Cover Page
About the Contest
Registration and Other Preparations
The Event
Getting Contestants Ready
Contacting Us
Changes From Last Year

OverviewOutline of the EventTeam EligibilityContest FormatExpenses and Financial Support

Overview

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is organized and conducted yearly by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Started in the 1970s as a local contest somewhere in Texas and then having grown exponentially in the number of participating universities each year. In 2003/2004, 3150 teams from 1411 universities in 75 countries competed for the bragging rights of being the World's Programming Champions.

The ACM programming contest provides college students an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem solving and computing skills. Besides the fun of competing (and hopefully winning), the contest also provides an excellent opportunity for listening to well-known speakers and making international contacts in computing science. For this year, we're delighted to have Bill Cheswick of Lumeta Corporation as the distinguished keynote speaker of the event.

The contest is a two-tiered competition among teams of students representing institutions of higher education. The winning teams of the regional contests advance to the contest finals, which will be held in Shanghai, China in April 2005.

OverviewOutline of the EventTeam EligibilityContest FormatExpenses and Financial Support

Outline of the Event

The Seventh ACM Arab and North African Regional Programming Contest (ANARC) is organized this year by Kuwait University. The contest lasts for two days starting Wednesday December 1, 2004.

Participants should arrive no later than Tuesday (November 30, 2004) evening. Registration will be at the Hotel premises on Tuesday. The official opening ceremony will be held Wednesday morning. Following the opening ceremony, we'll have the event's introductory session, presentation of the teams, and the presentation of the keynote speaker. There will be a welcoming lunch afterwards. Wednesday evening will be reserved for a practice session for contestants to get acquainted with the contest environment followed by a Q/A session (if necessary.)

The contest will take place Thursday (2/12/2004) morning from 10:00am to 3:00pm. The contest will last exactly five hours. Each team, composed of up to three students, will get a set of six to nine problems which they have to solve on a single computer, programming either JAVA, C, or C++. During the whole contest, a buffet will be provided.

The results and the celebration of the winning teams will take place on Thursday evening. A formal dinner is included.

We're planning at least two social activities in celebration of this event. On Tuesday evening, we'll hold the second ACM Collegiate Arab and North African Bowling contest. followed by an informal dinner. Another activity is in the works for Friday morning.

OverviewOutline of the EventTeam EligibilityContest FormatExpenses and Financial Support

Team Eligibility

A team consists of up to three contestants. The eligibility rules for contestants are:

  1. Each contestant must be a student enrolled in a degree program at the sponsoring institution with at least half-time load.
  2. A maximum of one student can be a graduate student.
  3. No contestant may have completed two years of post-baccalaureate studies or hold a graduate degree.
  4. Students who have competed in two contest finals are not eligible.
A member of the faculty of the institution sponsoring the team must certify the eligibility of all contestants. Each team designates a team coach (preferably not a contestant; preferably a faculty member) who will be the team representative and point of contact before and during the contest.

Each institution may participate with a maximum of two teams but a third team may be approved if the total number of teams doesn't exceed the capacity of the testing center. If we're not able to accommodate all institutions that registered a third team, priority will be given to institutions which had teams that ranked in the top-ten teams in the Arab and North African Regional Programming Contest in any of the past three years (i.e. 2000, 2001, or 2002. No institution will have more than three teams.

OverviewOutline of the EventTeam EligibilityContest FormatExpenses and Financial Support

Contest Format

The contest lasts for five hours. Each team has to solve a set of six to nine problems on a single computer in JAVA, C or C++. To get an idea of the kind of problems, have a look at this problem set archive, which contains a large number of problems from past contests. Go to this page for more information on getting ready for the contest.

Contestants may bring reference materials such as books and manuals; but neither machine-readable versions nor their own computers or pocket calculators are allowed. Mobile phones are not allowed in the contest hall. Any team attempting to tamper the machines, or disrupt the contest environment in any way will be disqualified.

Solutions are judged by running them for some secret test cases. The contest judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of the submitted solutions; their decision is final. Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. Teams who solve the same number of problems are ranked by least total time.

Each participant will receive a certificate of participation. Furthermore, IBM will be donating awards for the winning three teams. Local sponsors will also be donating awards for the winning team.

OverviewOutline of the EventTeam EligibilityContest FormatExpenses and Financial Support

Expenses and Financial Support

Each person (whether a participant, reserve, team coach or faculty advisor) attending the contest will have to pay a participation fee of US$ 20. This allows for participation in the contest seminar and practice session, and all activities and meals offered during the contest. The participation fee is to be paid in cash at the registration desk On Tuesday 30/11/2004. Teams who have registered but not paid the fee may not participate.

Kuwait University will cover the cost of accommodation of one team (a maximum of three contestants and a coach,) from each institute. In addition, Kuwait University will cover the cost of accommodation for teams winning in national contests.

We have a limited travel support grant. The only travel support we can offer at this point is US$ 500 payable upon arrival. The rules for travel support are:

  1. Application for travel support is for institutes and not for teams: One travel support grant per institute.
  2. The institute whose team have won a national contest will be granted a travel grant.
  3. Priority is for institutes participating for the first time.
  4. Priority is for countries whose Kuwait Airways travel cost to Kuwait exceeds US$ 350 per ticket.
  5. Otherwise, it's first-requested, first-granted basis.
Please send an email to travel@acm.kuniv.edu for further information or to request travel support.

Since IBM is sponsoring all regional contests, you may request some financial support for your team by writing to your national IBM headquarters. Another source of financial support might be the ACM Chapter of your country, your university, or the private sector. (These are tips; we cannot guarantee that any of these institutions are able or willing to support your team.)

OverviewOutline of the EventTeam EligibilityContest FormatExpenses and Financial Support