From the 1996 UF ACM High School Programming Competition

Contest Rules and Scoring

The contest will last three hours. Each team may have a maximum of four students. Calculators, notes, outside software, and books other than language references are prohibited. Books are subject to approval by the ACM staff. Team members may not discuss the contest with other teams or with their school sponsor during the competition.

Problem solutions will be graded as the test progresses. Each incorrect submission of a problem will result in a 10 minute time penalty added to your score. Solutions may be submitted as many times as you like. When a team is ready to submit a solution, a representative must raise his/her hand and wait for a grader. Once a hand is raised, a problem attempt will be logged, even if the team decides it is not ready. The grader can only provide the problem's test input and state whether the solution is correct or incorrect. The graders cannot answer any questions! If a team has any questions about the problems, the grader will summon a judge. The judge's decision is final.

The following three criteria will be used to determine final placement and prize winners:

The team with the highest point total will be declared the winner, the second highest second place, and so on.
At the end of the competition, should two or more teams have the same number of points, the higher rank will be awarded to the team with the lowest overall time, including penalty minutes. If a tie still exists, the team with the fewest attempts will be ranked higher.
In the unlikely event that two or more teams are still tied after applying the tie-breaking criteria, a tie will be declared.

A note about input and output: Most of the contest problems do not depend upon exact formatting, so embedded spaces in programs' input and output will be tolerated. If a team has any questions about how to format a program's input or output, the team should ask a judge before submitting the problem to be graded.