Rules

Participation is only possible in teams of 2 or 3 persons.
Teams may participate for free.
Teams exists of students from the same institution and who are not participating in another team.
A team 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.
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.

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 contest, 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.
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.
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.

Each run is judged as accepted or rejected by a judge, and the team is notified of the results.
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.

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++(14), C#, Python or Java (unless the problem statement explicitly states otherwise).
The jury decides per programming language which libraries and function calls are allowed to be used in the solutions. This will be published on the website before the contest starts.
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. These peripherals need to be checked by the organisation before the testing session.

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.

HBO-i APC