterwards, please contact the organization.

Student teams

A student team:

May participate for free.
Exists of students from the same institution and who are not participating in another team. The institutions must be located in either Belgium, Luxembourg or The Netherlands.
Has a coach, which is the contact person of a team. This can be a team member or a student or staff member of the institution.
Participates in the student teams pool for the title “Winner of the Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2019” with the cup and the prize money of 1024,- 512,- and 256,- euros for the first, second and third places respectively.
Consists of students who are eligible for the North Western European Programming Contest 2019.

Business teams

A business team:

Consists of persons who are employed by the same company or institution.
Participates in the business teams pool for the title “Winner of the Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2019”.

The contest

Introduction

The language of the contest is English. All written contest materials will be in English.
The contest lasts for 5 hours.
From the beginning until one hour before the end of the BAPC, the scores are displayed.
During the contest, all contestants will have to wear recognisable clothing provided by the organisation, unless explicit exemption is given by the organisation.

Problems

At least six problems will be posed. So far as possible, problems will avoid dependence on detailed knowledge of a particular applications area or particular contest language.
A contestant may submit a claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement by submitting a clarification request to a judge. If the judges agree that an ambiguity or error exists, a clarification will be issued to all contestants.
The jury has the right to change or withdraw problems during the contest. When this happens the jury will inform all teams.

System

Each team will use a single workstation, consisting of a table for the team members and one computer. The organisation is responsible for determining that teams have reasonably equivalent computing resources.
A solution for a problem has to be written in C99, C++ (version 14 or later will be available), Python (versions 2 and 3 will be available using pypy), Java (version 11 or later) or Kotlin (version 1.3), unless the problem statement explicitly states otherwise. Business teams can request other submission languages, on which the organisation will decide whether it will be made available for submission.
For every solution, only the standard library of the chosen language may be used, i.e. no other function calls can be made.
All prints made by the teams will be brought by a runner. Participants are not allowed near the printers.
A team is allowed to bring up to 25 A4-sized pages, printed one-sided or up to 12.5 A4-sized pages, printed two-sided, of documentation. Text and illustrations must be readable by a person with correctable eyesight without magnification from a distance of 1/2 meter. Each team member is allowed one identical copy.
A team is allowed to bring a dictionary from English to their native language.
A team is allowed to bring one non-programmable wired USB keyboard and/or USB mouse. The keyboard and the mouse needs to be checked by the jury before the testing session. In other cases, a QWERTY keyboard and mouse is provided.
A team is allowed to bring pen and paper. Where available, the organisation will be providing pen and paper.
Phones and other electronic devices, to be judged by the jury, are not allowed in the computer rooms.
All items that are to be used during the contest, have to be handed in during registration to be checked by the organisation. Registration is done per team.

Department rules

The house rules apply to everybody at the event.
Inside or near the university buildings, smoking is not allowed.
Inside computer rooms eating, drinking and talking in a loud manner is not allowed.
The use of hardware, including all calculators, not approved by the organisation is strictly forbidden, with exceptions of simple watches and medical equipment.
Changing of hardware or operating software is strictly forbidden.
During the contest, participants are not to converse with anyone except members of their team and the crew. Technical staff may advise contestants on system-related problems such as explaining system error messages.
Participants will follow orders given by the crew.
Participants will wear the shirt and badge provided by the organisation. Company members are allowed to wear a shirt with clear company logo on it.

Judgement

Each run is judged as accepted or rejected by a judge, and the team is notified of the results.
For each problem, the jury has a correct solution and test data.
A problem is solved when it is accepted by the judges. The judges are solely responsible for accepting or rejecting runs.
The winner of the pool is decided by (in order):
1. The team with most correctly solved problems.
2. The team with the least total time. The total time is the sum of the time elapsed from the beginning of the contest to the submittal of the accepted run plus 20 penalty minutes for every rejected run for that problem regardless of submittal time. There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.
3. The team that first submitted its last accepted problem is ranked higher. In case a tie still remains, the team that first submitted its second-last accepted problem is ranked higher, and so on. In the event that this does not resolve the tie, the ranks will be determined by chance.
The jury is responsible for everything that has to do with the problem set and can be contacted for this through the “clarification requests”.

Special rules

A team may be disqualified by the organisation or jury for any activity that jeopardises the contest such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorised modification, unintended use of contest materials, using forbidden function or library calls or distracting behaviour.
The organisation has the right to stop the contest, extending the contest time, temporarily block submissions for all teams or change the scores in exceptional conditions.
In situations to which no rule applies or there is ambiguity about the rules, the organisation decides.
If necessary, the organisation can make changes and exception to the rules.