General Rules
Rules BAPC2016
1. Definitions
BAPC: The Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2016. It will take place on October 22nd, 2016 and is hosted by the
Delft University of Technology
NWERC: The North-Western Europe Regional Contest 2016.
Organisation: The members of the organizing committee
Website: The website, maintained by the organisation and available at http://www.bapc.eu.
Jury: The group of people responsible for making the problems and checking the solutions submitted by the participants.
Tech: The group of people responsible for the system.
Runners: volunteers responsible for delivering print-outs, answering questions and various other tasks.
Crew: Organisation, members of the jury, tech and runners.
Participant: Member of a participating team that competes in BAPC.
Run: The submission of a solution by a team.
2. Organisation
2.1 The organisation consists of students, alumni and staff of the Delft university of Technology
2.2 The organisation has formed a jury which consists of students, staff of different universities, and
professionals from industry.
2.3 The organisation has formed the Tech, a group which consists of students of the Delft University of Technology.
2.4 The organisation will appoint runners who will support the organisation, tech and jury during the contest.
2.5 All crew members will be recognizable by their shirt and/or badge.
3. Participation
3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Participation is only possible in teams of up to 3 persons.
3.1.2 There are two group stages: one for student teams and one for business teams.
3.1.3 Changing the composition of a team is only possible with the permission of the organisation and only before
the start of the contest.
3.1.4 The organisation decides how many teams from each institution are allowed to compete. The organisation will
consider the number of interested contestants from each institution. Teams consisting of 3 team members will get
preference over teams with less
3.1.5 The organisation has the right to deny the participation of teams before the start of the contest.
3.2 Student teams A student team:
3.2.1 may participate for free.
3.2.2 exists of students from the same institution and who are not participating in another team. The institutions
must be located in either Belgium Luxemburg or the Netherlands.
3.2.3 has a coach, which is the contact person of a team. This can be a team member or a student or staff member
of the institution.
3.2.4 participates in the student teams pool for the title 'Winner of the Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2016'
with the cup and the prize money of 1024,- 512,- and 256,- euros for first, second, and third places respectively.
3.2.5 consists of students who are eligible for the North Western European Programming Contest 2016.
3.3 Business teams A business team:
3.3.1 pays the registration fee of 600,- euros, before the start of the contest.
3.3.2 consists of persons who are employed by the same company or institution.
3.3.3 participates in the business teams pool for the title 'Winner of the Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2016'.
4. The Contest
4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 The language of the Contest is English. All written contest materials will be in English.
4.1.2 The contest lasts for 5 hours.
4.1.3 From the beginning until one hour before the end of the BAPC, the scores are displayed.
4.2 Problems
4.2.1 At least six problems will be posed. So far as possible, problems will avoid dependence on detailed knowledge
of a particular applications area or particular contest language.
4.2.2 A contestant may submit a claim of ambiguity or error in a problem statement by submitting a clarification
request to a judge. If the judges agree that an ambiguity or error exists, a clarification will be issued to
all contestants.
4.2.3 The jury has the right to change or withdraw problems during the contest. When this happens the jury will
inform all teams.
4.3 System
4.3.1 Each team will use a single workstation. The organisation is responsible for determining that teams have
reasonably equivalent computing resources.
4.3.2 A solution has to be written in C, C++(11), Python or Java (unless the problem statement explicitly
states otherwise). Bussiness teams can also submit in C#.
4.3.3 The jury decides per programming language which libraries and function calls are allowed to be used in the solutions.
4.3.4 All prints made by the teams will be brought by a runner. Participants are not allowed near the printers.
4.3.5 A team is allowed to bring up to 25 A4-sized pages, printed one-sided or up to 12.5 A4- sized pages, printed
two-sided, of documentation. Each team member is allowed one identical copy.
4.3.6 A team is allowed to bring a dictionary; English to their native language.
4.4 Department rules
4.4.1 The house rules apply to everybody inside the building.
4.4.2 Inside computer rooms eating, drinking, smoking and talking in a loud voice is not allowed.
4.4.3 The use of hardware, including all calculators, which is not approved by the organisation is strictly
forbidden, with exceptions of simple watches and medical equipment.
4.4.4 Changing of hardware or operating software is strictly forbidden.
4.4.5 During the contest, participants are not to converse with anyone except members of their team and the crew.
Systems support staff may advise contestants on system-related problems such as explaining system error messages.
4.4.6 Participants will follow orders given by the crew.
4.4.7 Participants will wear the shirt and badge provided by the organisation (company members are allowed to wear
a shirt with a clear company logo on it).
4.5 Judgement
4.5.1 Each run is judged as accepted or rejected by a judge, and the team is notified of the results.
4.5.2 For each problem, the jury has a correct solution and test data.
4.5.3 A problem is solved when it is accepted by the judges. The judges are solely responsible for accepting or
rejecting runs.
4.5.4The winner of a pool is decided by (in order):
1.The team with the most correctly solved problems.
2.The team with the least total time. 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 submittal of the
accepted run plus 20 penalty minutes for every rejected run for that problem regardless of submittal time. There is
no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.
3. The team that first submitted its last accepted problem is ranked higher. In case a tie still remains, the team
that first submitted its second-last accepted problem is ranked higher, and so on. In the event that this does not
resolve the tie, the ranks will be determined by chance.
4.5.5 The jury is responsible for everything that has to do with the problem set and can be contacted for this
through the 'clarification requests'.
5. Special rules
5.1 A team may be disqualified by the organisation or jury for any activity that jeopardizes the contest such as
dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification, using of contest materials, using forbidden function or
library calls, or distracting behavior.
5.2 The organisation has the right to stop the contest, extend the contest time, temporarily block submissions for
all teams or change the scores in exceptional conditions.
5.3 In situations to which no rule applies, the organisation decides.
