VK Cup — Computer Programming Championship
By MikeMirzayanov, 13 years ago, translation, In English

Overview

The VK Cup Championship is an open computer programming competition that is held by VK, Codeforces and Saratov State University. VK is the largest European social network with more than a 100 million active users. The Championship Final Round will be held in July in St. Petersburg. Top 50 contestants of the Round 3 will be invited to the Finals, with trip expenses covered by the organizing committee.

Eligibility

You are young and you like to solve programming problems? Then this championship is for you! Anyone meeting the following criteria is eligible to compete in the VK Cup:

  • must be at least 14 years and at most 23 complete years of age (by the moment of registration);
  • current employees of VK and/or members of organizing committee/jury are ineligible to participate in the VK Cup;
  • must be eligible for participation in Codeforces contests.

Thus, the intended audience of the championship are mainly high school and university students. To participate in the championship, you have to register beforehand.

Only individuals are allowed to take part in the Championship. No teams, no joint discussions and etc. The registration will be open soon and stay open till the end of the second qualification round.

How to Participate

Be ready to solve interesting algorithmic problems. You will be offered the following programming languages:

  • С/С++
  • Delphi/Pascal
  • Java
  • С#
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • PHP
  • OCaml
  • Haskell
  • Perl
  • Scala

Because of really different performance of different programming languages we do not guarantee that any problem can be solved on each language.

You can take a look at the samples of the past Codeforces contests’ problems by the following links:

Please be sure to get familiar with the rules of Codeforces contests before the start of the championship.

Championship Structure

Championship Structure

The championship will consist of two qualification rounds, three elimination rounds, two wild-card rounds and one final round. All rounds will be held on Codeforces.

Time Round Advancers Notes
March 4, 2012, 00:00 — 23:59, 24 hours Qualification Round 1 800+ contestants Contestants who gain a score equal to the 800-th place finisher score or greater will advance to the Round 1
March 9, 2012, 12:00 -11:59, 24 hours, will end on March 10, 2012 Qualification Round 2 800+ contestants

People who didn’t advance in the Qualification Round 1 can participate 		Contestants who gain a score equal to the 800-th place finisher score or greater will advance to the Round 1
March 11, 2012, 19:00, 2 hours Round 1 700 contestants Codeforces Contest Rules
March 18, 2012, 19:00, 2 hours Wild-сard Round 1 50 contestants A two-hour round with unusual rules
March 25, 2012, 19:00, 2 hours Round 2 175 contestants Codeforces Contest Rules
March 28 — April 3, 2012, 7 days Wild-сard Round 2 25 contestants A long contest with unusual rules
April 8, 2012, 19:00, 2 hours Round 3 50 contestants Codeforces Contest Rules

The final online round

All Round 3 contestants will receive VK Cup T-Shirts
July 13-16, 2012 Final Round Codeforces Contest Rules

Saint Petersburg, the VK Headquarters

All time mentioned in this table is Moscow time (UTC +4)

Most rounds will be held by the Codeforces rules, the exceptions are:

  • Qualification Rounds – each round lasts for 24 hours, no hacks are allowed, problems point values don’t depend on submission time (do not reduce over time);
  • Wild-card Round 1 – lasts for 2 hours, is organized by unusual rules and will determine 50 more contestants to advance to Round 2 (from the contestants who didn’t advance in the Round 1);
  • Wild-card Round 2 – lasts for 7 days, is organized by unusual rules and will determine 25 more contestants to advance to Round 3 (from the contestants who didn’t advance in the Round 2).

If several contestants get the same number of points in any round and are placed on advancement cutoff, all of them advance to the next round. In all rounds a competitor must get a positive score to advance to the next round. All rounds require individual registration (separate from the championship registration), which ends 5 minutes before the round start (except for Qualification Rounds, which will be open for registration till the end of the rounds).

Most of the rounds will be open for rated participation for people out of the championship.

Prizes

The best contestants of the Final Round held in Saint Petersburg will be awarded the prizes (updated):

  • 1st prize — $6000 $20000
  • 2nd prize — $4000 $10000
  • 3rd prize — $2000 $5000
  • 4th-5th prizes — $2000
  • 6-10th prizes — $1000
  • Vote: I like it
  • +436
  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (70)
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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +77 Vote: I do not like it

50 onsite finalists. Nice :)

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

    and 200 T-Shirts for those who can't aspire to be a finalist yet :)

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      13 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      actually 150 for those who "cant be a finalist yet" :D

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

How many problems are there in one round?

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    I think that the rounds that are of usual codeforces format will have 5 problems .It was mentioned in the Codeforces contest rules blog by Mike Mirzayanov.Take the link

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

btw you have misspelled Qualification on the contests page.

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -10 Vote: I do not like it

Wish all GL && HF ^_^

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -6 Vote: I do not like it

Man, an upper limit on the age. :/ That is so not fun.

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -11 Vote: I do not like it

Good to see the upper age limit.Gives chance to others also.Otherwise the veterans give very little scope to others to qualify.Exiting format especially wildcard round 2(7 days!!) ...eagerly waiting for it :-)

I dont waste this oppurtunity to boast my self(although undeservingly so),but I had mentioned about an annual codeforces round earlier in my blog..Thanks to Mike Mirzayanov ,VK.com and the entire codeforces team for making this possible

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

The prize is higher than other Social Network Cup :P

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -12 Vote: I do not like it

The fist round will be held in 4:00am in China.

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13 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +40 Vote: I do not like it

I'm really sad because of the 23 years old limit, I'm 24. :(

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +34 Vote: I do not like it

    I’m really sad because of the 14 years old limit, I’m 13. :(

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Who knows the reason about this criteria?

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13 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -12 Vote: I do not like it 
"The VK Cup Championship is an open computer programming competition"

I don't think this is an open competition, because of the age limit.

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

    So TC Open is not open too?

    I guess Open means "not for VK employees only"

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      13 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

      TC Open has no upper limit for the age, and I think the lower limit is because of the money prizes and the onsite rounds.

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        13 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Just as stated, the intended audience of the championship are mainly high school and university students.

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          13 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

          Do you mean I am too old to be a university student?

          Thank you, I needed to be reminded of that. :/

          Anyway, just a reminder, because many facebook and google employees may be feeling down about this: The TCO won't ban employees of sponsors from competing anymore. The only condition is that they do not take part in organizing the contests.

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        13 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

        Most open tournament I would say is the google code jam. Even if you are younger than 18, you can still participate and win t-shirts (no money or trips for legal reasons, though).

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      13 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +60 Vote: I do not like it

      I guess "Open" does mean nothing. Just cool word.

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

    This competition like TCCC (TopCoder Collegiate Challenge) not TCO. May be VK.com should rename this event (probably in 2013).

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

Yet again — contest in the day of Easter for western christians...

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

What are the "unusual rules" on the wild-card rounds?

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it

Will the rounds be rated for Code Forces members? In the qualification round, do you know when you submit whether the solutions was correct or not or as usual after the end of the round?

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    Along with my another unanswered question :D. If you qualified in some round, Do you get to participate in other same level rounds (whether qualifications or wild card) just as a rated contest? or once you qualify you are not eligible anymore?

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

must be at least 14 years and at most 23 of age (by the moment of registration);

request for exact definition of age limitation:

  • at the moment of registration, one must be younger or exactly 23 years old
  • at the moment of registration, one can claim he/she is 23 years old(younger than 24)
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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    Later, Mike answered same question in Russian

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      13 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

      Please you repeat it in English. The translator don't works properly. I don't understand it. thanks

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        13 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

        For example: if your age is 23 years and 8 months (by the moment of registration), you can compete. If your age is at least 24 years, you cannot.

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -36 Vote: I do not like it

"Must be at least 14 years and at most 23 of age"

Congrats tourist for winning VK Cup :D :P

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -32 Vote: I do not like it

Is it a team contest or an individual contest ?

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -13 Vote: I do not like it

I think there should be a correction for the qualification round advancers condition->All those who scores is greater thanor equal to 800th ranked player and who have solved atleast one problem qualify for the next round.Otherwise if not even 800 people score at least one correct submission then 800 place will be 0 points and therefore all those who register qualify automatically.Although this should be obvious but still it has to be mentioned

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

    A bit later the rules say "In all rounds a competitor must get a positive score to advance to the next round."

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

Will the wildcard and qualification rounds be rated as well, or just the rounds with standard CF rules?

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Can we do VK unofficially?

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

There is written "All rounds require individual registration (separate from the championship registration)". What is actually meant by "championship registration"? Does it just mean the registration on Codeforces?

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Wish everyone good luck. Contest will start soon, so get ready.

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13 years ago, # |
← Rev. 6   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

if more t-shirt will be nice......

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

More than 3000 Partisipation. if we see from other CF contest it just 2000++ and less than 3000. I think there's contestant register more than one ID so the first ID can be use to resubmit many as possible until it passed, and the other ID or the original one can be use to submit the code that have been passed before.

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Sound a little unfair for other people. However, as you can see, less than 800 contestants managed to solve E, so it doesn't matter if you could solve E and made some incorrect submissions. Moreover, this cheating action surely makes no sense in the next rounds.

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    There are a lot of newcomes.

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    More than 3000 participators seems to be ok. Like another official competitions, VKCup is more popular than a simple round, and many people registered to take participation in VKCup.

    If you are right, we will see that there will be about 1.6k participators in qualification 2 and round 1. (from about 2k who advanced).

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Admins can easily spot such kind of cheaters and disqualify them, so I think it's not much to worry about.

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

"Most of the rounds will be open for rated participation for people out of the championship."

Is it will be rated for people in the championship? And which round will be rated?

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    I think it's similar to Yandex Algorithm last year, 2-hour rounds will be rated for all participants, including people out of the championship.

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13 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

Could admins please specify the policy about how exactly one should register for the second qualification round in case if he has already advanced to round 1 and otherwise?

The question emerges, because since I have seen successful contestants registered I am wondering how we all will be displayed in the scoreboard.

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    There are 2 ways to explain this situation

    1) It's a bug and all advancers will be deleted from the 2nd Qual later.

    2) (Most liked) Advancers will be able to participate unofficially, like it was on Yandex.Algorithm Qual 2

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Hi,

Could some post the solutions for VK cup Qualification Rounds 1 and 2. It would be very helpful to understand why or where some contestants were going wrong. Or atleast post some more test cases(the difficult ones/out of box ones which usually does not strike to participants in a contest) ?

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    You can see the test case where your solution failed by going to My Submissions->and clicking on the link of your source code -> scroll to the bottom of the page

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      13 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      It is not showing the complete test case.In my case, the test case is of around 200 lines, it shows only the top 10 and simply uses "..."(dots).Is there a way to see the complete test case ? or can i access the solutions ?

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        13 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Yes definitely you can see the solutions of other coders.Just double click on the cell which shows their score of that problem... And to get the complete test case you need to extract the test cases :See this link

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

From the rules:

If several contestants get the same number of points in any round and are placed on advancement cutoff, all of them advance to the next round. In all rounds a competitor must get a positive score to advance to the next round. All rounds require individual registration (separate from the championship registration), which ends 5 minutes before the round start (except for Qualification Rounds, which will be open for registration till the end of the rounds).

What happens if two or more contestants are tied in the 50th place of round 3? They all go to the Final Round? The answer seems to be yes acording to the rules but usually this all-tied-advance rules apply for all the online rounds but not for the onsite in most contests.

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13 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

How should I go to St.petersburg? Do I need to make a reservation for hotel and plane?

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    13 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    with trip expenses covered by the organizing committee.

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      13 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      I overlooked it. thank you, yeputons.

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12 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

Anyone who is not in onsite received T-shirt?

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12 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

Does anybody know when is the next VK Cup round (VK Cup 2013) ?

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    12 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

    Looks like Pavel Durov has more serious problems to resolve now. And this requires a lot of money — hasn't been left for the contest =)

    P.S. It was not good idea to hit police officer by car...

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      12 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it -6 Vote: I do not like it

      bad news.

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      12 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

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      12 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +27 Vote: I do not like it

      We do not know for sure whether he really hit police officer or is it just a VK raider seizure attempt with the assistance of police (which is quite common in Russia). VK stock manipulations happening at the same time suggest the seizure attempt.

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        12 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it -16 Vote: I do not like it

        I estimate probability of this to be 20%. Otherwise why VK security guards quickly hid suspect inside the building? If this was not Pavel Durov — why not to tell the police who he was and give all the materials (like video from inside)?

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