K-State ACM Programming Contest

Russ Feldhausen
Fall 2016

Overview

• 8 - 10 problems
• 5 hours
• Teams of up to 3
• Solve as many as you can
• Use Java, C, C++, Python
• Win Cool Prizes

K-State Contest

• Hosted each semester at K-State
• Unofficial prelim for North Central North America Regional contest in Lincoln NE, October 29th, 2016
• Winners there can compete at the ACM-ICPC World Finals in Rapid City SD, May 2017

Rules

• Teams of no more than 3
• No more than 1 grad student per team
• 1 Computer/Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse
• Any printed materials are allowed
• Only these websites may be used:
  • Java API
  • C/C++ Reference
  • Python Reference

Rules

• NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES!
• You may use the OS included calculator
• If you have won previously, you must move up in place to get a prize
• Announcements made before or during the contest take precedence

Rules

• Our contest is modeled after the ICPC Regional Contest
• Refer to ICPC Rules for more information
• All judges' decisions are FINAL!

Scoring

• Scores are calculated based on 2 values:
  • Number of problems solved
  • Time taken to solve each problem
• Time ONLY counts for solved problems

Scoring

• Each failed attempt at a problem will add 20 minutes to your total for that problem
• Remember, it will ONLY count when you solve the problem

Scoring

• Example:
  • 1 attempt, 45 minutes
  • 3 attempts, 65 + 40 minutes
  • 2 attempts, 120 + 20 minutes
  • 3 attempts, no solution
• Total: 3 / 290

Judging

• Your output will be compared to judges sample output
• In general, your output must EXACTLY match the formatting of the sample output
• Pay special attention to instructions regarding spacing, tabs, alignment, capitalization, etc.

Judging

• Accepted
• Compile Error
• Run Time Error
• Time Limit Exceeded
• Wrong Answer
• Output Limit Exceeded
• Memory Limit Exceeded
• Illegal Function
• Judge Error

Day of the Contest

• Register
• Install PC^2
• Submit Test Problem
• Eat Pizza/Meet Sponsors
• Get Problems
• Solve Problems & Win Prizes

Install PC^2

• Open a terminal on Linux, or connect to viper.cs.ksu.edu via PuTTY
• Run the following install script:
  

  /common/public/bin/install_pc2.sh

• This will install PC^2 to your home directory on CIS Systems

Start PC^2 - Linux

• Go to the pc2 directory
  

  cd ~/pc2

• Start the PC^2 Client
  

  bin/pc2team

Start PC^2 - Windows

• Open a Command Prompt window
• Set your Java Path
  

  set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\
  Java\jdk1.7.0_45\bin\

• Make sure Java Works
  

  java -version

Start PC^2 - Windows

• Go to the pc2 directory
  

  U:
  cd pc2

• Start the PC^2 Client
  

  bin\pc2team

Coding Notes

• All input is STDIN (System.in)
• All output is STDOUT (System.out)
• Input may consist of multiple tests
• For Visual Studio users, DO NOT use a Win32 C++ application. Use an empty project and add files to it
• For Java users, DO NOT put your code in a package.

Coding Notes

• Parse input carefully
• Use generic storage libraries
• Be mindful of floats/doubles
• Think about bad test cases
• Watch out for slow algorithms

Useful Materials

• General Reference Books
• Math books
  • Geometry
  • Trigonometry
  • Calculus
  • Combinatorics/Discrete

Useful Materials

• Algorithms books
• Data Structures books
• Wikipedia Articles
  • Graph Algorithms
  • Data Structures
• Any others?

Previous Code

• Input/Output
• String Parsing/Tokenizing
• Data Structures
• Data Classes/Inheritance
• Decimal Formatting
• Bitwise Operators

My info

• russfeld AT ksu DOT edu
• http://people.cs.ksu.edu/~russfeld
• 2214 Engineering Hall
• (785) 532-7929 (office)
• (785) 292-3121 (google voice)
• Slack: russfeld