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Rules and Data Policy



Computer Science is the bedrock of the modern world, driving innovation and shaping nearly every aspect of our lives. From the algorithms that connect us globally to the artificial intelligence transforming industries, its principles empower us to solve complex problems and build the future. Our society urgently needs talented computer scientists, engineers, and innovators to design, develop, and sustain the technologies of tomorrow. The International Computer Science Competition offers students a platform to challenge their critical and logical thinking, explore diverse CS concepts, and delve deeper into this exciting discipline beyond the standard school curriculum. We believe that blending education with friendly competition can inspire students to develop a lasting passion for computer science, potentially leading to fulfilling careers in research, development, or engineering.

Most Important Points Vision and Values

§1: The International Computer Science Competition aims to be accessible to all students from all countries, regardless of their background, school, or institution: all you need is a pen, paper, access to a computer, and an internet connection to join!

§2: In general, computer science is an excellent motivation for students to get in touch with science. Our society is in need of capable scientists and engineers that develop, shape and maintain the innovations of the future. The initial motivation through scientific events and competitions can encourage students to a professional career as a researcher or engineer. We have the aim to provide a sophisticated educational program and to enable students, parents, and teachers to get involved in the process of shaping our future.

Elegibilitiy and Participation

§3: Current high school and university students from all grades and countries are eligible to participate. An age limit may be imposed and published on the competition website. There are different age categories.

§4: Students from all age categories will receive the same problems in all rounds. However, students from higher age categories will have to score more points (e.g., to qualify for the Pre-Final Round).

Prizes and Awards

§5: All participants receive participation certificates to certify their efforts. In the Final Round, participants receive either a Bronze, Silver or Gold Honour, depending on their performance. The best students are awarded the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prizes, as well as special awards for the best participants from each country.

§6: All participants and finalists will receive a soft copy of the certificate via email.

§7a: We understand the crucial role of teachers and schools in scientific education. Because of that, we award several types of school awards to honour the efforts of the teachers and the school (the awards are not connected to cash prizes).

§7.1: Schools participate automatically if a student registers with the school name. Please make sure that all of your students write the school name correctly and in the same way. Also, we recommend that the school's teachers register at ICSC.

§7b: Each year, special awards are given to the most active and responsible ambassadors to honour their excellent performance. The ICSC coordinators use the information about the number of participants that you encouraged, as well as your documented activities & pictures, to honour the awards.

§8: Participating in international competitions contributes to your personal development and is an excellent achievement for your academic career. Participating in ICSC is a unique experience that will expand your knowledge, get you closer to real-world science and connect you with like-minded students.

§9: Winners and former participants of ICSC become part of the international ICSC network: This network consists of outstanding and talented students from all around the world! It enables you to get in touch with inspiring youths and to connect with students worldwide. If you have successfully participated, you will receive all information about our alumni network from us.

Process and Deadlines

§10: The ICSC competition consists of three stages: Qualification Round, Pre-Final Round, and Final Round. The science problems in the Qualification Round encompass a wide range of topics, varying in difficulty and discipline. They range from geometry to number theory to make sure that everyone finds interesting problems to work out.

§11: The submission deadline is available in the information flyer. All solutions and answers must be submitted in accordance with the provided guidelines for each round. Late submissions, incomplete submissions, or submissions that do not meet formatting requirements may be disqualified

§12: You must upload one single file. If you have multiple pictures, compress them into one file. You can upload PDF files and images (jpg, jpeg, png). We do not accept any other formats (e.g., ZIP or Word files). The file size has to be below 10 MB.

§13: The solution file may be typed digitally (e.g., using TeX), or it may be a clear picture of your handwritten notes. Digitally typed solutions receive a special honourary note on the certificates. Make sure that you write your name and date of birth correctly. They will be used across all certificates issued to you.

§14: To avoid connection issues, upload errors, and other problems, please be encouraged to submit your solution before the submission deadline.

§15: Participants who solved the Qualification Round successfully are qualified to participate in the Pre-Final Round. The problems will be more challenging but also more engaging.

§16: The Pre-Final Round consists of six problems that vary in difficulty, points, and subject. There are three types of problems.

§17: The Pre-Final Round includes two research problems whose experimental format varies each year. Usually, one of them presents a real-world example of scientific research or requires particular originality.

§18: Information about the points required to qualify for the Final Round is available in our information flyer.

§19: All participants who are qualified and registered for the Pre-Final Round will receive the problems via email or via their participant account. From that day on, you have four days to solve as many problems as possible. You can submit your solution online via a dedicated submission form. You can choose if you would like to submit the solution as a handwritten version or as a digitally typed document. We recommend writing the solution in the blank space on the problem sheets of the Pre-Final Round. Please highlight your final solutions.

§20: If you succeed in the Qualification Round, you can choose to participate in the Pre-Final Round by registering from your participant account.

§21: This educational opportunity comes with diverse costs, including those for human resources, technical infrastructure, materials and more. While our sponsors cover some of these expenses, we need to ask participants to cover this year's Pre-Final Round registration costs of 11 EUR EUR to make ICSC on an international level possible.

§22: The registration costs are necessary to provide the resources required to run a competition at this scale, including evaluation, in particular, for the comprehensive Pre-Final Round. There are no other costs involved.

§23: Participants who have solved the Pre-Final Round successfully are qualified to participate in the Final Round: a multiple-choice online exam with 20 questions.

§24: The Final Round consists of a single exam with 20 multiple-choice questions. Finalists have 60 seconds for each question. There are four possible answers to every question (only one is correct). A correct answer equals one point. There are no negative points for incorrect answers. The awards and prizes are given to the finalists with the most points in the Final Round. If multiple participants have the same score, the points from the Pre-Final Round (and Qualification Round) are used to determine the final winners.

§25: Finalists take the exam via a dedicated online exam portal. The online exam is conducted in the participant's school, where a teacher supervises each finalist. All finalists have to select a teacher who agrees to supervise the exam. We will send all required information to the selected teacher who has time to conduct the exam on the final round exam day. The teacher has to make sure that the finalist does not cheat and does not open any other browser tabs, websites, programs, or computer windows during the exam. Participants can also record their exams with a video camera or smartphone and upload the video. In this case, no teacher is needed.

Further Information

§26: We provide all participants and teachers with a great tool to check the submission, the results, and the certificates. In order to prevent unauthorized access, you will have to enter the email and the birth year to check the submission and to view the results. On our official website, you find a list of materials with additional information and that you can use to promote ICSC. The ICSC Newsletters and alerts will inform you about upcoming challenges as well as general information and activities.

§27: You can subscribe to the newsletter on the ICSC website. In order to stay tuned and receive all recent posts and updates from ICSC make sure to visit our Facebook page. Also, we encourage you to share our post on social media to give everyone this great opportunity. If you have questions, comments, issues or feedback regarding ICSC feel free to send us a message via email. §28: While we strive to ensure a seamless experience, technical issues may occasionally occur. These may include email delivery problems, website unavailability, functionality issues, or incorrect information being displayed. We cannot guarantee the complete avoidance of technical issues, and therefore, no claims (e.g., for reevaluation, prizes, or certificates) can be made on the basis of such occurrences.

§29: We make every effort to ensure that evaluations are conducted fairly and accurately. However, human or technical errors can not be completely avoided. If any errors are identified after the deadlines, the competition, or the respective rounds have concluded, no claims (e.g., for reevaluation) can be made; however, it is at the discretion of the coordinators to determine how such incidents will be handled to determine a fair solution.

§30: Email is the primary tool for communication. Participants must ensure that their email settings allow messages from us to be received. However, we cannot guarantee the absence of email delivery or sending issues. Participants are responsible for regularly checking the official website and utilizing the status check/participant account tool provided on our platform.

§31: All information and deadlines provided in these terms, as well as on our website, in emails, flyers, or other communication channels, may be subject to change or modification without prior notice to accommodate internal or external circumstances (e.g., extended evaluation periods or extended submission deadlines). Participants are responsible for regularly visiting our website to stay updated on any changes and for checking their emails.

§32: The organizers reserve the right to pause, stop, or cancel the competition at any time. This decision may be made due to unforeseen circumstances, technical difficulties, or other factors that could affect the competition's integrity or feasibility.

§33: Participants are expected to maintain a high standard of integrity and professionalism throughout the competition. Any behaviour that violates the spirit of fair play, such as cheating, plagiarism, or disruptive conduct, will result in disqualification and may lead to further consequences, including a ban from future competitions.

§34: The organizers reserve the right to disqualify participants from the competition. Any participant found to be cheating will be disqualified immediately, and no refund of registration costs will be provided in such cases.

§35: Any fraudulent activity, such as impersonation, falsifying information, or submitting work that is not the participant's own, will result in immediate disqualification and may lead to further consequences. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all competition rounds must be completed individually.

§36: All problems, solutions, and materials provided as part of this program are the intellectual property of the organizers. Participants are not permitted to reproduce, share, or distribute these materials without prior written consent.

§37: The organizers reserve the right to verify the eligibility of participants at any stage of the competition. Participants may be required to provide identification or additional documentation to confirm their compliance with the eligibility criteria. The organizers reserve the right to grant exceptions to the eligibility criteria.

§38: The organizers are not liable for delays, disruptions, or cancellations caused by events beyond their control, including but not limited to natural disasters, technical failures, or changes in legal regulations. In such cases, the organizers will make reasonable efforts to address the situation and communicate updates to participants promptly.

§39: No legal claims can be made regarding any aspect of this competition, including but not limited to reevaluation, prizes, certificates, or information.

§40: We are committed to delivering a transparent and engaging competition experience, ensuring fairness and excitement for all participants. However, the organizers reserve the right to take necessary actions at their discretion. These decisions may be made without prior notice or the obligation to detailed explanations. While every effort is made to maintain clarity and fairness, the organizers' decisions in these matters are final and binding.

§41: The organizers are not obligated to provide or publish private names, addresses, or other personal information of participants, teachers, ambassadors, or team members. Additionally, the organizers reserve the right not to respond to emails, questions, messages, or other contact attempts at their discretion.

§42: Participant information may occasionally be shared with the public or relevant entities, such as schools or ambassadors, particularly in cases where participants are associated with a specific school or have selected a specific ambassador during registration. This may include sharing details of winners or participants with special achievements to recognize and celebrate their accomplishments.

Site Usage and Data Policy

§43.0: These terms and conditions govern your use of this website and the rules for programs, competitions, events, etc. conducted by this website or organization; by using this website and participating in events, you accept these terms and conditions in full. If you disagree with these terms and conditions or any part of these terms and conditions, you must not use this website, services, and material, participate in events or any other services provided by the website. Events mean any competition, project, offer, sub-website, article publishing, clicks, subscribing, submitting, applying, or other services.

§43.1: Every right to this website belongs to the organizers. See "Impressum" via the link on the bottom right corner for contact information. They are in charge of the content and cannot be replaced or removed without their own consent.

§43.2: This website may use cookies. By using this website and agreeing to these terms and conditions, you consent to our use of cookies for any purpose. In general, the events and the organizers do not take any warranty, responsibilities or duties as possible within the applicable law. If any of the following statements disagrees with the applicable law it does not affect any other rules or terms in this statement and everything else remains valid.

§43.3: Unless otherwise stated, the organizers own the intellectual property rights in the website and material on the website. Subject to the license below, all these intellectual property rights are reserved. You may view, download for caching purposes only, and print pages from the website for your own personal use, subject to the restrictions set out below and elsewhere in these terms and conditions.

§43.4: You must not: sell, rent or sub-license material from the website; reproduce, duplicate, copy or otherwise exploit material on this website for a commercial purpose; edit or otherwise modify any material on the website; redistribute material from this website except for content specifically and expressly made available for redistribution.

§43.5: You must not use this website in any way that causes, or may cause, damage to the website or impairment of the availability or accessibility of the website; or in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity.

§43.6: You must not use this website to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious computer software.

§43.7: You must not conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to this website without written consent of the organizers.

§43.8: You must not use this website to transmit or send unsolicited commercial communications. You must not use this website for any purposes related to marketing without written consent by the organizers.

§43.9: Access to certain areas of this website is restricted. The organizers reserve the right to restrict access to areas of this website, or indeed this entire website, at the organizer's discretion.

§43.10a: If the organizers provide you with a user ID and password to enable you to access restricted areas of this website or other content or services, you must ensure that the user ID and password are kept confidential. The organizers may disable your user ID and password or remove you from the website. If certificates, identification cards, or other materials provided by the organizers result in harm, financial losses, or legal consequences, the organizers are not liable or responsible for such outcomes.

§43.10b: Accounts may not be used by someone else except for you. You are responsible for keeping your account safe. You are not allowed to create multiple accounts or create accounts with bad intentions (e.g., to harm others or to spread wrong information).

§43.11: In these terms and conditions, “your user content” means material (including without limitation text, messages in any way, images, audio material, video material and audio-visual material) that you submit to this website, for whatever purpose. You grant the organizers and the events a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty license to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and distribute your user content in any existing or future media. Every picture, essay, text or data submitted by the user can be used under CC0 license by the organizers and the events. You also grant the organizers the right to sub-license these rights, and the right to bring an action for infringement of these rights.

§43.12: Your user content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any third party's legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action whether against you or the organizers a third party (in each case under any applicable law).

§43.13: You must not submit any user content to the website that is or has ever been the subject of any threatened or actual legal proceedings or other similar complaints.

§43.14: The organizers reserve the right to edit or remove any material submitted to this website, stored on the events servers, or hosted or published on this website.

§43.15: Notwithstanding the organizers' rights under these terms and conditions in relation to user content, the organizer does not undertake to monitor the submission of such content to, or the publication of such content on, this website.

§43.16: This website is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied. The organizers give no warranties, express or implied, regarding this website or the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information and materials provided on it.

§43.17: Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing paragraph, the events and the organizers do not warrant that: this website will be constantly available, or available at all; the information on this website is complete, true, accurate or non-misleading. Nothing on this website constitutes, or is meant to constitute, advice of any kind.

§43.18: The organizers will not be liable in relation to the contents of, or use of, or otherwise in connection with, this website: to the extent that the website is provided free-of-charge, for any direct loss; for any indirect, special or consequential loss; or any business losses, loss of revenue, income, profits or anticipated savings, loss of contracts or business relationships, loss of reputation or goodwill, or loss or corruption of information or data.

§43.19: These limitations of liability apply even if the events or the organizers have been expressly advised of the potential loss.

§43.20: You accept that, as a limited liability entity, the competition and the organizers have an interest in limiting the personal liability of its officers and employees. You agree that you will not bring any personal claim against the events or organizers, officers, or employees with respect to any losses you suffer in connection with the website.

§43.21: You agree that the limitations of warranties and liability set out in this website disclaimer will protect the events's and organizer's officers, employees, agents, subsidiaries, successors, assigns and sub-contractors as well as and above all the events and the organizers.

§43.22: If any provision of this website disclaimer is, or is found to be, unenforceable under applicable law, that will not affect the enforceability of the other provisions of this website disclaimer.

§43.23: You hereby indemnify the events and the organizers and undertake to keep the events and the organizers indemnified against any losses, damages, costs, liabilities, and expenses (including without limitation legal expenses and any amounts paid by the events and the organizers to a third party in settlement of a claim or dispute on the advice of the events and the organizers legal advisers) incurred or suffered by the events and the organizers arising out of any breach by you of any provision of these terms and conditions.

§43.24: Without prejudice to the events's and the organizor's other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach these terms and conditions in any way, the events and the organizors may take such action as the events and the organizors deems appropriate to deal with the breach, including suspending your access to the website, prohibiting you from accessing the website, blocking computers using your IP address from accessing the website, contacting your internet service provider to request that they block your access to the website and/or bringing court proceedings against you.

§43.25: The events and the organizers may revise these terms and conditions from time-to-time. Revised terms and conditions will apply to the use of this website from the date of the publication of the revised terms and conditions on this website. Please check this page regularly to ensure you are familiar with the current version.

§43.26: The events and the organizers may transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with the events's and the organizer's rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions without notifying you or obtaining your consent. You may not transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with your rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.

§43.27: If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect. If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.

§43.28: These terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement between you and the events and the organizers in relation to your use of this website and supersede all previous agreements in respect of your use of this website.

§43.29: These terms and conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with German Law and any disputes relating to these terms and conditions will be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Judiciary of Germany. This document was partially created using a Contractology template available at www.contractology.com.

§43.28: These terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement between you and the events and the organizers in relation to your use of this website and supersede all previous agreements in respect of your use of this website.

§43.29: These terms and conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with German Law and any disputes relating to these terms and conditions will be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Judiciary of Germany. This document was partially created using a Contractology template available at www.contractology.com.

§43.30: This website uses Google Analytics to track activity and user statistics. By using this website you agree to this.

§43.31: According to DSGVO of the European Union, we would like to inform you about the following: We save data for the purpose of statistical evaluation, email marketing, and to improve our products and services. The manager (“Datenschutzbeauftragte”) is Fabian Schneider, see Impressum on the bottom for contact information. Everything is in accordance with the German law. The data is received by the NetCup server infrastructure. The data expiration time for profiles is unlimited to enable you access to your accounts. For all other statistical data, the limit is 24 months. We use Google Analytics for the data evaluation. You have the right to be informed about the data that we save about you, and you have the right to delete the data. You have the right to complain to the data protection agency.

§43.32: By using this website, you agree that the exclusions and limitations of liability set out in this website disclaimer are reasonable. If you do not think they are reasonable, you must not use this website.

§43.33: Participants' data may be used to further develop and improve the competition, including but not limited to AI (artificial intelligence) applications.

Additional Data Policy

§44.1: We save data for the purpose of statistical evaluation, email marketing, and to improve our products and services. The manager (“Datenschutzbeauftragte”) is Mr Fabian Schneider (see Impressum).

§44.2: Everything is in accordance with the German law. The data is received by the NetCup server hosting infrastructure. We save data such as viewed web pages or names of the retrieved file, date and time for statistical purposes and store them on the server without the data being directly related to your person.

§44.3: At the contact form, we save also your email address and your personal name if your name is stated by you. On behalf of the participants, we just store name, email address, password, country, birthday, career status, name of your school/university/workplace, personal description, your profile picture and the optional information you state. Personal data, in particular name, address or e-mail address will be collected on a voluntary basis as far as possible. Without your consent, the data will not be passed on to third parties. The data expiration time is for profiles unlimited, to enable you access to your accounts. For all other statistical data the limit is 24 months.

§44.4: The data is not given to third parties that are not affiliated with us. You have the right to be informed about the data that we save about you and you have the right that we delete the data. You have the right to complain at the data protection agency.

§44.5: We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. To disable Google Analytics, Google has a browser plug-in available at http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. Google Analytics uses cookies , for data evaluation. These are small text files that make it possible to store specific information related to the user on the user's terminal. These enable an analysis of the use of our website offered by Google. The information collected by the cookies about the use of our pages (including your IP address) is usually transferred to a Google server in the United States and stored there. We would point out that on this website Google Analytics was extended to the code "GAT. _anonymizeIp ();" To ensure an anonymized collection of IP-addresses (so-called IP-masking). If the anonymization is active, Google will shorten the IP addresses within the Member States of the European Union or in other contracting States of the Agreement on the European Economic Area, which makes it impossible to draw conclusions about their identity. Only in exceptional cases the full IP address will be transferred to a Google server in the United States and shortened there. Google respects the Privacy Shield agreement and is registered with the U.S. Department of Commerce's privacy Shield program and uses the information collected to evaluate the use of our sites, reports to us and to provide other relevant services to us. You can find out more at http://www.google.com/ intl/de/ analytics/ privacyoverview.html.

§44.6: Our website uses features of Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. When our Facebook plug-in pages are called, a connection is established between your browser and the Facebook servers. Because of this data is already transferred to Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, this data can be linked to it. If you do not wish to assign this information to your Facebook account, please log out before visiting our Facebook page. Interactions, especially the use of a comment function or the click of a "like" or "share" button are also passed on to Facebook. You can find out more at https://de-de.facebook.com/about/privacy.

We have used as a source (besides others): https://www.anwalt.de/vorlage/muster-datenschutzerklaerung.php