Hello, Codeforces!
As the official team of NowCoder (China's leading programming competition platform), we are pleased to introduce the 2025 NowCoder Summer Multi-School Training Camp! This annual event has been running for eight years. Since the summer of 2018, we have collaborated with top competitors from algorithmic competitions such as ICPC, NOI, and IOI, aiming to enhance participants' programming skills through competitions, lectures, and exchanges, and to prepare for upcoming competitions like ICPC and CCPC in the second half of the year; simultaneously, we seek to foster learning and exchange among university training teams worldwide.
Details
- Schedule. Consistent with last year, this year's training camp will consist of ten ICPC-style competitions, starting on Tuesday, 15 July 2025UTC+8 and running for five weeks. Each competition will begin at 12:00 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, lasting five hours per session.
- Team Composition. We allow teams of up to three participants.
- Problem Structure. Each competition will include 10–14 problems. We will provide English problem statements and additional Chinese PDF problem statements, following the ICPC competition format. The difficulty level of the problems is comparable to that of ICPC and CCPC regional competitions, with some competitions potentially slightly more challenging than official competitions.
- Post-Competition Problem Solutions. From 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (UTC+8) on each competition day, we invite problem setters to provide live explanations of the problems, along with written solutions (typically in English, though may be in Chinese depending on the problem-setting team's style). Within seven working days after each competition, professional instructors will also conduct live explanations for selected problems (typically at the bronze to silver difficulty level, excluding particularly challenging problems) tailored for beginners.
- Intellectual Property Protection. After the competition, the submission channel will enter a minimum two-year quiet period, during which only paying users can submit code and participate in virtual competitions (VP). However, contestant code, problem statements, solutions, videos, and other resources will be open to everyone (some features require login). For qualified participants, we will also open the competition data and standard solutions for all problems. During this period, participants must commit to adhering to discipline, including not sharing account passwords and maintaining the confidentiality of competition problem data and standard solutions.
If you wish to learn more about the competition, you can find additional information at 2025 Information Summary and Introduction Page. You can also view past competitions: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021.
The registration channel is open until August 29, 2025 (UTC+8). If you are interested in participating, please register your team via the Intro Page. If you have any questions, you can always comment below or get in touch with us by joining the Discord group.
We are committed to fostering a global collaborative atmosphere and promoting cross-cultural interaction in the field of competitive programming. Whether you are a student honing your skills for regional competitions or a seasoned coder seeking rigorous practice, this training camp offers a respectful and inclusive environment to facilitate growth. We value the international diversity of the CodeForces community and welcome participants from around the world.
Schedule and Problem-Setting Team
The schedule of all the sessions and the corresponding members of the questioning team are as follows (in dictionary order):
- Round 1: Tuesday, 15 July 2025UTC+8, prepared by Gromah, calabash_boy, quailty.
- Round 2: Thursday, 17 July 2025UTC+8, prepared by Little_Sheep_Yawn.
- Round 3: Tuesday, 22 July 2025UTC+8, prepared by Coffee_zzz, Gellyfish, NaCly_Fish, Serval, _istil, dXqwq, fairytaleqwq.
- Round 4: Thursday, 24 July 2025UTC+8, prepared by -skyline-, Roundgod, gisp_zjz, paulzrm, triple__a.
- Round 5: Tuesday, 29 July 2025UTC+8, prepared by Genius_dream, SATSKY_2025target_LGM, wishgoodluck.
- Round 6: Thursday, 31 July 2025UTC+8, prepared by K_tian, QuantAsk, Tobo, qkm66666, tiger2005, xwp.
- Round 7: Tuesday, 5 August 2025UTC+8, prepared by PaperCloud, SSerxhs, fr200110217102.
- Round 8: Thursday, 7 August 2025UTC+8, prepared by skywalkert.
- Round 9: Tuesday, 12 August 2025UTC+8, prepared by ValenciaTravis, fengqiyuka, pigstd.
- Round 10: Thursday, 14 August 2025UTC+8, prepared by Nanjing Foreign Language School (NJFLS).
Special Thanks
We would like to extend our special thanks to the sponsor of this event, Hyundai Motor China Advanced Technology Research Center, who sponsored and named this event.
Recently, we sent invitations via private message on the CodeForces website to international players who had participated in previous editions of the event. We would like to thank those who responded and decided to participate, namely (in dictionary order): PCTprobability, Rubikun, cn449, harurun4635, hos.lyric, honamikoto, maroonrk, maspy, physics0523, potato167, sheyasutaka
In addition, we would like to thank the problem-checking team for this competition, who are (in dictionary order): -WIDA-, 7_divided_by_3, ADivT_, Aging1986, AllTooWell, Anonyme, blackrabbit-zmk, Blueawa, C10udz, Gingoo, Gromah, HTDNB, Jlyfish, K-423, MAOooOAM, PHarr_, Retired_Isaunoya, TRfirst, Tobo, Retired_Zhisheng, __baozii__, aYi_7, acidLemon, reed0xE9, blackrabbit-zmk, bookcat, dremlory, emofunc, permutation, foreverlasting, fzx, gongkoufadongji, hlzy_awei, junjun123, Nanani, qcw666666, qsmcgogo, quailty, qweAdlo, qwedc001, rui_er, tarjen, thisislike_fan, whale_086, wzl19371, xxh1999, yawn_sean_fan, yeVegeTable, yzr233 and many others. I apologize that due to space limitations, I was only able to list some of the active testers, not a complete list.
It is particularly worth noting that we have observed the outstanding performance of AI models in algorithm competitions. Therefore, in the verification process for this event, we utilized ChatGPT's o3 model and xAI's Grok-4 model for verification tasks. Following each competition, we will synchronously update the verification results on the NiuKe platform and at the end of this article. Believe me, this content will be highly engaging, and I believe this marks the first large-scale integration of AI models into algorithm competition verification work. We will directly observe the performance of top AI models in algorithm competitions.
Last but not least, the platform's coordination team and instructor team are (in dictionary order): -WIDA-, HOYITIO, Silencer76, __baozii__, ClearQwQ, emofunc, hetanglianyi, zeemanz.
About Hyundai Motor Group
As Hyundai Motor Group's first overseas advanced technology R&D center, the China Advanced Technology R&D Center is customer-centric, keeping pace with future advanced technology trends, and focusing on four key areas: autonomous driving, smart cockpits, vehicle control, and connected technology. It has established a comprehensive localized R&D system. The center is committed to leading the future of the Chinese market by establishing a locally-focused advanced development system, collaborating closely with local R&D partners, and establishing departments such as autonomous driving development, intelligent cockpit development, vehicle control development, and UX.
The China Advanced Technology R&D Center will accelerate Hyundai Group's electrification and intelligent transformation in China, driving dual-track development of software and hardware. Through collaborative efforts with internal and external partners, it continuously explores innovative technologies and services, committed to providing unique and worry-free mobility experiences for users in China and globally. Based on the technical vision of “In China, For China, To Global,” Hyundai Motor will take the Advanced Technology Research Center as a starting point to continuously build a technical ecosystem in China, drive the implementation of the “Hyundai Way” strategy, and inject new vitality into the development of the automotive industry in China and globally.
UPD
UPD1: End of the contest 1! Let's check out how the AIs did.
UPD2: End of the contest 2! Let's check out how the AIs did.
UPD3: Contest 3 is over.
UPD5: Contest 5 is over.
[Brief]: The AI's ranking in this match was between 30th and 42th on the overall leaderboard (correctly answering seven questions). You can see the full list at here.
