Institute of Computer Science to host major programming competition
From 5 to 7 December, the University of Wrocław will welcome programming enthusiasts from the best universities in Central Europe, who will compete in challenging algorithmic tasks.
Once again, the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Wrocław will serve as the organiser of the Central European Academic Team Programming Championships (ICPC Central Europe Regional Contest).
From the USA to the whole world
The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is an algorithmic programming competition for university students whose history dates back to the 1970s, when it began in the United States. The initiative quickly spread across the USA and Canada, and subsequently worldwide, becoming an innovative programme aimed at developing the problem-solving skills of the most talented computer science students.
Today, the championships—now the most prestigious competition of their kind—bring together around 70,000 students from 3,000 universities each year. Teams first compete in local and regional qualifiers before advancing to the World Finals.
Experienced academic organisers
This year, the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Wrocław is hosting the regional stage—ICPC CERC, the Central European championships. UWr is hosting the CERC for the fifth time, having organised the contest last year as well as between 2008 and 2010. Our university is one of only three academic centres in Poland—alongside Jagiellonian University and the University of Warsaw—that send the largest number of teams to the competition.
Several dozen teams will compete in Wrocław. In addition to Polish participants, ICPC CERC 2025 will bring together students from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
The best teams will qualify for the 50th anniversary ICPC World Finals, to be held in 2026.
Competition format: creativity and speed matter
Each team competing in the CERC consists of three students representing one higher-education institution, supervised by a coach—usually a member of academic staff. Teams aim to solve as many as possible of at least ten problems prepared by the organisers, reflecting real-world programming challenges. A problem is considered solved when the solution is accepted by the judges.
Teams are ranked by the number of problems solved; ties are broken by the total time taken to reach accepted solutions for all problems.
The time for each problem is calculated from the start of the contest to the submission of the accepted solution, plus a 20-minute penalty for each rejected attempt, regardless of when it was submitted. Each team is provided with only one computer.
UWr teams regular finalists
The University of Wrocław has been participating in ICPC CERC since 1998, and first qualified for the World Finals in 2005. Since then, UWr teams have been regular finalists, achieving medal positions on several occasions. Their most recent successes include two first-place finishes at the 29th Polish Academic Team Programming Championships.
More information about the achievements of UWr teams can be found here.
Date of publication: 4.12.2025
Added by: E.K.
