The World Computing Championships^®

Have you heard of competitive programming competitions? Millions of high school students around the world participate in these competitions, which involve them programming the solution to a problem with given specifications. It's an impressive feat – medallists at competitions like the International Olympiad of Informatics demonstrate the highest level of Computer Science knowledge and skill.

But how do you get there? As a student who has never explored competitive programming or the software engineering industry, it seems like a daunting feat. And you're not alone. For this reason, the World Computing Championships^® group students who have been exposed to similar levels of programming and are excited to learn more!

We want to help you surmount that challenge, and thus designed this competition with the following principles. 

• Inclusivity: Regardless of whether you started programming recently or designed your first algorithm years ago, we hope to provide the same level of challenge and learning opportunities to you.
• In-depth Learning: We designed rounds to demonstrate your in-depth learning in several facets of computer science, enabling you to identify strengths and target improvements.
• Variety: We've created 3 innovative rounds that develop creativity, problem identification, problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking – skills that not only used for programming but can be applied to several aspects of your life.

Contest Structure

The WCC^® consists of FOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS every season, so you can work on different skills between championships and measure your progress. Each contest is held online over a single weekend. Some rounds are synchronous (live timings) and some are asynchronous (participants can complete these rounds at their convenience over the weekend).

Round timings are accessed here for 2020-21!

Level			Junior	Senior
Contest 1			2-5 October 2020	N/A 2020
Contest 2			11 - 13 December 2020	N/A 2020
Contest 3			13 - 15 February 2021	N/A 2021
Contest 4			TBD in April 2021	N/A 2021

We plan to have two levels of competition - Junior (ages 13 - 16, basic programming experience) and Senior (ages 16 - 19, intermediate programming experience)

As a new challenge, we're only offering Junior Level for the first year. If you have questions about its suitability for your skill level, please Contact Us.

This competition has Early Bird Pricing of SG$10, with the regular price being SG$18. Payments are made through Stripe, the secure payment gateway.

Registration

While this may change in the future, as of now students cannot register for competitions themselves. Registration and payments are only possible through a parent or teacher account.

Once parents / teachers have completed all the necessary steps, they will receive student login details, which need to be passed on to the student.

Each registration can include any number of students, but a parent/teacher account can only apply once per competition. 

If multiples of 3 students are registered together, they will be put into teams of 3 in the same order as they were input. During registration, there is a box to input a team codeword (the more unique the better). Please coordinate with your team and ensure that everyone puts the same codeword. In the event that you do not have a team of at least 2 people, please leave the field blank. We will put you in a team!

The round timing and details are shared on the student dashboard near to the competiton date, and so participants need to log-in maybe a few days beforehand to familiarise themselves with the set-up and the schedule.

Award Categories

• Implementation - because it's one thing to know coding, and another to use coding to solve real-world problems
• Resourcefulness - because some tasks come with obstacles that have to be overcome
• Creativeness - because some problems require you to step out of the box
• Individual - because we want to be challenged to be the best we can possibly be
• Team - because we need others to help us achieve our dreams

Individual Rounds will be individually completed by each participant, while Team Rounds will be completed by teams ('existing friends' or with the same residence / nationality)

Note: For WCC Contest 2 Participants, we use transcripts to denote Gold / Silver / Bronze awards. If you require a certificate for academic purposes, please email us!

Competition Details

Each contest consists of 6 rounds, which are grouped into the above categories as follows:

			Implementation	Resourcefulness	Creativeness
Individual			Olympiad	Decode	Debug
Team			Target	Detective	Optimise

Participants sometimes think deeply alone, work in teams, be inspired by speakers and develop using their imagination!
This unique platform also enables participants to network and build lasting friendships - usually the main highlight of their schooling years.

For a more detailed breakdown on how the championships flow, please browse the other sections:

• Explore the dynamics of each round

• Sample questions for selected rounds

The most important prizes to be had are the intangibles ones gained from such an experience. On top of that all participants receive a transcript of relative attainment, which identifies their strengths and areas of improvements.

Thank you so much for supporting the WCC® and the mission behind it. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to Contact Us. 

Sincerely,
The WCC Team