High School Programming League 2009/10

1. Preliminaries

1. The Organizers of the Contest are Talent Association, 81-116 Gdynia ul. Bosmañska 28A/1, Poland and Sphere Research Labs Sp. z o.o., 81-451 Gdynia, Al. Zwyciêstwa 96/98, Poland.
2. The official contest website is hs.spoj.pl.
3. The goal of the contest is to promote programming skills and algorithmic knowledge among high school students and to present an application of the SPOJ system in the teaching of programming and algorithms.
4. All specified dates and times refer to SPOJ local time, i.e. the Warsaw time zone (CET/CEST).

2. General rules

1. The contest consists of two parts. First part takes place via the Internet Service "Sphere Online Judge" available on-line at www.spoj.pl, called SPOJ henceforth. The official contest website is hs.spoj.pl.
2. The contest starts on September 5th, 2009 at noon (12:00) and finishes April 24th, 2010 at noon (12:00). The detailed contest schedule is available on the contest page. The second part - finals will be held on-site in Gdynia.
3. Problem formulations are made available online on the official contest website according to the contest schedule.
4. All problems are formulated in English (translation into Polish will also be made available).
5. Rules of the contest are null and void if in contradiction of local laws and regulations. Contestants from such locations are not eligible to participate. Prizes will only be shipped to addresses in countries for which no applicable international trade embargos are in place.

3. Contestants

1. The contest is open for all users of SPOJ, but please take to account  7.1.
3. Participation in the contest is only allowed after acceptance of the rules and regulations of SPOJ.
4. Each contestant is obliged to solve problems independently. Sharing solutions with other contestants and third parties before the submission deadline is strictly forbidden.
5. Participation in the contest is free of charge.

4. Schools and contestants registration

1. Each school which is officially represented in the contest must be registered. Only high schools or schools educating at a similar or lower level are eligible to register. In particular, universities and colleges may not register.
2. Registration is performed solely by means of the registration form available on the contest website. This form must be filled according to guidelines printed, signed by school authorities and sent to contest Organizers:

   Stowarzyszenie TALENT
   Al. Zwyciêstwa 96/98
   81-451 Gdynia
   Poland
   "High School Programming League"

   or send by fax:

   +48 58 735 11 60

   or scanned and send to:

   sekretariat@talent.edu.pl The form must be received by contest Organizers by October 10th, 2009 (inclusive).

3. A school may only be registered by a person authorized to represent it, henceforth called the Representative of the school. Completion of the registration process requires that the following data is accurately provided: the full official name of the school and the address of the school. The Representative of the school is also requested to provide his/her name, e-mail and phone number.
4. Each registered contestant is requested to provide his/her name, data of birth and an e-mail address. Contestants become registered in the contest when they are approved by the school's Representative. Only school students born not earlier than January 1, 1991 are eligible for registration.
5. The Representative of each school is responsible for the correctness and completeness of the submitted data. Student who did not revealed the requested data is not eligible for regstration.
6. The Representative of the school is responsible for monitoring the data.

5. Submission of solutions to problems

1. Solutions may only be submitted by way of the SPOJ system.
2. Terms of use of the SPOJ system are described in a separate document accessible from the official SPOJ website.
3. Solutions submitted by all contestants are tested in a homogenous environment, using the same data sets for all participants.
4. Detailed rules describing the process of submitting solutions and scoring rules will be made available together with the problem formulations.

6. Scoring and rankings

1. Registered contestans are classified in up to 17 years, up to 19 categories. All contestants are classified in open category. There are separate rankings for each category.
2. In a first part of a contest, series individual standings are based on the sum of points scored for individual problems (small points).
3. Overall standings are based on the sum of big points taken from three best results obtaine by the contestant. Big points are awarded as follows:
   1. Top 100 receive big points in reversed series results, i.e. the winner receives 100 big point, the second 99 big points .... hundredth receives 1 big point.
   2. in addition each contestant who, score not less than 20% of the series winner resukt receives 5 big points.
   3. in addition the winner receives 15, the second 10 and third 5 big points.
4. School standings depends on the sum of big points scored by at most five of the top registered contestants from the given school.
5. Overall school standings depends on the sum of points scored by the school in all problem series.
6. While the first contest series ends the Organizers will invite at least top 20 contestants from up to 19, and top 20 contestatnts from up to 17 to take part in the High School Programming League World Finals to Gdynia (to break a tie the following criterias are taken to an accoung: total sum of big points taken from all 5 contest series, the total sum of small points, the earlier date of birth and lucky draw).
7. Accomodation during the finals in Gdynia will be guaranteed for participanst by the Organizers. Rules and detailed schedule of the Finals will be announced by March 30, 2010.

7. Prizes and sponsorship

1. Only registered schools and registered contestants (as reported by school Representatives) are eligible to receive prizes.
2. The Organizer will award prizes to the best schools and best individual contestants based on their position in the final standings (in both: up tp 17 and up to 19 categories), for partial results scored in successive series of problems, and also intends to provide gifts to randomly chosen contestants.
3. In case of a tie, by mutual consent and whenever possible, the Organizer and all interested parties may agree to split a prize among all contestants or schools participating in the tie. Otherwise, one winner is drawn at random. All participants of the draw retain the right to all non-material benefits, e.g. the winner's title.
4. A detailed list of the remaining prizes will be announced by March 30, 2010.
5. A detailed list of prizes for each internet contest series will be announced before the start of the series.
6. A detailed list of all sponsors is available on the official contest website.

8. Final regulations

1. In all cases not covered by these regulations, all decisions are at the discretion of the Organizer. The Organizer's decisions are final and not subject to appeal.
2. It is the Contestant's sole responsibility to pay tax on prizes, if required by law in the Contestant's country of tax residence.
3. In justified cases the organizer reserves the right to adjust the contest schedule.
4. The Organizer may not be held liable for any disruption of the contest on grounds of tort, negligence or otherwise in the event of Act of God, acts of malice, and any other unforeseen circumstances.
5. The Organizer reserves the right, at its discretion, to disqualify a contestant in the event that the contestant is found by the Organizer to have provided incorrect data, or to have registered for participation in the contest multiple times (i.e. using multiple SPOJ user accounts), or to have attempted an attack on the system, including any form of denial-of-service attack, or to have violated the regulations of the SPOJ system or these regulations, or to have violated copyright law (as applicable in Poland), or to have performed any other action intended to disrupt or discredit the contest.
6. Upon registration, the Contestant agrees to be bound by these terms and regulations.
7. Personal data provided by users may be used by the Organiser for purposes directly related to the Contest and managing the SPOJ platform, only, and its privacy is protected by applicable provisions of EU and Polish legislation. The Contestant has the right to correct or withdraw any of the provided personal data at any time.