The North American Invitational Programming Contest ~~ An Experience Report ~~

Borja Sotomayor NAIPC Contest Director Also: Mid-Central USA Director of Systems, UChicago Coach

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report What is the NAIPC? Yearly ICPC-style programming contest for the teams in the North American super-region. Run by volunteer ICPC-ers in North America. Hosted by the University of Chicago. This is the fifth year we have run the NAIPC. Currently an online contest, but we have gone through other formats before getting there.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Origin of the NAIPC In 2011, the University of Michigan ran an invitational on-site contest on their campus a few weeks before the North American regionals. Teams from several schools within driving distance of Michigan were invited (including the University of Chicago) 5-hour contest with prizes. Problem set written from scratch. Goal: Give these teams an opportunity to compete with other top teams before the regionals.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Origin of the NAIPC The UChicago team really benefited from this idea, so we pitched the idea of doing a similar contest a UChicago, but in preparation for the World Finals. At the time there were no coordinated efforts to help North American teams train for the World Finals. Like the Michigan contest, we expected to invite only teams that were driving distance from Chicago. Our administration actually challenged us to run a North American-wide contest. After looking for sponsors, Palantir offered to sponsor the entire event.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Origin of the NAIPC So, the first NAIPC* took place April 14-15, 2012, in Chicago. * Actually called the “University of Chicago Invitational Programming Contest” at the time. We switched to the NAIPC name in All the WF-bound North American teams attended, plus the University of Michigan (as a courtesy for organizing the pre-regional invitational) All expenses paid: hotel and flights to Chicago. Saturday: Practice Contest (5 hour, with existing problem set), tech talks, reception Sunday: Contest (5 hour, with new problem set), closing ceremony.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report NAIPC 2013 and 2014 Building on the success of the NAIPC 2012, we decided to run the contest again, and to grow it as much as possible. NAIPC 2013 and 2014 also took place on-site in Chicago at the end of March. All WF-bound North American teams were invited and all of them attended. Basically same format as the first NAIPC, but: Much nicer contest site More sponsors Nicer events

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report NAIPC 2013 and 2014 In 2014, we started using our current logo, and put more emphasis on branding. All on-site teams got team t-shirts (similar to WF t-shirts: team colors and team name on the back) WF-level cash prizes We also ran the contest online (using PC^2 and EWTeam), allowing external teams to participate (on a separate scoreboard) 60 teams participated remotely

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report NAIPC 2015 and 2016 Our goal for 2015 was to grow the contest further and invite the top 5 school from each North American region (instead of just the WF-bound teams) We did not raise enough sponsorship funds (more on this later), and had to fall back on holding the contest as an online-only contest (using Kattis) Divided into two “divisions”: Invitational Division (top 5 schools from each NA region) and Open Division (any NA team) We were still able to offer modest prizes and team t-shirts (in the Invitational Division) and raffled gift cards in the Open Division.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Participation Summary YearOn-site teamsOnline - InvitationalOnline - Open (NA)Online - Open (Non-NA)

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report The NAIPC Practices In 2015 we also ran weekly practice contests on Kattis in the weekends leading up to the NAIPC, using existing problem sets. Coaches told us these were useful, but they would like more input (and more advance notice) on what problem sets were used. In 2015/16, we ran weekly practice contests before the regionals, before the NAIPC, and before the WF. Volunteer coaches help with the selection of problem sets (including “Kattis-ifying” existing problem sets) and schedule of problem sets is announced far in advance. Well received, especially by schools with less experience running contests.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Lessons Learned - North America The North American super-region lags behind other super-regions in terms of preparing its teams for the World Finals. Mostly because of the structure of NA: practically anyone can go to the regional contests, which feed directly into WF. Other super-regions have sub-regional or national competitions before the actual regional contest. The NAIPC fills this gap to some degree, both for the WF-bound teams and for the lower-tier teams. Ideally, we would like this evolve into a true championship contest.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Lessons Learned - Sponsorship Sponsors: 2012: Palantir 2013: Palantir, Groupon, Classified Ventures, Jane Street, GrubHub 2014: Facebook, Groupon, Waterfront International, Stevens Capital Management, Jane Street 2015: Jane Street, Palantir, TGS Management 2016: Jane Street, TGS Management

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Lessons Learned - Sponsorship Holding the contest as an on-site event in required raising a lot of sponsorship funds. By far, the most stressful part of the NAIPC. The fact that we were able to raise so much money those years seems to have been an exception to the norm (each year, we were lucky to have a large sponsor swoop in at the eleventh hour after exhausting all our sponsorship leads). Surprisingly tough sell in North America: large tech companies are already reaching ICPC-ers through campus recruitment, smaller companies are unfamiliar with ICPC or feel they can’t compete with the large companies for these students. Right now, holding the contest as an online contest is the “new normal”.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Lessons Learned - Contest Logistics Too many to list! :-) Main lessons, which will probably sound familiar to anyone who has organized a regional contest: Delegate, delegate, delegate. If your university has trusted vendors, use them. Covering travel expenses is surprisingly easy (in the US, at least) Having a steering committee composed of people not directly involved in organizing the contest bring in a lot of useful perspectives.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report What’s next? The online model seems to be working well, and we’re going to continue using it. We’re not opposed to resuming the on-site portion of the contest, but our sponsorship fundraising is going to focus on covering the budget for the online contest. Next year: Grow participation within North America (goal: contestants) Build awareness of the NAIPC outside of the ICPC community. Raise enough funds to get a (non-customized) t-shirt to everyone in the Open Division that solves at least one problem.

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Acknowledgements Head Judge: David “vanb” van Brackle (and his army of judges and problem authors) Steering Committee: Sean McIntyre, Greater New York RCD Fredrik Niemelä, ICPC WF‘09 Contest Director, Kattis CEO Ali Orooji, North American Super-Regional Director Isaac Traxler, South Central USA RCD Kathy Traxler, South Central USA RCD ICPC: Greg Hamerly, Tomas Cerny, Jeff Donahoo

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report More information Past contests:

The North American Invitational Programming Contest - An Experience Report Questions? Borja Sotomayor