ICPC Regional Rules for Regionals 2024

Registration

The ICPC contest is a multi-stage contest. Each team needs to register for online preliminary contest
Chennai region (Stage 01) and the qualified teams from Stage 01 will be invited to participate in
preliminary onsite Chennai regional contest (Stage 02). The set of selected teams from the Chennai onsite
contest will be invited to participate in West-Asia contest (Stage 03). The selected teams from the West-
Asia contest will be invited to participate in the world finals (Stage 04).

If a team wishes to be able to qualify for the ICPC World Finals, before competing in ANY regional qualifying
contest, the coach and all team members must be fully registered in the ICPC Global website. A qualifying
contest is one that allows teams to be promoted to a higher level. Incomplete registration or
circumvention that leads to incomplete or false data is grounds for immediate disqualification.

How to Register for Chennai Online Preliminary Contest

Each team is required to register for any two of three regionals namely Chennai, Kanpur, Amritapuri
regionals.

The online preliminary contest will be held as a single contest common for all three sites. However, the
onsite contest will be conducted in their respective sites.

For Detailed Instructions to register the team, please visit https://icpc.global/

Organization

The ICPC International Steering Committee is responsible for establishing regional contest rules, policies
and guidelines. They oversee the conduct of financially-autonomous regional contests, resolve regional
appeals, rule on international issues, recommend ways to make the contest more accessible and attractive
to international participants and review variances in regional rules. There are two standing
subcommittees, the Appeals Committee, and the Eligibility Committee.

All ICPC Regional Contests are organized in accordance with the ICPC Policies and Procedures. Each
Regional Contest Director (RCD) is charged with executing specific regional contests by these ICPC Regional
Rules, the ICPC Policies & Procedures, the ICPC Code of Ethics and Overview and ICPC guidelines.

Each regional contest has the opportunity to vary the rules to accommodate differences in educational
systems and host computing facilities. Such rules do not supersede the ICPC Regional Rules or the ICPC
World Finals Rules. These contest-specific Rules and other helpful information must be posted on the
regional website.
Localization

The language of the Contest is English. All written contest materials will be in English. Additional languages
may be used in regional contests. Where an English term may have multiple interpretations, these must
be defined to ensure all contestants have clarity of meaning.

Team Composition

All team members must be enrolled in the same degree-granting institution of higher education, herein
called the “team institution.” A contact at the team institution, typically a faculty member, must be
designated and registered as the “team coach”. The team coach must certify the eligibility of contestants
and be the official point-of-contact with the team before and during contest activities. A team may only
have one registered coach, and that coach cannot also be a contestant.

The team coach must fully register teams in the ICPC Registration System within the time set by the
regional rules which, for all qualifying Regional Contests, is no later than 7 days before the contest. A

team is not eligible to compete in the regional contest until the regional contest director has accepted the
team in the web registration system. Teams failing to comply with any of these requirements will be ruled
ineligible to compete. Only registered reserves may be substituted for contestants. Such substitutions
must be entered in the ICPC Registration System by the regional contest director before the contest
begins. A reserve can only be substituted for a contestant before the first qualifying contest. Each team
consists of three contestants who are eligible to compete in the ICPC World Finals as described under
Advancing to the ICPC World Finals in the Regional Rules. The team's contestants must satisfy all eligibility
requirements. For more complex decisions, the Eligibility Decision Tree can be used.

Basic Eligibility Requirements

An eligible student must be willing and able to compete in the ICPC World Finals. In particular, a student
who requires a visa to study at the team’s institution must be able to gain a visa to travel to the ICPC World
Finals plus be able to return to the team institution's location after the Finals. A student must be enrolled
in a degree program at the team institution with at least a half-time load. This rule is not to be construed
as disqualifying co-op students, exchange students, students serving internships, or extramural students.

Limits on Participation: Disruption in enrollment caused by epidemics is normally waived.

1. A student may compete only on teams with the same team institution during a contest year.

2. A student who has competed in two ICPC World Finals is NOT eligible to compete in ICPC Regionals with
the following exceptions:

a. ICPC World Finals Moscow (Oct 2021) participation is NOT counted towards the max participation
in two ICPC World Finals. This exception will be removed for regional year 2025/26; and
b. A student promoted to compete in ICPC World Finals 2023 for either of the World Championships
conducted in Sharm during November 2023 will be counted as having participated in one World Finals
towards the max participation in two World Finals.

3. A student who has competed in qualifying regional contests during five different contest years is NOT
eligible to compete with the following exceptions:

a. Regional participation in 2020/21 is not counted towards the maximum of 5 different contest years.
This exception will be removed for regional year 2025/26; and

b. Regional participation in ICPC Regionals 2021/22 and ICPC Regionals 2022/23 counts as only one year
of regional competition. This exception will be removed from the regional year 2025/26..

Period of Eligibility

A student who meets the Basic Requirements and FIRST began post-secondary studies in 2019 or later is
eligible to compete. A student who meets the Basic Requirements and was born in 2000 or later is eligible
to compete. The eligibility status for the regional year 2023/24 is determined as of the date of the first
qualifying contest or 1 October 2023, whichever best favors student eligibility.

Extending the Period of Eligibility A coach may petition the ICPC Eligibility Committee at least three weeks
before the regional contest, to extend the Period of Eligibility for a student whose full-time studies have
been interrupted or extended. (This includes military or civilian service, illness, epidemics, any work, other
studies, or personal reasons). The coach must demonstrate that such an extension would not provide an
unfair advantage to the team.

A petition will normally be approved if the student meets the Basic Eligibility Requirements and has not
completed more than the equivalent of eight semesters of full-time STEM study as of the date of the first
qualifying contest or 1 October 2023, whichever best favors student eligibility. The ICPC Eligibility
Committee will render a decision within five days of receiving the petition.

Where to Compete

Contests are partitioned geographically into “ICPC Regions”, and every degree-granting team institution
is assigned a home ICPC Region, which determines the only advancement path available for all teams
having the same team institution.

Team coaches may request to move all teams with a given team institution to a different home ICPC
Region for a given year for a valid reason. The team coaches from that institution must submit such a
unanimous request to the Director of Regional Contests (DRC), who will approve the request only if the
decision is unanimous among all affected Directors.

Regional Contest Attendance

All team members must attend all contest activities as specified by the regional contest director for that
region. The coach is expected to attend or be available by phone or similar during contest activities. Failure
to attend any of the designated contest events will result in automatic disqualification and forfeiture of
any scholarships and prizes.

Conduct of a Regional Contest

Solutions to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged as accepted or rejected,
and the team is notified of the results.

Public notification of accepted runs may be suspended at an appropriate time (typically during the last
hour of the contest) to keep the final results secret. A general announcement to that effect will be made
during the contest. Notification of rejected runs will continue to be made to the team until the end of the
contest.

A contestant may submit a claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement by submitting a clarification
request. If the judges agree that an ambiguity or error exists, a clarification will be issued to all contestants.

Contestants are not to converse with anyone except members of their team and personnel designated by
the regional contest director. Systems support staff may advise contestants on system-related problems
such as explaining system error messages.

While the contest is scheduled for a particular time length (typically five hours), the regional contest
director has the authority to alter the length of the contest in the event of unforeseen difficulties. Should
the contest duration be altered, every attempt will be made to notify contestants in a timely and uniform
manner.

A team may be disqualified by the regional contest director for any activity that jeopardizes the contest
such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification of contest materials, any activity that may
knowingly or unknowingly adversely impact another team or distracting behavior.

At least six problems will be posted. So far as possible, problems will avoid dependence on detailed
knowledge of a particular application area or particular contest language.

Scoring of a Regional Contest

A problem is solved when it is accepted by the judges. The judges are solely responsible for accepting or
rejecting submitted runs. In consultation with the judges, the Regional Contest Director determines the
winners of the regional contest. The regional contest director and judges are empowered to adjust for or
adjudicate unforeseen events and conditions. Their decisions are final.

Teams are ranked according to the most problems solved. For awards, or in determining qualifier(s) for
the ICPC World Finals, teams who solve the same number of problems are ranked by least total time, and
if need be by the earliest time of submission 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 submission of the first accepted run plus 20 penalty minutes for every
previously rejected run for that problem that was not rejected due to Compilation Error. There is no time
consumed for a problem that is not solved.
Regional Championships

The regional contests are partitioned into eight championships; the ICPC Africa & Arab Championship, the
ICPC Asia East Championship, the ICPC Asia Pacific Championship, the ICPC Asia West Championship, the
ICPC European Championship, the ICPC Latin America Championship, the ICPC Northern Eurasia
Championship, and the ICPC North America Championship. Additional Championships may be defined by
the ICPC Executive Committee.

The highest level Regional Contest may be a Championship Contest. Team composition and requirements
rules for a Championship contest are to be the same as for the World Finals. A Championship contest
should be held no later than three months prior to the World Finals.

Note: The 2023/24 Regional Schedule may extend into the first quarter of 2024.

Regional Contest Computing Environment

The programming languages of the regional contest will include C and C++. Additional programming
languages may be used. The programming languages of the ICPC World Finals are Java, Kotlin, Python and
C/C++.

Each team will use a single workstation. The regional contest director is responsible for determining that
teams have reasonably equivalent computing resources.

Each Regional Contest Director determines whether contestants may bring materials for use during the
contest. Please see the specific regional rules at the ICPC Regional Contest Web Site.

At the Regionals, a team is allowed to bring at most 25 pages (one side printed, A4 sheet) pre-printed
material during the contest. The top, left, bottom and right margins should not be less than 2.54 cm. The
font should be Times Now Roman, Size 12. You are requested to bring the hard copy of this pre-printed
material. Please note that the Chennai Site will not offer any printing facilities for this material, and
requests for printing assistance will not be accommodated.

Complaints, Appeals, and Remedies

If irregularities or misconduct are observed during the contest, team members or coaches should bring
them to the attention of the contest officials so that action may be taken as soon as possible. After the
conclusion of the contest and the results have been made public, coaches may file complaints or appeals
as follows:

Within 1 day: The coach may file a complaint by sending an email containing a text message with no
enclosures to manager@icpc.global

The Contest Manager will forward the complaint to the Regional Contest Director, supervising Regional
Contest Directors, and the Director of Regional Contests, copying the coach.

Within 2 more days: The RCD shall respond to the complaint.

Within 2 more days: The Appeals Committee will investigate the circumstances of the appeal and notify
the coach, RCD and the supervising RCDs.

This process is governed as follows:

The results of the regional contest are not final until the complaints and appeals process has run its course.
Only coaches may file complaints and appeals. An appeal must be based on one or more of the following
circumstances: violations of the Rules, misconduct by teams, or gross misconduct by contest officials with
the intent to harm. The decisions of the judges are final. Specifically, a decision on a problem submission
MAY NOT be appealed. The Appeals Committee overturns decisions only under extraordinary
circumstances. The decision of the Appeals Committee is final. No additional World Finals invitations will
be given to remedy a complaint. All complaints will be acknowledged.

The appeal will be automatically rejected if the above procedure is not followed.

Advancing to the ICPC World Finals

The highest level Regional Contests advance teams to the ICPC World Finals. Additional teams who
competed in the highest level of regional contests may be invited to the ICPC World Finals as wild card
teams.

Teams qualify to advance to the ICPC World Finals through Regional Contests and by satisfying all rules
posted in The Rules of the ICPC World Finals. Specifically:

To qualify for the ICPC World Finals, the coach and all team members must be fully registered in the ICPC
Registration System BEFORE competing in ANY regional qualifying event. Incomplete registration or
circumvention that leads to incomplete or false data is grounds for immediate disqualification.

Only one team from a given institution may advance to the ICPC World Finals. No team member on the
qualifying team may have competed as a contestant in two previous ICPC World Finals.

The coach of a qualifying team is the point-of-contact before and during ICPC World Finals activities. The
coach must complete certification at the Team Certification Web Site within five (5) days of notification.
Qualifying teams will be invited by email within one day of completing certification.

Qualifying teams requiring visas must initiate the process of applying for visas within ten days of being
issued an invitation. Teams failing to comply with any of these requirements will be ruled ineligible to
compete in the ICPC World Finals. Upon completion of these requirements, a qualifying team will be
advanced to the ICPC World Finals.

A team advancing to the ICPC World Finals will be comprised of the same three members as when it
qualified. If a team member is unwilling, unable or unfit to compete in the ICPC World Finals, the coach
must notify the ICPC Manager promptly. A team member who is unwilling or unfit to compete in the ICPC
World Finals will be disqualified from further ICPC competitions. The team member may appeal
disqualification to the Appeals Committee. At on-site registration, participants must provide a picture ID
(passport, drivers license, etc). Contestants must show proof of enrollment at the university during the
term of the regional contest at which they qualified. A letter on university stationery with the signature
of a university official accompanied by an English translation is sufficient.