In 2013 Yandex will host an open programming championship on the new Yandex.Contest system, with original rules, prizes, monetary awards and an exciting final round in St. Petersburg, Russia. But the most important part will be great problem sets, made by Belarusian, Japanese and Polish problem setters.
Yandex.Algorithm 2013 will be scored using the TCM/Time system and consists of six rounds: test, qualification, three elimination and final rounds. What is TCM/Time? The system’s special feature is that a contestant can make not only “open” submissions, the evaluation results of which appear right away, but also “blind” submissions, the results of which remain unknown to both the contestant and his or her opponents until the end of the round. As a reward, penalty time for such brave submissions is negative, which maintains the element of intrigue for the contest’s entire duration.
Each participant of the online elimination rounds has a chance of receiving one of 175 unique Yandex.Algorithm T-shirts. Twenty-five finalists will be awarded a coach-class round trip to St. Petersburg, where they will receive a memorable gift and compete for a total prize money pool of 540,000 rubles ($18000).
The final round of Yandex.Algorithm will be held on August 21-23 in the former palace of Grand Duke Vladimir, built in 1870 in the very heart of St, Petersburg on the bank of the Neva River, just a few steps away from the Hermitage, and carefully preserved by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The combination of classical Russian culture with difficult, carefully chosen problems is sure to make an indelible impression on all who attend this exciting event.
During the final round, the best programmers from all over the world will compete with each other face to face, using onsite computers – no internet connection or prewritten code will be available. Yandex.Algorithm organizers will provide a text broadcast and follow this remarkable competition together with our online guests.
To participate in Yandex.Algorithm you only need to register on the registration webpage, which will be open until the end of the qualification round. The first opportunity to qualify for the elimination stage will be on June 27 at 9 p.m. Moscow time and will last 100 minutes. Or you can start your 100-minute qualification at any moment during the qualification round (from 7 p.m. on July 8 to 7 p.m. on July 9, Moscow time).
Good luck, and we hope to see you soon in St. Petersburg!