Programming Contest

To participate in the student programming contest, you must first register on the LightOJ website. This can be done by visiting the LightOJ website and select the "Sign Up" button located in the top right corner of the page.

This will take you to the registration page where you can create your account. Make sure to note down your username as it will be required in the application form for the programming contest.

Solve Problems

Host Contenst & Participate

Teams consist of 2-3 students, with one alternate member. Each institution may enroll one team for the contest. Second and third teams from an institution may be accepted pending space availability. Please note that all team members must have a valid LightOJ account before applying to the contest. The application form must be filled out and submitted by the deadline of March 17, 2023.

Late submissions will not be accepted. The administrator will create the team handle in LightOJ with your team’s name. LightOJ requires a minimum of three members per team.

If your team has less than three members, a dummy member will be added to your team. The web application form will require the following information:

• Names and email addresses of team members, name and the email id of the alternate member
• The name of the team leader and contact email address
• Advisor/Coach name and email address
• University name
• The LigthOJ usernames/handles of all team members including the alternate member.

Once this information is submitted, contest organizer Jey Chelladurai will create the team in LightOJ and provide you with a team handle before the mock contest on Friday, March 24, 2023. If you have any further questions, please contact Jey Chelladurai at jchelladur@esu.edu

Contest problems, Languages, and Environment

All teams will be given a set of problems of varying difficulty levels, which will come from areas such as mathematics and computer science. LightOJ supports a variety of programming languages, including C, C++, C#, Objective C, Go, Java, Kotlin, Haskell, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, Python, R, and Ruby. The program should take input from standard input and produce output to standard output, as specified in the problem statement. The format of input and output is provided in the problem description, and there is no need for a special character or blank line to indicate the end of input. Additionally, the program should not attempt to open any files. The contest must be taken at designated ESU facilities. Students may bring their own laptops or use ESU computers that will be available.

The teams will have a set time limit, usually around 3 hours, to solve as many problems as they can. The team with the most solved problems and the least penalty time, which is calculated by adding the time taken to solve each problem, will be declared the winner.

A mock contest will be held for one hour after the keynote speech on Friday, March 24, 2023, at the Science and Technology Center, 3rd Floor, STC 3xx to familiarize teams with the system. Teams should be prepared to participate in the mock test before the main contest.

Submission of the Solution

Participants are allowed to use online resources for syntax and API of programming languages but should not search for answers to the problems online. To submit their solution, they must first select a programming language from the drop-down list on the LightOJ submission page, then either type their code into the provided editor or upload a file, and finally click the submit button as shown below. The system will then compile and run the program against test cases. If the program passes all the test cases, the solution will be considered correct, and the team will be awarded points for that problem. If the program fails any of the test cases, the solution will be considered incorrect, and the team will not receive any points for that problem. The team with the most points at the end of the contest will be declared the winner. There is no penalty for multiple submission or wrong submissions. The teams should also be familiar with the Code of Conduct and abide by it during the contest. It is important to note that plagiarism will not be tolerated, and any team found to have copied solutions from other teams or online sources will be disqualified from the contest. Overall, the programming contest is a great opportunity for teams to showcase their skills and compete against other universities. It is important to be prepared, work well as a team, and have a good understanding of the rules and regulations.

Scoring

The evaluation method for the programming contest is binary, where solutions are classified as either passing or failing. The platform will run test cases and compare the output of the submitted solution to the expected output. To be considered a passing solution, the program must pass all test cases and will be awarded the designated score for that problem. The ranking of teams will be determined by their scores, with tiebreakers decided by the time it took to reach that score, following the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) style. The team with the highest score and the least time will be declared the winner of the contest. The top-ranked teams will receive prizes and recognition for their achievement. It is important to note that the contest is not only about winning, but also about learning and improving your programming skills.

Additional Notes

It is important to note that this will be the first time using the LightOJ platform for the PACISE programming contest. There may not be dedicated technical support from LightOJ during the event. We encourage students/teams to participate in other contests and the mock contest prior to PACISE to familiarize themselves with the platform. If you need additional information, please contact Jey Chelladurai, the contest organizer, at jchelladur@esu.edu. Despite this, we will do our best to address any issues during the contest. In the case of a last-minute technical issue with LightOJ, we reserve the right to switch to a pencil and paper-based contest.