Greetings, Codeforces Community!

We, at the AMS (Algorithms & Mathematics Society) are excited to invite you to Derive 2026, a three-round quant and mathematical reasoning circuit, sponsored by Jane Street. We already have crossed 2000 registrations across top universities.

The idea behind Derive is simple: no templates. Every problem is built around the math that quant firms actually test for (probability, stochastic processes, combinatorial games), and you have to derive the answer from first principles.

Contest Format

Round 1 | PRIOR | May 23 | Online (Codeforces) : This is standard CP but with a lot more quantitative depth. We're pushing expected value, martingales, and game theory harder than usual rated rounds. If you like Putnam-style math or ICPC math ad-hocs, you'll enjoy this. The top performers move on.

Round 2 | POSTERIOR | Online(Codeforces) : Still on CF, but this is where we go full quant. You're still writing code, but the problems are built entirely around stochastic processes, Bayes, optimal stopping, and ruin theory. Standard CP templates won't save you here, you have to derive the math from scratch to pass system tests. Top finishers advance to CONVERGENCE.

Round 3 | CONVERGENCE | Offline Finals at IIT : Finalists will form teams onsite. You'll be given heavy derivation problems and have to build solutions from scratch. The top teams then go into a live "Derivation Duel" where you have to defend your mathematical arguments. The final problems are co-designed with industry partners involving real quant scenarios like constrained Kelly, Monte Carlo and what not.

How Qualification Works

PRIOR → POSTERIOR: Top performers on the Codeforces ranklist qualify for Posterior. POSTERIOR → CONVERGENCE: Top finishers from Posterior will advance to the offline IIT finals. Slot counts to be announced. Registration and participation are completely free.

Prizes and Recognition

We want to make this an event worth competing for. Total prize pool of $2500+, including a cash prize of $1500+. All finalists will receive certificates, goodies, and direct visibility with Jane Street and industry partners present at CONVERGENCE.

Travel reimbursement (capped) will be provided to all finalists, so you can focus on the problems-not the logistics.

Apex Sponsor

Jane Street (Apex Partner): Jane Street works differently. We are a quantitative trading firm active on more than 200 trading venues across 45 countries. As a liquidity provider and market maker, we help form the backbone of global markets. Our approach is rooted in technology and rigorous quantitative analysis, but our success is driven by our people

More industry partners will be announced in the lead-up to Convergence, watch this space.

Problem Design Team

The problem set has been built and stress-tested by a team that includes ICPC World Finalists, Codeforces Grandmasters, International Grandmasters, and Masters. A huge thanks to every member of the problem design and testing team, a lot of thought and care has gone into every problem in this set.

Community Partners

A huge thanks to our community partners for their help with outreach, coordination, and bringing Derive to competitive programming and quantitative reasoning communities across campuses.