International Collegiate Programming Contest
The International Collegiate Programming Contest, known as the ICPC, is an annual multi-tiered competitive programming competition among the universities of the world. Headquartered at Baylor University, directed by ICPC Executive Director and Baylor Professor Dr. William B. Poucher, the ICPC operates autonomous regional contests covering six continents culminating in a global World Finals every year. In 2018, ICPC participation included 52,709 students from 3,233 universities in 110 countries.
The ICPC operates under the auspices of the ICPC Foundation and operates under agreements with host universities and non-profits, all in accordance with the ICPC Policies and Procedures. Since 1977 until 2017 ICPC was held under the auspices of ACM and was referred to as ACM-ICPC.
Tracing its roots to 1970, over 320,000 ICPC alumni populate the professional ranks of high-tech companies, consulting firms, financial institutions, investment firms, high-tech startups, venture-capital firms, academia, and public service. ICPC Alumni are developers, software engineers, senior software engineers, leads, chiefs, CTOs, CEOs, founders, and co-founders. They are also professors, researchers, and in public service. A good number are in venture capital, helping others start companies. One is a comedian.
Mission
The ICPC, the “International Collegiate Programming Contest”, is an extra-curricular, competitive programming sport for students at universities around the world. ICPC competitions provide gifted students opportunities to interact, demonstrate, and improve their teamwork, programming, and problem-solving process. The ICPC is a global platform for academia, industry, and community to shine the spotlight on and raise the aspirations of the next generation of computing professionals as they pursue excellence.History
The ICPC traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M University in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon Computer Science Honor Society. This initial programming competition was titled First Annual Texas Collegiate Programming Championship and each University was represented by a team of up to five members. The computer used was a 360 model 65 which was one of the first machines with a DAT system for accessing memory. The start of the competition was delayed for about 90 minutes because two of the four "memory bank" amplifiers were down. Teams that participated included, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, University of Houston, and five or six other Texas University / Colleges. There were three problems that had to be completed and the cumulative time from "start" to "successful completion" determined first-, second-, and third-place winners. The programming language used was Fortran. The programs were written on coding sheets, keypunched on Hollerith cards, and submitted for execution. The University of Houston team won the competition completing all three problems successfully with time. The second- and third-place teams did not successfully complete all three problems. The contest evolved into its present form as a multi-tier competition in 1977, with the first finals held in conjunction with the ACM Computer Science Conference.From 1977 to 1989, the contest included mainly teams of four from universities throughout the United States and Canada. Headquartered at Baylor University since 1989, with regional contests established within the world's university community, the ICPC has grown into a worldwide competition. To increase access to the World Finals, teams were reduced to three students within their first five academic years.
From 1997 to 2017 IBM was the sponsor of ICPC. During that time contest participation has grown by more than 2000%. In 1997, 840 teams from 560 universities participated. In 2017, 46,381 students from 2,948 universities in 103 countries on six continents participated in regional competitions. Organized as a highly localized extra-curricular university mind sport and operating as a globally-coordinated unincorporated association operating under agreements with host universities and non-profits, the ICPC is open to qualified teams from every university in the world.
UPE has provided continuous support since 1970 and honored World Finalists since the first Finals in 1976. The ICPC is indebted to ACM member contributions and ACM assistance from 1976-2018. Baylor University has served since 1985, hosting ICPC Headquarters since 1989. The ICPC operates as a globally-coordinated unincorporated association operating under agreements with host universities and non-profits to insure that participation in ICPC is open to qualified teams from every university in the world. See ICPC Policies and Procedures.
The ICPC World Finals is the final round of competition. Over its history it has become a 4-day event held in the finest venues worldwide with 140 teams competing in the 2018 World Finals. Recent World Champion teams have been recognized by their country's head of state. In recent years, media impressions have hovered at the one billion mark.
Since 2000, only teams from Russia, China, and Poland have won the ICPC world finals. Participation in North America is much smaller than in the rest of the world, which is partially attributed to the perceived low payoff of participating.
Contest rules
ICPC contests are team competitions. Current rules stipulate that each team consist of three students. Participants must be university students, who have had less than five years of university education before the contest. Students who have previously competed in two World Finals or five regional competitions are ineligible to compete again.During each contest, the teams of three are given 5 hours to solve between eight and fifteen programming problems. They must submit solutions as programs in C, C++, Java, Ada, Python or Kotlin. Programs are then run on test data. If a program fails to give a correct answer, the team is notified and can submit another program.
The winner is the team which correctly solves most problems. If necessary to rank teams for medals or prizes among tying teams, the placement of teams is determined by the sum of the elapsed times at each point that they submitted correct solutions plus 20 minutes for each rejected submission of a problem ultimately solved. There is no time consumed for a problem that is not solved.
For example, consider a situation when two teams, Red and Blue, tie by solving two problems each. The team Red submitted their solutions to A and B at 1:00 and 2:45 after the beginning of the contest. They had a rejected run on C, but it was ignored since they didn't solve C. The team Blue submitted solutions to problems A and C at 1:20 and 2:00 after the beginning. They had one rejected run on C. Then, the total time is 1:00+2:45=3:45 for team Red and 1:20+2:00+0:20=3:40 for team Blue. The tie is broken in favor of Team Blue.
Compared to other programming contests, the ICPC is characterized by a large number of problems. Another feature is that each team can use only one computer, although teams have three students. This makes the time pressure even greater. Good teamwork and ability to withstand pressure is needed to win.
2004-2019 finals
2004 World Finals
The 2004 ACM-ICPC World Finals were hosted at the Obecni Dum, Prague, by Czech Technical University in Prague. 3,150 teams representing 1,411 universities from 75 countries competed in elimination rounds, with 73 of those teams proceeding to the world finals. St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics from Russia won, solving 7 of 10 problems. Gold medalists were St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, Belarusian State University, and Perm State University.2005 World Finals
The 2005 world finals were held at Pudong Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai on April 6, 2005, hosted by Shanghai Jiaotong University. 4,109 teams representing 1,582 universities from 71 countries competed in elimination rounds, with 78 of those teams proceeding to the world finals. Shanghai Jiaotong University won its second world title, with 8 of 10 problems solved. Gold medal winners were Shanghai Jiaotong, Moscow State University, St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, and University of Waterloo.2006 World Finals
The 2006 ACM-ICPC World Finals were held in San Antonio, Texas, and hosted by Baylor University. 5,606 teams representing 1,733 universities from 84 countries competed in elimination rounds, with 83 of those teams proceeding to the world finals. Saratov State University from Russia won, solving 6 of 10 problems. Gold medal winners were Saratov, Jagiellonian University, Altai State Technical University, University of Twente.2007 World Finals
The 2007 ACM-ICPC World Finals were held at the Tokyo Bay Hilton, in Tokyo, Japan, March 12–16, 2007. The World Finals was hosted by the ACM Japan Chapter and the IBM Tokyo Research Lab. Some 6,099 teams competed on six continents at the regional level. Eighty-eight teams advanced to the World Finals. Warsaw University won its second world championship, solving 8 of 10 problems. Gold Medal Winners were Warsaw University, Tsinghua University, St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Silver Medal Winners include Shanghai Jiao Tong University and 3 other universities.2008 World Finals
The 2008 ACM-ICPC World Finals were held at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, in Banff, Alberta, Canada, April 6–10, 2008. The World Finals was hosted by the University of Alberta. There were 100 teams in the World finals, out of 6700 total teams competing in the earlier rounds. The St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics won their second world championship. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Izhevsk State Technical University, and Lviv National University also received gold medals.2009 World Finals
The 2009 ACM-ICPC World Finals were held in Stockholm, Sweden, April 18–22, at the campus of the hosting institution, KTH - The Royal Institute of Technology, as well as at the Grand Hotel, the Radisson Strand, and the Diplomat Hotel. There were 100 teams from over 200 regional sites competing for the World Championship. The St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics defended their title, winning their third world championship. Tsinghua University, St. Petersburg State University, and Saratov State University also received gold medals. The 2009 World Finals pioneered live video broadcasting of the entire contest, featuring elements such as expert commentary, live feeds of teams and their computer screens and interviews with judges, coaches and dignitaries. The event was broadcast online, as well as by Swedish television channel Axess TV.2010 World Finals
The 2010 ACM-ICPC World Finals were held in Harbin, China. The host is Harbin Engineering University. Shanghai Jiao Tong University won the world championship. Moscow State University, National Taiwan University, and Taras Shevchenko Kiev National University also received gold medals.2011 World Finals
The 2011 ACM-ICPC World Finals were held in Orlando, Florida and hosted by main sponsor IBM. The contest was initially scheduled to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in February, but was moved due to the political instability associated with the Arab Spring. Zhejiang University took first place with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Tsinghua University, and Saint Petersburg State University taking 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively each receiving gold medals.China United States Russia Germany Ukraine Poland Canada
2012 World Finals
The 2012 World Finals were held in Warsaw, Poland. They were inaugurated on 15 May and are hosted by University of Warsaw. St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics won their fourth world championship, the most by any University at the time. University of Warsaw, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place respectively each receiving gold medals.Russia China Poland United States Hong Kong Belarus Canada Japan
2013 World Finals
The 2013 World Finals were held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. They were inaugurated on 3 July and were hosted by NRU ITMO.2013 top thirteen teams that received medals are:
Japan Russia China Taiwan Poland Ukraine Belarus United States
- Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics,
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
- The University of Tokyo,
- National Taiwan University,
- St. Petersburg State University,
- University of Warsaw,
- Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv,
- Belarusian State University,
- Jagiellonian University in Krakow,
- Moscow State University,
- Carnegie Mellon University,
- Tsinghua University,
- Perm State University.
2014 World Finals
Following teams were awarded medals in ICPC 2014:
Russia China Taiwan Japan Poland Croatia Slovakia
Gold
- St. Petersburg State University
- Moscow State University
- Peking University
- National Taiwan University
- University of Warsaw
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- The University of Tokyo
- University of Zagreb
- St. Petersburg National Research University of IT, Mechanics and Optics
- National Research University Higher School of Economics
- Tsinghua University
- Comenius University
2015 World Finals
Gold
St. Petersburg National Research University of IT, Mechanics and Optics
Moscow State University
The University of Tokyo
Tsinghua University
Silver
Peking University
University of California at Berkeley
University of Zagreb
Charles University in Prague
Bronze
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Korea University
University of Warsaw
2016 World Finals
The 2016 World Finals were held in Phuket during May 16–21. Final competition was on May 19. 128 teams competed to be World Champion. Winner was Saint Petersburg State University solving 11 problems from 13 proposed problems. Second winner was Shanghai Jiao Tong University 7 minutes behind SpSU, also with 11 problems solved.Gold
- Saint Petersburg State University
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- Harvard University
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
- University of Warsaw
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- St. Petersburg ITMO University
- Ural Federal University
- University of Warsaw
- Nizhny Novgorod State University
- Lviv National University
- Fudan University
2017 World Finals
The winner was Saint Petersburg ITMO. Following teams were awarded medals in ICPC 2017: Russia Poland South Korea China Sweden Japan
Gold
- St. Petersburg ITMO University
- University of Warsaw
- Seoul National University
- Saint Petersburg State University
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
- Tsinghua University
- Peking University
- Fudan University
- KAIST
- Ural Federal University
- KTH - Royal Institute of Technology
- University of Tokyo
2018 World Finals
Gold
- Moscow State University
- Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology
- Peking University
- The University of Tokyo
- Seoul National University
- University of New South Wales
- Tsinghua University
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- St. Petersburg ITMO University
- University of Central Florida
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Vilnius University
- Ural Federal University
Medals granted in the 2018 World Final
| Rank in Final | Country | Institution | First to Solve Problem | No Of Question Solved | |
| 01 | 1 | Moscow State University | Panda Preserve & Single Cut of Failure | 9 | |
| 02 | 2 | Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology | Getting a Jump on Crime | 8 | |
| 03 | 3 | Peking University | Gem Island | 8 | |
| 04 | 4 | The University of Tokyo | 8 | ||
| 05 | 5 | Seoul National University | Comma Sprinkler | 7 | |
| 06 | 6 | University of New South Wales | Wireless is the New Fiber | 7 | |
| 07 | 7 | Tsinghua University | 7 | ||
| 08 | 8 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 7 | ||
| 09 | 9 | St. Petersburg ITMO University | Go with the Flow | 7 | |
| 10 | 10 | University of Central Florida | 7 | ||
| 11 | 11 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 7 | ||
| 12 | 12 | Vilnius University | Catch the Plane | 7 | |
| 13 | 13 | Ural Federal University | 7 |
In 2018 World Final, problems "Conquer the World" and "Uncrossed Knight's Tour" were not solved.
2019 World Finals
The 2019 World Finals were held in Porto from March 31 to April 5, 2019, hosted by the University of Porto and the City of Porto.Gold
- Moscow State University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Tokyo
- University of Warsaw
- National Taiwan University
- University of Wroclaw
- Seoul National University
- Kim Chaek University of Technology
- Sharif University of Technology
- Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology
- National Research University Higher School of Economics
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2020 World Finals
Winners
| Year | Country | Institution |
| 2019 | Moscow State University | |
| 2018 | Moscow State University | |
| 2017 | Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics | |
| 2016 | St. Petersburg State University | |
| 2015 | Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics | |
| 2014 | St. Petersburg State University | |
| 2013 | Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics | |
| 2012 | Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics | |
| 2011 | Zhejiang University | |
| 2010 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | |
| 2009 | Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics | |
| 2008 | Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics | |
| 2007 | University of Warsaw | |
| 2006 | Saratov State University | |
| 2005 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | |
| 2004 | Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics | |
| 2003 | University of Warsaw | |
| 2002 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | |
| 2001 | St. Petersburg State University | |
| 2000 | St. Petersburg State University | |
| 1999 | University of Waterloo | |
| 1998 | Charles University | |
| 1997 | Harvey Mudd College | |
| 1996 | University of California, Berkeley | |
| 1995 | Albert-Ludwigs-Universität | |
| 1994 | University of Waterloo | |
| 1993 | Harvard University | |
| 1992 | University of Melbourne | |
| 1991 | Stanford University | |
| 1990 | University of Otago | |
| 1989 | University of California, Los Angeles | |
| 1988 | California Institute of Technology | |
| 1987 | Stanford University | |
| 1986 | California Institute of Technology | |
| 1985 | Stanford University | |
| 1984 | Johns Hopkins University | |
| 1983 | University of Nebraska | |
| 1982 | Baylor University | |
| 1981 | University of Missouri–Rolla | |
| 1980 | Washington University in St. Louis | |
| 1979 | Washington University in St. Louis | |
| 1978 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
| 1977 | Michigan State University |
| Winner | Country | Most Recent Win | No.of Yrs Participated |
| 17 | 1997 | 36 | |
| 14 | 2019 | 24 | |
| 4 | 2011 | ||
| 2 | 2007 | ||
| 2 | 1999 | ||
| 1 | 1998 | ||
| 1 | 1995 | ||
| 1 | 1992 | ||
| 1 | 1990 |