How should I prepare for the competition?
++ The best way to practice is by solving the problems from previous + competitions. You can find this all on our archive page. + We will use Kattis to run the competition, so all the problems will be given in a similar + input/output format to those seen in the + Open Kattis Archive. +
+How many people can be on my team?
++ Teams must have a minimum of two students and a maximum of four students. +
+How many teams can we have?
++ We allow for two teams per school to attend our in-person competition + (we may allow more based on registration time and available space). + Any number of teams can join in the virtual open division. +
+What languages can we use?
++ You can use C++, Python, Java or JavaScript. +
++ We recommend that everyone on your team know at least one of these languages in common. We + additionally recommend that teams practice submitting solutions on Kattis because the + input/output is done in a very specific manner that students may not be familiar with. +
++ Ensure that your team knows how to take in Kattis input before the competition day; + see the Kattis input tutorial { `for` } more details. + We will also send out a link to a practice competition to practice submitting code. +
+What difficulty of problems are there?
++ Starting in the 2024 competition, we will only have one division for everyone. There will be 12-15 + problems, + and about a third will be "beginner", a third "novice", and a third "advanced" difficulty. +
++ "Beginner" problem concepts include: arithmetic, expressions, conditionals, and lists. +
++ "Novice" problems concepts include: loops, nested loops, lists, and maybe some data structures. +
++ "Advanced" problems concepts include: data structures (maps, sets) and algorithms (sorting/BFS/DFS) +
++ View + + last year's beginner + problems + and + + last year's advanced + problems + { `for` } a good idea of the range of difficulty for all of our problems. +
+What editors do the competition computers have?
++ The competition computers run on Ubuntu and have the following programs + installed: +
++ IDEs: IntelliJ IDEA, + PyCharm, + Eclipse, + CLion. +
++ Editors: Visual Studio Code, + IDLE, + emacs, + vim +
+How long is the competition?
++ The actual competition will be open for 4 hours, from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM Mountain Time. + There are opening and closing ceremonies lasting an hour at the start and end of the competition. +
+Can I bring my own device?
++ Yes. However, we find that using less computers benefits team problem solving ability as + there is more opportunity for collaboration. + See the rules { `for` } details. +
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