About ICPC

The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world. The contest traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M University in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the UPE Computer Science Honor Society.

The ICPC is a team-based programming competition with a rich history spanning decades. Teams of three students work together to solve real-world problems, with a focus on algorithms, data structures, and computational thinking.

The contest provides college students with opportunities to interact with students from other universities and to sharpen and demonstrate their problem-solving, programming, and teamwork skills. The contest provides a platform for industry to see leading students in action and to communicate with them regarding employment opportunities.

ICPC History

A brief timeline of the competition's evolution

1970

First Competition

The first competition is held at Texas A&M University, with teams from the United States competing.

1977

Expansion Beyond US

The competition expands internationally with the addition of teams from Canada.

1989

ACM Sponsorship

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) becomes the sponsor of the competition.

1997

World Finals in US

The first World Finals held outside the US takes place in San Jose, California.

2000

Global Expansion

The competition expands to include regional contests in Asia, Europe, and other continents.

2017

Record Participation

A record 46,381 students from 2,948 universities in 103 countries participate.

2025

Current Contest

The competition continues to grow, with more universities and countries participating each year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about the ICPC competition

To be eligible for ICPC, a student must be enrolled in a school or a degree program at the team's institution with at least a half-time load. Students must not have participated in more than two World Finals or five regional contests.

Each team consists of three students from the same school or university. Teams are typically formed through local competitions or selection processes at each institution. Many schools and universities hold tryouts or training sessions to select their best teams.

The ICPC supports C, C++, Java and Python. All problems are solvable in any of the supported languages.

Problems are judged automatically by running your program against secret test cases. Your solution must produce correct output for all test cases within the time and memory limits to be accepted. There is no partial credit - your solution is either completely correct or incorrect.

Teams may bring printed reference materials (books, manuals, notes), but no electronic devices are allowed except for the contest computer. Each team member may bring one unannotated natural language dictionary.

Practice solving algorithmic problems on online judges like Codeforces, Topcoder, or our practice page. Study algorithms and data structures. Participate in local programming contests. Work on team dynamics - learn to divide problems effectively and communicate clearly under time pressure.

Recent World Champions

Winners from past World Finals

2024
2024 Winners

Naive Birds - China

Peking University

Continued their dominance. Solved 9 problems to claim the championship title.

2023
2023 Winners

FFTilted - Russia

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Solved 9 problems to claim the championship title with less penalty points than Peking University

2022
2020 Winners

Reborn as a Vegetable Dog - China

Peking University

Solved 9 problems to claim the championship.