BAPC: The Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2018. It will take place on October 27th, 2018
and is hosted by UCLouvain.
NWERC: The North-Western Europe Regional Contest 2018.
Organisation: The members of the organising committee
Website: This website
Jury: The group of people responsible for making the problems and checking the solutions submitted by the participants.
Tech: The group of people responsible for the system.
Runners: Volunteers responsible for delivering print-outs, answering questions and various other tasks.
Crew: Organisation, members of the jury, tech and runners.
Participant: Member of a participating team that competes in BAPC.
Run: The submission of a solution by a team.
Organisation
The organisation consists of students, alumni and staff of UCLouvain
The organisation has formed a jury which consists of students, staff of different universities, and professionals from industry.
The organisation has formed the tech, a group which consists of staff of UCLouvain.
The organisation will appoint runners who will support the organisation, tech and jury during the contest.
All crew members will be recognisable by their shirt and/or badge.
Participation
Introduction
Participation is only possible in teams of up to 3 persons.
There are two group stages: 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
The organisation has the right to deny the participation of teams before the start of the contest.
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 2018 with the cup and the prize money of 1024,- 512,- and 256,- euros for first, second, and third places respectively.
consists of students who are eligible for the North Western European Programming Contest 2018.
Business teams
A business team:
pays the registration fee of 600,- euros, before the start of the contest.
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 2018.
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 recognizable 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. The organisation is responsible for determining that teams have reasonably equivalent computing resources.
A solution has to be written in C, C++(14), Python or Java (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.
The jury decides per programming language which libraries and function calls are allowed to be used in the solutions. This will be published on website before the contest starts.
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. Each team member is allowed one identical copy.
A team is allowed to bring a dictionary; English to their native language.
A team is allowed to bring one non-programmable wired keyboard. The keyboard needs to be checked by the organisation before the testing session.
A team is allowed to bring paper and pens. Where available, the organisation will be providing paper and pens.
All items that are to be used during the contest, have to be handed in during registration to be checked by the organisation.
Department rules
The house rules apply to everybody inside the building.
Inside computer rooms eating, drinking, smoking and talking in a loud voice is not allowed.
The use of hardware, including all calculators, which is 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. Systems support 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 a 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 a pool is decided by (in order):
The team with the most correctly solved problems.
The team with the least total time. The total time is the sum of the time consumed for each problem solved. The time consumed for a solved problem is 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.
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, using 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.
