Assessment (Grading)

Since the course is about competitive programming, the student's grade will be determined based on her/his performances at the contests held throughout the semester.

Contest standings

As with the ACM ICPC competition, there will be several problems provided during each contest. Each problem will be worth the same number of points. To receive credit for solving a problem, the source code must pass all tests. No partial credit will be given.

Live contest standings will be available via an online scoreboard to all participants during the contest. The contest standings will be frozen during the last 30 min of each contest. The final rankings will be available after the contest completion for a period of one week.

No electronic or printed materials will be allowed during the mini-contests, the midterm contest or the final contest, except for the documentation provided by the programming environment (described in the Programming Environment section).

Rankings and tie-breaking procedure:

The final rankings for the contest are determined based on the number of problems solved.

If several students solve the same number of problems, ties will be broken based on the shortest amount of time taken to solve the last problem. Each submission that does not pass all the tests will results in a 20-minute time penalty added to the elapsed time.

Course Letter Grades

The final number of points in the course will be a weighted average of the points obtained during individual contests, according to the following weighing criteria:

In-class mini-contests (70%): Each mini-contest will cover the material of the elapsed week.
Midterm contest (15%): The midterm will cover the material up to and through week 9.
Final contest (15%): The final will be cumulative covering all the material throughout the semester.

The final letter grade will be determined according to the following table (standard 4.0 scale):

Letter Grade	Points
A/A+	4.0
A-	3.7
B+	3.3
B	3.0
B-	2.7
C+	2.3
C	2.0
C-	1.7
D+	1.3
D	1.0
F	< 1.0

Details about grading

In-class mini-contests (70%)

A 75-minute long mini-contest will take place at the beginning of every class period. The problems presented during the contest will be based on the material covered in the previous week's lecture and the practice problems assigned for that week.

Grading will be performed according to the following rules:

Solving no problems results in 0 points
Solving exactly one problem results in 2 points
Solving all but one problem results in 3 points
Solving all problems results in 4 points

Additional rules: If the student doesn't fall in any of the above categories, the following rules will be used based on the final contest standings (which is a function of the number of problems solved and the speed with which they have been solved):

Of those who solve one or more problems, top 15% of the students will receive 4 points.
Of the remaining students who solved at least one problem, the bottom half will receive 2 points, and the top half will receive 3 points.

Examples:

All students solve all problems: everyone receives 4 points, regardless of the final rankings
All students solve exactly one problem: everyone receives 2 points, regardless of the final rankings
One student solves 2 out of 5 problems and the remaining students solve only one problem: the student with 2 solved problems receives 4 points, the rest receive 2 points

Midterm contest (15%)

A 150-minute long mini-contest will take place during October 19 class period. The problems presented during the contest will be based on the material covered up to and through that week.

Grading will be performed according to the following rules:

Solving no problems results in 0 points
Solving at least one but fewer than 1/3 of all problems results in 1 point
Solving exactly 1/3 of all problems results in 2 points
Solving all but two problems results in 3 points
Solving all problems results in 4 points

If the student doesn't fall in any of the above categories, the Additional rules of the mini-contests will be applied to those who solve more than 1/3 of all problems.

Final Contest (15%)

The final contest will be held during the Final Exam period schedule on Friday, December 14, 12:00-2:00pm. It will consist of problems on the topics covered throughout the semester.

Grading will be performed according to the same rules as for the Midterm Contest.

Practice Problems (0%)

Each week students will be assigned a number of practice problems to prepare them for the weekly mini-contests. It is up to the student to decide how many problems to solve and will not contribute to student's grade calculation. However, the problems during the in-class mini-contests will be very similar to the practice problems. Therefore, if you want to be able to perform well during in-class mini-contests under time pressure, you should practice as many homework problems as you can.