High School Programming League 2008/2009

1. Preliminaries

1. The Organizer of the Contest is Sphere Research Labs Sp. z o.o., 81-451 Gdynia, Al. Zwyciêstwa 96/98, Poland.
2. The contest takes place via the Internet Service "Sphere Online Judge" available on-line at www.spoj.pl, called SPOJ henceforth. The official contest website is hs.spoj.pl.
3. The goal of the contest is to promote programming skills and algorithmic knowledge among high school students and to present an application of the SPOJ system in the teaching of programming and algorithms.
4. All specified dates and times refer to SPOJ local time, i.e. the Warsaw time zone (CET/CEST).

2. General rules

1. The contest starts on September 20th, 2008 at noon (12:00) and finishes May 30th, 2009 at noon (12:00). The detailed contest schedule is available on the contest page.
2. Problem formulations are made available online on the official contest website according to the contest schedule.
3. All problems are formulated in English (translation into Polish will also be made available).
4. Rules of the contest are null and void if in contradiction of local laws and regulations. Contestants from such locations are not eligible to participate. Prizes will only be shipped to addresses in countries for which no applicable international trade embargos are in place.

3. Contestants

1. The contest is open for all users of SPOJ.
2. Participation in the contest is only allowed after acceptance of the rules and regulations of SPOJ.
3. Each contestant is obliged to solve problems independently. Sharing solutions with other contestants and third parties before the submission deadline is strictly forbidden.
4. Participation in the contest without registration is free of charge.

4. Schools and contestants registration

1. Each school which is officially represented in the contest must be registered. Only high schools or schools educating at a similar or lower level are eligible to register. In particular, universities and colleges may not register.
2. Registration is performed solely by means of the registration form available on the contest website.
3. Registration of a school requires payment of a fee, which must by paid by February 28, 2009. The fee depends on the payment date (the date of receipt of payment by the organizers) and is given in Polish Zlotys - PLN:

   	early registration,	before November 5, 2008:	60 PLN
   	late registration,	before December 31, 2008:	90 PLN
   	very late registration,	before February 28, 2009:	120 PLN

   The payment should be addressed to the Organizer of the Contest. Available forms of payment will be specified on the contest website.

4. A school may only be registered by a person authorized to represent it, henceforth called the Representative of the school. Completion of the registration process requires that the following data is accurately provided: the full official name of the school and the address of the school. The Representative of the school is also requested to provide his/her name, address, and phone number.
5. Contestants become registered in the contest when they are approved by the school's Representative, using the on-line form provided on the contest website.
6. The Representative of each school will be requested provide a list of the necessary data of all registered contestants from the school by February 28, 2009.

5. Submission of solutions to problems

1. Solutions may only be submitted by way of the SPOJ system.
2. Terms of use of the SPOJ system are described in a separate document accessible from the official SPOJ website.
3. Solutions submitted by all contestants are tested in a homogenous environment, using the same data sets for all participants.
4. Detailed rules describing the process of submitting solutions and scoring rules will be made available together with the problem formulations.

6. Scoring and rankings

1. Individual standings are based on the sum of points scored for individual problems.
2. School standings depends on the sum of points scored by at most five of the top registered contestants from the given school.
3. Standings of problem set series and additional side-contests, both for schools and individual contestants, will include a given contestant provided that the contestant is officially approved by the school Representative not later than 24 hours before submissions for the given series or side-contest close (i.e. on Friday at noon when the submission deadline is Saturday at noon).
4. In the case of contestants not included in the standings of problem set series 1, the overall standings (both for schools and individual contestants) will be calculated using the scores of the contestant starting from the series directly preceding the series in which the contestant was first classified, inclusive.

7. Prizes

1. Only registered schools and registered contestants (as reported by school Representatives) are eligible to receive prizes.
2. The Organizer will award prizes to the best schools and best individual contestants based on their position in the final standings, for partial results scored in successive series of problems, and also intends to provide gifts to randomly chosen contestants.
3. The main prizes are: a notebook computer for the best contestant, and a notebook computer for the best school with the highest overall score after all contest series.
4. In case of a tie, by mutual consent and whenever possible, the Organizer and all interested parties may agree to split a prize among all contestants or schools participating in the tie. Otherwise, one winner is drawn at random (using a secure protocol). All participants of the draw retain the right to all non-material benefits, e.g. the winner's title.
5. A detailed list of the remaining prizes will be announced by March 30, 2009.
6. A detailed list of prizes for each contest series will be announced before the start of the series.
7. A detailed list of all sponsors is available on the official contest website.

8. Final regulations

1. In all cases not covered by these regulations, all decisions are at the discretion of the Organizer. The Organizer's decisions are final and not subject to appeal.
2. It is the Contestant's sole responsibility to pay tax on prizes, if required by law in the Contestant's country of tax residence.
3. In justified cases the organizer reserves the right to adjust the contest schedule.
4. The Organizer may not be held liable for any disruption of the contest on grounds of tort, negligence or otherwise in the event of Act of God, acts of malice, and any other unforeseen circumstances.
5. The Organizer reserves the right, at its discretion, to disqualify a contestant in the event that the contestant is found by the Organizer to have provided incorrect data, or to have registered for participation in the contest multiple times (i.e. using multiple SPOJ user accounts), or to have attempted an attack on the system, including any form of denial-of-service attack, or to have violated the regulations of the SPOJ system or these regulations, or to have violated copyright law (as applicable in Poland), or to have performed any other action intended to disrupt or discredit the contest.
6. Upon registration, the Contestant agrees to be bound by these terms and regulations.
7. Personal data provided by users may be used by the Organiser for purposes directly related to the Contest and managing the SPOJ platform, only, and its privacy is protected by applicable provisions of EU and Polish legislation. The Contestant has the right to correct or withdraw any of the provided personal data at any time.