Here are the major differences between this and last year's contest:

This year, we are continuing the additional cash prizes.

1. The team that wins the contest will advance to the World Finals. The teams that come in first through third will win the corresponding prizes from IBM. This is unchanged from previous years.
2. Let S1 be defined as the set of teams composed of only freshmen and sophomores.
   Let S2 be defined as the set of teams composed of only undergraduates, minus S1.
   Let S3 be defined as the set of teams with exactly one graduate student.
   Notice that the three S's are mutually exclusive, and their union is all teams.
   Assuming that none of the sets are empty, each set will have a top team.
3. The team that wins the contest will necessarily be the top team of one of the three sets. As stated above, that team will advance to the World Finals and will win the first-place prize from IBM. That team will win no additional prizes.
4. The top team from the other two sets will each receive recognition, a special certificate, and $300 ($100 for each team member).
5. It is possible for a team to win both the second or third-place prize from IBM, and the cash prize.
6. It is possible for a school to win the cash prize in multiple sets.
7. Coaches must bring a letter from their school's registrar office stating the academic level of each contestant. Contestants must bring their school ID, driver's license, passport, or other official identification. Cash prizes will not be awarded without documentation.
8. If one or more of the sets is empty, the Regional Contest Director will decide what to do on the spot.

1. The Regional Contest Director is responsible for appointing a Site Director and Head Judge for the contest, and is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the contest.
2. The Site Director is responsible for all local contest arrangements, including the solicitation of on-site volunteers, procurement of rooms and equipment (including backup systems), and so forth. The Site Director will conduct a meeting with the contestants prior to the start of the contest to reiterate the contest procedures and explain any site-specific policies, and will distribute the official contest results to all teams that participate in the contest.
3. The Head Judge is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the judging effort. The Head Judge will explain the judging procedures and work with the other judges to distribute the contest judging and record-keeping responsibilities.

1. At least six problems will be posed.
2. Each team must have a faculty advisor and a coach, who may or may not be the same person. The coach need not be a member of the faculty. The faculty advisor needs to be able to verify the elegibility of the contestants on the team. The coach must accompany the team to the contest.
3. Coaches and alternates will have no contact with their teams during the contest. The penalty for contact is immediate disqualification of all teams from that school.
4. Coaches will receive a copy of the problems once the contest has begun. If a coach suspects any ambiguity in the problem statements, he or she must report this to the Regional Contest Director for an immediate ruling.
5. If the Regional Contest Director or Head Judge decides that a clarification is necessary, the Site Director will disseminate this information to all teams.
6. The team coach may replace any registered team member with an alternate provided that the Regional Contest Director is notified in writing prior to the start of the contest. The new team with the alternate must meet all contest eligibility requirements.
7. The Regional Contest Director, Site Director, the Head Judge, and the pool of team coaches present serve as the final authority for resolving all local contest matters.
8. No penalties will be assessed for obtaining printed listings during the contest. Local procedures for obtaining a listing will be explained by the Site Coordinator during the meeting of the contestants.
9. Everyone who attends the contest gives permission to the Region and any organization it designates to use their likenesses in electronic and physical publications.

1. The team coaches will serve as judges, and will keep the local contest records. Schools without a team coach in attendance will have no input in the contest judging decisions; these teams agree to be bound by the judging decisions of the team coaches attending.
2. Teams will not be given the test input files that the judges will use to determine program correctness.
3. Solutions to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged as correct or incorrect, and the team is notified of the results. Incorrect runs will be marked with one of the following comments. They are listed in decreasing order of severity.
   1. file naming error: The file naming convention was not followed. Either the submission was incorrectly named, or the program did not read from / write to the correctly named file.
   2. compile error: The program did not compile.
   3. run-time error: The program did not run to completion.
   4. wrong answer: This means that the program compiled and ran, but produced incorrect output.
   5. time limit exceeded: The program did not finish executing within the 2 minute time limit.
   6. presentation error: The output was nominally correct, but was not in the correct format.
4. The Contest Judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the Contest Judges, the Chief Judge is responsible for determining the winners of the Contest Finals. They are empowered to adjust for or adjudicate unforeseen events and conditions. Their decisions are final.
5. The final contest results will be announced following the contest by the Regional Contest Director.
6. Although they are unlikely, the Regional Contest Director will resolve ties by examining the quality of submitted solutions and number of incorrect submissions.