Host a Contest Site
If you would like to host a contest site, reach out to us (in German or English) at contact@gcpc.nwerc.eu!
Below, you can find a (possibly incomplete) checklist of things we think you should do to make you contest site a success. If you have any questions about a specific task, we are happy to help out — we try our best to make hosting a contest site as easy as possible.
If you plan on competing while being involved in organising a contest site, please let us know immediately. We will try to make things work, but please note that you will have to have at least one non-competing person helping you, as you are not allowed to e.g. receive the problem set before the start of the contest in order to print it.
Note that there is a mailing list for all German coaches, contest site organisers, and problem authors. If you plan on hosting a contest site, or otherwise getting involved in the organisation of this (or the next) contest and are not yet on the list, let us know if you would like to join!
Checklist
Inform your university about the event (if necessary). Find out whether external students (students who are not enrolled at your university) may participate (if you are willing to accept external participants).
Make a reservation for a computer pool at your university or another suitable location. You have to ensure the following:
- Each team should be provided with exactly one computer.
- The computer should have an empty account (not containing any special files or programs). Common IDEs, editors, and compilers for the allowed programming languages should be installed (perhaps ask the participants about their preferences some time beforehand).
- Ensure that each team can work comfortably, i.e. provide enough chairs and one or more sufficiently large table(s) per team etc.
- Each team should be provided with exactly one computer.
- The computer should have an empty account (not containing any special files or programs). Common IDEs, editors, and compilers for the allowed programming languages should be installed (perhaps ask the participants about their preferences some time beforehand).
- Ensure that each team can work comfortably, i.e. provide enough chairs and one or more sufficiently large table(s) per team etc.
Find an invigilator (or several if you expect many students). This may be you if you are not participating. The invigilator has to be present during the whole contest and has to ensure that the rules are not violated by any teams at any moment during the contest. Only invigilators are allowed to see the problem set before the contest. Furthermore, the invigilator has to be reachable for the jury via Slack during the contest. If you plan to compete yourself, please notify us immediately and tell us at least one week before the contest who the invigilator for your contest site will be.
The jury and contest organisers must be able to contact the invigilator via Slack (https://join.slack.com/t/gcpc2021/shared_invite/zt-1la6mfwvq-Cy89d0IWm8OB4h76IsIIOg)
Block the internet access of the computers used by the participants during the contest. Make sure that the judge (65.21.78.53) is still reachable and that DNS works correctly. Participants should still be able to correctly resolve judge.wintercontest.io for HTTPS to work properly.
This could be done via the normal printing system of your university. If this is not possible, let the teams save the files they want to print on a USB drive or similar and print the code for them. In the latter case please ensure that the drive is empty before handing it out to another team.
If you are expecting external participants, make sure that they are able to find the location of the contest site and can enter the building and room without problems. We recommend that you contact them in advance.
Print one copy of the problem set for each participant. It is recommended to hand out at least one copy with colours to each team, to be sure that the teams can read all figures (the Jury will still try its best to make everything legible in greyscale as well). This has to be done by the invigilator (who is not allowed to participate).
Distribute the login data for the judge and the local computers to the teams. This should be done before the contest so that the teams can configure and open their IDEs, login to the DOMjudge, etc. After the teams have access to their computer and the computer's login data, the invigilator must ensure that the rules are followed. In particular, participants are not allowed to bring code in digital form (e.g. on a USB drive). You can find the DOMjudge credentials on the teams page of you contest site. Note that the credentials will be reset after the practice session has ended and before the actual contests starts. Practice session credentials will also be sent to the teams directly via email.
During the contest, you are responsible for helping teams that have trouble with your local infrastructure (computer, printer, etc.).
During the contest, we recommend you display the scoreboard on a large screen for all the participants. We may possibly be able to provide a livestream with an animated scoreboard and other stats about the running contest, but this is yet to be determined.
It is customary for you to distribute balloons for every problem solved during the contest before the scoreboard freeze. There will be a list will colour recommendations one week before the contest.
At some point during the contest, the jury may decide to allow you to help teams that have not solved more than a certain number of problems. In this case, the jury will notify all contest sites via Slack.
Present the solutions to the problems after the contest. On the day before the contest, you will receive a preliminary version of the slides for this presentation. These slides have to be kept secret until the end of the contest. They are only for your preparation for the presentation of the solutions. The final version will be sent to you shortly after the contest. It will contain some statistics not included in the preliminary version and possibly some corrections.
After the solutions presentation, the final standings after the scoreboard freeze are revealed to the contestants.
If you do not already have a large community of interested students, you may want to advertise the contest and your contest site, e.g. via mailing lists, posters, visiting relevant lectures, etc.
To prevent unnecessary problems and questions about the usage of the judging system during the actual contest, we recommend students to participate in the practice session.
Since the contest is pretty long, participants would probably appreciate it if you are able to provide some form of snacks during the contest.
If you plan on keeping in touch with the participants (e.g. to recruit them for competitive programming practice etc.), it may be nice to organise some sort of after contest hangout for people to get to know each other.
Partners
Want to become a partner?
Reach out to us (in German or English) at contact@gcpc.nwerc.eu!