Hi,
apart from GCPC and NWERC, there are also smaller contests like the FAU Winter Contest. It will take place on Saturday, 26th of January, from 10:30 to 16:00.
If you are interested, please fill out this dudle as soon as possible: https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/wintercontest2019/
Once you have a team, you can also fill out the registration form: http://icpc.cs.fau.de/anmeldung.php (Deadline: Monday, 21th of January)
Feel free to invite your fellow students to the competition. The Winter Contest suitable for beginners.
If you have never competed in a GCPC or NWERC or similar, here is some more information:
You will work in teams of two to three people on one(!) computer.
There are about 10 tasks, and your goal is to solve as many of them as possible. You send in your solution as a program that is evaluated automatically on some secret testdata. If the program is both correct and fast enough, you have solved the problem. The contest is 5 hours long.
If you want to read some example problems, here are those from last year: https://icpc.cs.fau.de/problemset_winter_2018.pdf
Note that some of the tasks are marked as particularly easy.
Allowed languages are C++, Java and Python. It is not guaranteed that Python is fast enough to solve every problem, but everything can be solved in C++ and Java.
A computer will be provided to you. The operating system will be some Linux using Xfce and with common IDEs, editors and compilers installed. If there is a specific software you would like to use, please tell me; I can probably install it.
You are allowed (and encouraged) to bring written/printed materials to the contest, including books, but USB-Sticks, Smartphones, pdfs, using the internet (except the contest system) and other electronic materials are not allowed. You can bring your own keyboard and mice.
Bachelor and Master students of any study course are eligible to participate. PhD-students are also sometimes eligible. Just ask me if you are not sure.
The Winter Contest is an ICPC-style training contest, but does not officially belong to ACM ICPC. It is a good way opportunity to get into programming contests before you try the harder ones like GCPC and NWERC.
We also have a title to defend: Last year's winning team was <(OvO)> from our university.
See you there!
Julian
