Definitions

BAPC: The Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2024. It will take place on October 26th, 2024 and is hosted by the study association Cover and the University of Groningen.
NWERC: The Northwestern Europe Regional Contest 2024.
Organisation: The members of the organising committee
Website: The website, maintained by the organisation and available at 2024.bapc.eu
Jury: The group of people responsible for making the problems and checking the solutions submitted by the participants.
Runners: Volunteers responsible for delivering print-outs, answering questions and various other tasks.
Tech: The group of people responsible for the system
Crew: Organisation, members of the jury and runners.
Participant: Member of a participating team that competes in BAPC.
Run: The submission of a solution by a team.

Organisation

The organisation consists of students, alumni and staff of the University of Groningen
The jury consists of students, staff of different universities, and professionals from the industry.
The organisation has formed the tech, a group which consists of students of the University of Groningen.
The organisation will appoint runners who will support the organisation, tech and jury during the contest.
All crew members will be recognised by their shirt and/or badge.

Participation is only possible in teams of up to 3 persons.
There are two group stages: one for student-teams and one for company teams.
Changing the composition of a team is only possible with the permission of the organisation and only before the start of the contest.
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.
The organisation has the right to deny the participation of teams before the start of the contest.

A student team:

participates for free.
consists of students from the same institution and who are not participating in another team. The institutions must be located in either Belgium, Luxembourg or The Netherlands.
has a coach, who is the contact person of a team. This can be a student or staff member of the institution.
participates in the student teams pool for the title ‘Winner of the Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2024’
consists of students who are eligible for the North Western European Programming Contest 2024.

A company team:

consists of persons who are employed by the same company or institution.
participates in the company teams pool for the title ‘Winner of the Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest 2024’.

The language of the Contest is English. All written contest materials will be in English.
The contest lasts for 5 hours.
From the beginning until one hour before the end of the BAPC, the scores are displayed.
During the contest, all contestants will have to wear recognizable clothing provided by the organisation, unless explicit exemption is given by the organisation.

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.
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.
The jury has the right to change or withdraw problems during the contest. When this happens the jury will inform all teams.

Each team will use a single workstation. The organisation is responsible for determining that teams have reasonably equivalent computing resources.
A solution has to be written in C, C++, Python, Java or Kotlin.
All prints made by the teams will be brought by a runner. Participants are not allowed near the printers.
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.
A team is allowed to bring a dictionary; English to their native language.
A team is allowed to bring one non-programmable wired mouse and/or keyboard. The keyboard and/or mouse needs to be checked by the organisation before the testing session. If the technical specifications of the mouse/keyboard mention the option of pre-programmability or wireless connectivity in any way, it will be rejected.
The usage of any kind of hardware which is not approved by the organisation is strictly forbidden, with the exception of the hardware part of the workstation and medical equipment.
A team is not allowed to bring paper and pens. The organisation will be providing paper and pens.
All items that are to be used during the contest, have to be handed in during registration to be checked by the organisation.

The house rules apply to everybody inside the building.
Inside computer rooms smoking and talking in a loud voice is not allowed.
Changing hardware or operating software is strictly forbidden.
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.
Participants will follow orders given by the crew.
Participants will wear the shirt and badge provided by the organisation. The members of the company teams are allowed to wear a shirt with a clear company logo on it.

Each run is judged as accepted or rejected by a judge, and the team is notified of the results.
For each problem, the jury has a correct solution and test data.
A problem is solved when it is accepted by the judges. The judges are solely responsible for accepting or rejecting runs.
The winner of a pool is decided by (in order):
- The team with the most correctly solved problems.
- 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.
- 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.
The jury is responsible for everything that has to do with the problem set and can be contacted for this through the ‘clarification requests’.

A team may be disqualified by the organisation or jury for any activity that jeopardises the contest such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorised modification, using of contest materials, using forbidden function or library calls, or distracting behaviour.
The organisation has the right to stop the contest, extending the contest time, temporarily block submissions for all teams or change the scores in exceptional conditions.
In situations to which no rule applies or there is ambiguity about the rules, the organisation decides.