BAPC/Preliminaries

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To choose the participants of the Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest, a university can choose to organise a preliminary round, to make a selection of all registered participants. This page will describe what steps are involved in setting up a preliminary round.

Planning

To make sure you are well prepared for the preliminary programming contest, it is important to start early. The preliminary rounds are usually scheduled around the start of October, so it is usually a good idea to start making preparations right after the summer break. A brief example of a planning is as follows:

  • Four weeks in advance: start preparations;
  • Two weeks in advance: location is arranged;
  • One week in advance: judge systems ready.

The programming assignments for the preliminary are sent by the jury and will arrive roughly one or two weeks before the contest itself to allow for enough time to prepare the judge system. Make sure the assignments are already present in the system a few days in advance, so problems with the judge systems can be discovered in an early stage, allowing for more time to solve them.


The most important things that should be prepared are the location and the judge system. Both are described in detail below.

Location

The most important thing that should not be taken lightly when organising a preliminary round. The location should have enough space to house all participants. As every team can consist of at most three people, there should be enough space at every workstation to give room to all team members. Usually one or several regular computer rooms should be sufficient for a preliminary round.

It is important to note that the location should be arranged as soon as possible, as it should be conformed with the local facility management to make sure the participants can gain entrance to the building (as the preliminaries take place on Saturdays) and the facility management is aware of people using the building. Organisers are encouraged to start deliberating with the facility management as soon as possible to prevent any problems. Allowing the facility management more time to take your request into consideration will greatly increase the chance on finding a suitable location.

Work stations

Every team should have its own computer to work on the exercises. One should make sure that every computer has all required software installed. Usually this is already the case as the students use the same tools during their regular practicals. However, if the work stations at the location don't have the required software installed, this should be detected early enough to resolve this. Usually this has to be done in deliberation with the system administrator. For more information about the required software, check out the tech page.

Judge system

Miscellaneous tips

  • Balloons!