The contest rules for the Pacific NW Region, including team member eligibility, conform to the ICPC Regional Contest Rules as prescribed by the Contest Steering Committee. In addition, the following rules and/or clarifications are specific to the Pacific Region, as allowed under the "Organization" heading in the aforementioned document. Please read and save all rules for reference.  If you have a team member that does not technically meet the requirements, but you feel s/he should be allowed to complete, please contact the regional director and ask for a waiver. Waivers are decided on a case-by-case basis.  Refer to the team member eligibility information section at the main contest site for more information.

Overview

The purpose of Pacific NW Region Contest is to bring together as many students from as many different schools in the region to compete in a spirit of fun.  The contest staff works, at all times, for the best intent of the students.  Any decisions or judgments are based on the information at hand, and are predicated on fairness to all.

Team Composition

Each team that competes in the contest may make substitutions for contestants who are unable or unwilling to compete, provided that the team Coach or Faculty Advisor notifies the Regional Contest Director in a timely manner. Such substitutions must not violate other rules of team composition.  There must be three members per team.

Schools may register up to 6 teams, depending on space at the site the school will attend. Teams will be allotted positions on a first come, first served basis for the first four teams. All schools are 'guaranteed' four teams, space permitting at that site.  Space permitting, additional teams will be allowed.  If your closest site does not have enough room for all your teams, you are welcome to send teams to another site that has room to accommodate those teams.

Conduct of the Regional Contest

1. There will be two divisions.  Division I is for algorithmically strong teams.  The Division I (D1)problem set will be a lite version of the problems you might see at World Finals.  Division II (D2) is approachable for teams that have not completed the algorithm sequence at their school and/or have not competed in programming contests before. Almost all problems in D2 will be at the CS1 and CS2 levels.  Most teams in this division have a great chance at solving many problems.  If a team does well in this division this year, that team should try D1 next year!  Participating in D2 will not count against your eligibility for World Finals in future years (other than the rules established by ICPC itself based on age/year in school -- the the Contest Rules tab above for more information on the ICPC rules).  Please see the following FAQ for more details on the two divisions: Two Divisions FAQ

2. At least 10 problems will be posed.

3. Problems will be posed in English. During the contest, all communications with contest officials must be in English. Contestants may bring electronic natural language translators that do not support math operations.

4. Contestants may not bring PDAs, cell phones, MP3 players, CD players, calculators or any other electronic device or media.

5. Contestants may bring any human readable material, including books, manuals and printed code. (Teams from the same school may NOT share these resources.)

6. Rules document (print & bring to contest, if desired)

Scoring of the Contest

The Judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the Judges, the Head Judge is responsible for determining the winners of the contest. They are empowered to adjust for or adjudicate unforeseen events and conditions. Their decisions are final.

Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams who solve the same number of problems are ranked first by least total time and, if need be, by the earliest time of submittal of the last accepted run.

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 first accepted run plus 20 penalty minutes for every previously rejected run for that problem. There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.