2012 Intercollegiate Programming Competition Description

The Intercollegiate Programming Competition will be held on Saturday, March 17, 2012.

• Who is eligible?
• When and how do I register?
• Tell me more about the competition.
• How is the competition judged?
• Are there any prizes?
• Can I see samples from previous competitions?
• Who do I contact if I have questions?

Eligibility

The Intercollegiate Programming Competition is open to any Seminole State College, Valencia College, Brevard Community College or Lake-Sumter Community College student who has a minimum of six credit hours completed at his or her institution and is registered for at least one course during the term in which the contest is conducted. Students related to family members of computer programming faculty are not eligible to compete. Faculty or full-time employees of participating institutions also are not eligible to compete. Professional software developers are not eligible. "Professional" is anyone with the equivalent of 2 or more years of full-time work experience in programming.

Registration

Students must register by Friday, March 16, 2012, at 4 p.m. in order to enter the competition. View the online registration form.

Competition

1. The competition will be held on Seminole State's Sanford/Lake Mary Campus in the upstairs classroom labs in building J (J-101, J-102 and J-103). The competition will begin at 9 a.m. and end at noon. The awards ceremony will be held in room J-100 at approximately 12:45 p.m.
2. Contestants should arrive by 8:30 a.m. Late arrivers may still participate in the competition but will not be given any extra time.
3. Contestants must present a photo ID on the morning of competition.
4. The following development environments will be available: Visual Studio.NET 2010, Dev-C++ and Oracle Java SDK (J2SE 6). The integrated development tools available for Java will be NetBeans and Eclipse. All computers will be running Windows 7.
5. Contestants may use any or all of the following computer programming languages: Visual Basic.NET, Java, C++, C# and/or C.
6. Contestants must solve four computer programming problems, which will be revealed at the start of the competition. Each problem will contain a set of requirements describing the problem to be solved. A set of input test data will be provided as part of the problem description. In addition, expected output based on the provided input test data will be provided. Successful creation of the expected output is not a guarantee that the problem has been solved correctly. Contest judges reserve the right to submit additional test data to further verify the completeness and correctness of the contestant's submission.
7. The problem solutions will not require graphical user interfaces, but contestants may create them if desired. Each problem can be solved by creating a command-line application that uses the standard input and output devices. The problems are logic based and do not require specialized knowledge of application programming interfaces (APIs). In other words, the problems do not require accessing a database, writing or reading files, or communicating with a server or peer client.
8. A contestant may request clarification for any part of any contest problem. The request and response will be provided to all participants.
9. Each contestant will be given access to a Seminole State work station. All work must be completed at this station. Participants may not bring their own computers to the contest.
10. Contestants may use the help system native to the integrated development environment (IDE) they are using. Individuals using Java may also use the standard Oracle documentation for the Java SDK. The Internet, email, instant messaging, cell phones and any other forms of communication are prohibited. Failure to follow this rule will result in immediate disqualification.
11. Contestants may not bring any materials with them to the contest. Writing instruments and paper will be provided, as will access to electronic printing. All printed materials must contain the contestant's name and be retrieved by and delivered to the contestant by a contest supervisor or judge. All contest materials will be collected at the end of the competition. Students may not remove any contest materials, with the exception of their solutions.
12. Contestants may not communicate with anyone during the competition other than a judge or contest supervisor. Contestants may take a break at any time by relaxing in a pre-defined break area within the contest work area. Contestants must remain in this area during all breaks; they may not leave the room. Contestants may not leave the contest work area for any reason without the verbal approval of a contest supervisor or judge. Food and beverages are permitted only in the designated break area. Smoking is allowed only in designated outdoor locations.

Judging

1. The contestant's submission will be scored by a panel of judges based on a set of expected results for each problem. These expected results will be determined before the contest begins. The judges will enter the sample input as described in the problem description. The results from the contestant's solutions will be compared to the expected results as described in the problem description. The contestant's solution will be considered correct if the expected output is created when using the input test data and the judges determine that no further testing is required to validate the solution. In all cases, the judging panel's decision will be final.
2. The application design and programming style (use of comments, indentation, white space, etc.) will not be considered when judging a contestant's solution. The only criterion for successful completion is that the application works as defined by the problem description.
3. A contestant may change a solution after he or she submits it. However, the completion time for that problem also will be changed to reflect the later submission. Any changes to a previously submitted problem will cause the completion time for that problem to be extended. This applies to changes made as a result of oversights such as initially submitting the wrong solution file.
4. Contestants may solve the problems in any order they wish.
5. Each problem requires a separate application program solution. The winner will be the individual who submits the most correct application programs for the contest problems.
6. In the case of a tie, the total time taken to complete the solutions will be used as the tie breaker. If two students finish the same number of problems in the same amount of time, the contest will be considered deadlocked for that position, and the monetary award will be split evenly. For example, if two contestants tie for first place, the students will split the cash prize for first and second place.
7. Prizes will not be awarded to contestants who fail to successfully complete at least one problem.
8. Participating institutions may use their contestants' programs of study, pictures and names for publicity and recognition purposes. No other contestant information will be released without the contestant's express written permission.
9. Participating institutions acquire a non-exclusive right to display and advertise the work of all contestants as it relates to this contest.

Prizes

First prize is a cash award of $500. Second prize is a cash award of $250. Third prize is a cash award of $100.

Sample Problems

Examples of previous programming competition problems are available on the Sample Problems Web page.

Contact

If you have any questions, please email Professor Dick Grant.