Hi everyone!
I hope you're all doing well. Winter Contest 2025 (one of the three most important contests of the year for us) will be held on Saturday January 25th. So exactly two weeks from today. You can register on the website: https://wintercontest.io/signup.
If you are not ICPC-eligible anymore (use this (https://cdn.vis.ethz.ch/cpc-eligibility2024) to check whether you are eligible), you can still participate, just click the "We are participating out of competition" button.
Feel free to contact me (email: egorbachev(a)cs.uni-saarland.de, telegram: @peltorator) if you have any questions.
Best,
Egor
Dear all,
NWERC (https://2024.nwerc.eu/) is our biggest competitive programming event of the year. It is hosted yearly and includes teams from all around Germany, Benelux, UK, Scandinavia, and more. This year it is hosted at the end of November in Delft, the Netherlands. Normally, we send three teams to the competition. However, as Delft University is hosting this event for a third year in a row, they could not accomodate the full-scale competition. Therefore, this year we will be able to send either one or two teams.
To decide who is going to Delft, we will organize a selection contest on Saturday, October 26th in the auditorium 407 of E1.1. I encourage everybody to come and try your luck! Even if you don't feel like you are yet strong enough, it is always a good idea to train, see how well you do compared to the others, and prepare for what to expect next year when you will beat all other participants :)
You can check whether you are eligible or not using this diagram (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cFXF7ZKNP72ZZrq3yVIrREdk-snse1aX/view). In case of doubt, contact me. Also, note that in many situations exceptions can be made, so also contact me if you are unsure about your situation.
P.S. If you know any potentially interested people who have just started studying at our university or have already been here for some time but are not subscribed to either our mailing list or the NWERC telegram group, please let them know about this (and invite them to the chat).
My contact information:
- telegram: https://t.me/peltorator
- email: egorbachev(a)cs.uni-saarland.de
Best,
Egor
Dear all,
Reminder: GCPC 2024 will take place this Saturday.
The registration is open until tomorrow evening.
Register your team at https://gcpc.nwerc.eu/signup
If you don't have a team, you can text me (egorbachev(a)cs.uni-saarland.de), and I can connect you with other teamless people
If you are not eligible anymore, you can still participate, just click the "We are participating out of competition" button.
Best,
Egor
Hi everyone!
This year, our university will again participate in NWERC, held again in Delft on November 24 - 26.
Please register at https://dud-poll.inf.tu-dresden.de/nwerc2023/ if you are interested.
For more information regarding the competition and team selection, see here: https://pad.ente.ninja/s/eZCAzNuoh
Best,
Julian
Hi,
this Saturday, the 17th of June, from 11:00 to 16:00, the next GCPC takes place.
If you are interested, please fill out this poll: https://dud-poll.inf.tu-dresden.de/4UFmIxJWoA/
Please also send me an email if you have not participated before. Feel free to invite your fellow students to the competition.
If you have never competed in a GCPC or NWERC, here is some more information:
In the GCPC, you will work in teams of two to three people on one(!) computer.
There are about 10-15 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 2018: https://2018.gcpc.nwerc.eu/problemset_2018.pdf
Task I would be considered an easy task, while task M is hard.
Allowed languages are C++, C, Java and Python.
During the contest, you will be required to use a virtual machine (running Xfce on Ubuntu Linux) with common IDEs, editors and compilers installed. It will restrict your access to the internet and to other materials on your computer.
You are however allowed (and encouraged) to bring written/printed materials to the contest, including books. You can bring your additional keyboard and mice if you want to use them.
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.
After the GCPC, there will be the NWERC (Northwestern Europe Regional Contest) sometime around November in Delft in the Netherlands. Every University can send one to three teams. Usually we find someone who finances the travel and accommodation.
Even though the GCPC is a mostly independent training contest, the performance of our best teams may influence how many teams we can send to NWERC.
See you there!
Julian
Hi,
the NWERC 2022 will take place on November 25th to 27th in Delft in the Netherlands. We can most likely send two or three teams of three people each.
If you have never competed in GCPC, NWERC or similar contests, you can find some additional information below.
Since there may be more than 6 to 9 people who are interested, we may have to do a team selection.
We will do up to two qualification contests where everyone competes alone, and the top ranked people in these qualification contests have to form teams and can go to NWERC.
The deadline for team selection and registration is around November 3rd.
Please fill out https://dudle.rwu.de/NWERC_Selection/ if you are interested.
Ideally, we would meet at the university for 3-5h, but there are alternative solutions if you are not available at the chosen time.
Feel free to invite your fellow students to the competition.
If you have never competed in a GCPC or NWERC, here is some more information:
In the NWERC (http://www.nwerc.eu/) you will work in teams of up 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 test data. 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 2019: https://open.kattis.com/contests/nwerc17open/problems
Task I would be considered an easy task, while for example task H is harder.
Allowed languages are C++, Java and Python.
A computer will be provided to you. The operating system will be some Linux with common IDEs, editors and compilers installed. If there is a specific software you would like to use, please tell me; I can ask the organizers to install it.
We bring a printed team reference document that usually contains code for common algorithms. Bringing further material (e.g. USB-Sticks, Smartphones, pdfs) to the contest or using the internet (except the contest system) are not allowed.
We usually find sponsors for the travel and accommodation cost and there is no participation fee.
To make the organization easier, we have a Discord Server (https://discord.gg/dmhKxApZCT) and an old Telegram group (mostly German, https://t.me/+Qo3tx2Z82pi_1J3D)
If you want to train, I recommend https://cses.fi/book/ (especially for beginners) and https://cp-algorithms.com/
Best,
Julian
Hi,
on Saturday, the 25th of June, from 11:00 to 16:00, the next GCPC takes place.
If you are interested, please fill out this poll until the 22nd of June: https://dud-poll.inf.tu-dresden.de/GCPC_Participants/
Please also send me an email if you have not participated before. Feel free to invite your fellow students to the competition.
If you have never competed in a GCPC or NWERC, here is some more information:
In the GCPC, you will work in teams of two to three people on one(!) computer.
There are about 10-15 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 2018: https://2018.gcpc.nwerc.eu/problemset_2018.pdf
Task I would be considered an easy task, while task M is hard.
Allowed languages are C++, C, Java and Python.
During the contest, you will be required to use a virtual machine (running Xfce on Ubuntu Linux) with common IDEs, editors and compilers installed. It will restrict your access to the internet and to other materials on your computer.
You are however allowed (and encouraged) to bring written/printed materials to the contest, including books. You can bring your additional keyboard and mice if you want to use them.
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.
After the GCPC, there will be the NWERC (Northwestern Europe Regional Contest) sometime around November in Delft in the Netherlands. Every University can send one to three teams. Usually we find someone who finances the travel and accommodation.
Even though the GCPC is a mostly independent training contest, the performance of our best teams may influence how many teams we can send to NWERC.
See you there!
Julian
Hi,
NWERC 2021 will be on 2021-11-21. The registration deadline is 2021-03-12. Link: https://www.nwerc.eu/
The best teams qualify for the ICPC World Finals, one of the most prestigious programming contests.
Sadly this NWERC will again be an online contest. Usually we would have traveled to a contest location somewhere in northwestern Europe, but due to the current situation it will be online, with the option of meeting at the university to participate.
It will be very similar to the GCPC in June, but generally the tasks are more difficult.
The rules are the same as for the last NWERC, but quite different to usual ICPC regionals: Each team member may use their own computer and you do not have to physically meet your team or anyone else.
You may also copy arbitrary code from the internet or anywhere else, but have to provide a link to the source in your code.
The contest is 5 hours long and has about 10-12 tasks, which are algorithmic in nature and comparable to GCPC or the competitive programming lecture.
In a team of three people, you should try to solve as many of them as possible.
Allowed languages include C++, Python 3 and Java.
There is a restriction of at most 3 teams per university.
Please fill out quick poll if you want to participate (today): https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/nwerc2021/
Best,
Julian
Hi,
this Saturday, on the 26th of June from 11:00 to 16:00, it is once again time for GCPC.
This year, the GCPC will again take place online. It is not necessary to leave your house to participate.
Please join our Discord server until Wednesday (18th) if you want to participate: https://discord.gg/dmhKxApZCT
It will be used for communication, solution presentations after the competition and preparation for future contests.
You may also use the Discord to find team members. If you have a team, you can already register here: https://icpc.cs.fau.de/anmeldung/ [1]
Feel free to invite your fellow students to the competition.
The online format requires some changes to the competition rules. Most importantly, you may use your own hardware and software setup and the usual restriction of one computer per team does not apply.
If you have never competed in a GCPC or NWERC, here is some more information:
In the GCPC, you will work in teams of one to three people.
There are about 12 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 2018: http://gcpc.nwerc.eu/problemset_2018.pdf
Task I would be considered an easy task, while task M is hard.
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.
You are allowed to use any available material, but it is strictly prohibited to communicate with other teams during the contest.
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.
After the GCPC, there will be the NWERC (Northwestern Europe Regional Contest) in November. It is organized by the Reykjavik University, and we hope it will be possible to travel there to participate on-site.
Best,
Julian
[1] If you fill out the registration, your data will be transmitted to the ICPC organizers (https://icpc.global/). You will also likely receive an email asking for additional information. For GCPC, it should not be necessary to provide all of the requested information.
Hi,
NWERC 2020, which was supposed to be last November, will be on 2021-03-28. The registration deadline is 2021-03-16. Link: https://www.nwerc.eu/
The best teams qualify for the ICPC World Finals, one of the most prestigious programming contests.
Usually NWERC is an onsite contest, i.e. you would travel to a contest location somewhere in northwestern Europe, but due to the current situation it will be fully online.
It will be very similar to the GCPC last November, but generally the tasks are more difficult.
There are several rule changes compared to previous NWERCs: Each team member may use their own computer and you do not have to physically meet your team or anyone else.
You may also copy arbitrary code from the internet or anywhere else, but have to provide a link to the source in your code.
The contest is 5 hours long and has about 10-12 tasks, which are algorithmic in nature and comparable to GCPC or the competitive programming lecture.
In a team of three people, you should try to solve as many of them as possible.
Allowed languages include C++, Python 3 and Java.
There is a restriction of at most 3 teams per university.
Therefore, if more than 9 people are interested, we may have to do a quick a qualification contest.
However, right now it looks like this is not necessary this year.
Please fill out quick poll if you want to participate (today): https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/NWERC2020/
Best,
Julian
