The short version
- The challenge is free. Everyone takes part with their own account, and one account per person.
- Submit your own work and follow the Rules, including the collaboration and AI tools policy.
- Don’t interfere with the platform or access anyone else’s data.
- You keep ownership of your code. You let the organizers store, run and evaluate it to run the challenge.
- Scores freeze at the closing time. Practice stays open afterwards.
1. The challenge and these terms
National Programming Challenge is a free programming challenge. These terms and the Rules apply to your participation. By creating an account you agree to them and to the Privacy notice.
2. Who can take part
National Programming Challenge is designed with high-school students in mind and welcomes other learners. No prior competitive-programming experience is required. Each person uses one individual account.
3. Your account
Keep your password private. You are responsible for activity on your account. You can change your display alias; aliases must not be offensive or impersonate someone.
4. Fair play and review
Submit your own work and follow the collaboration and AI tools rules on the Rules page.
Organizers may review suspected violations. If a violation is confirmed, the affected submissions may receive no credit, and repeated abuse may result in account suspension.
5. Acceptable use
Do not try to read hidden tests, interfere with the judge, overload the service, submit code meant to harm the platform or other people, or access accounts or data that are not yours.
6. Your code
You keep ownership of the code you write. By submitting it, you give the organizers a limited permission to store, run and evaluate it, to show you your results, and to review scores and suspected violations, so that the challenge can operate. This permission does not transfer ownership of your code.
7. Scores and corrections
Points are calculated as described in the Rules. The organizers may correct scores if a problem or test is found to be wrong or a scoring error occurs. Rankings are visible only to organizers until final rankings are released, expected around November 14, 2026, after submitted code is reviewed.
8. Privacy
The Privacy notice explains what information the challenge collects and how it is used.
9. Service changes and availability
We aim to keep the challenge available, but we can’t promise uninterrupted operation. The organizers may change, pause or remove parts of the service, including problems and features.
10. Changes to these terms
If we change these terms, we will update this page and the “Last updated” date at the top.