Teams
Teams must have a minimum of two students and a maximum of four students. Teams must have a faculty sponsor. If your school does not have a faculty sponsor, please email us.
Teams can be made up of students from different schools as long as all students and faculty sponsors agree.
Internet Access & Code Generation
This competition is open-internet. You may use the internet for looking up language documentation or researching algorithms. You may not use interactive online services such as chat rooms or forums to communicate with anyone during the competition. You may not communicate with anyone outside of your team.
The problems are written specifically for the competition, so looking up the problems will not be useful. Additionally, the teams that do the best in the competition generally do not use the internet extensively during the competition because they already are familiar with their language's standard library and know a variety of algorithms that may be used to solve the problems.
Third party code generation is not allowed. Any team that uses code generation AI/LLMs will be immediately disqualified and their school will be ineligible from participating in HSPC in future years. All solutions will be reviewed for AI use. We reserve the right to ask teams to explain the solution in detail to judges and revoke credit for solutions if the judges feel the team does not provide an adequate explanation.
Bringing Your Own Technology
In-person teams will be provided a single computer for the competition. Teams may not use more than one Mines-provided computer. Teams are allowed to bring and use additional computers if they wish.
Using the computer provided is often an effective strategy as it allows team members to collaborate on solutions rather than having to work on their own.
In-Person Prizes
In-person teams can win prizes by placing in the top three. We also may award prizes for fun & creative solutions or quick completion of problems.
- Prize for each person in the first place team
- Prize for each person in the second place team
- Prize for each person in the third place team
Rules and prizes are subject to change.