HPC³ welcomes the submission of problem designs from the informatics, programming, and Harvard extended communities.

The theme for HPC³ 2026 is "Game Theory".

The goal of a problem is to stimulate the planning, design, and execution of efficient and correct algorithms.
The competition needs both simple and complex problems. As such, we encourage submissions of easy problems.
While challenging problems are essential, including interesting but simpler problems is necessary to maintain balance.
These problems must require creative problem-solving skills and have interesting solutions, like all others.
We especially encourage problems that can be solved in multiple methods of differentiating efficiency.
The theme for the year's competition exists as a stimulant for ideas on the content of problems and is a good starting point.

Previous problems can provide a good guide on the desired composition of problems and can be found in the Competition Archive.

However, the nature of past problems should not restrict the design of new ones; new types of problems not yet seen are encouraged.
The best problems are those whose basic rules, solutions, and/or optimal strategy are accessible to a wide audience.
Aswell as problems that illustrate algorithms and computational issues that appear in day-to-day human endeavors.
Open-ended problems, those that do not necessarily have a known optimal solution, are permitted but must be new.

Problems with some measure of solution effectiveness other than CPU time consumption are encouraged.

So that each competition is fair and based only on the skill of participants, the following criteria must be met:

• The problems must not have been seen by any HPC³ 2025 contestants;
• The problems must not have been used in any recent similar competition;
• The problems must be solvable by competitors in the time of a contest round;
• The problem descriptions must be unambiguous and easy to understand;
• The problems must be completely original.

Criteria

The minimum required content that a problem submission must contain is:

• A complete statement in English, preferably formatted in PDF with required diagrams and pictures included.
• Description of the desired solution (Description of the process and an example algorithm that would get the full score).
• Contact address (Minimum email address) and background information on the problem author(s): Who they are, their country, a description of the author(s).

A good submission should also contain the following, though these are not necessary:

• Implementations of the desired solution in several languages, especially C++.
• Identification or analysis of alternative solutions to the problem.
• Suggestions or structure for splitting the problem into subproblems.
• Suggestions for the grading structure of the problem.
• Test data of high quality or a method for the generation of test data.
• The motivation, ideas, and background behind the problem.

Important notes

Materials should be placed together in a single file (Tar or Zip multiple files into one archive).
If you wish to submit multiple problems, submit each of them separately.
The upload page will encrypt your submission automatically.

Submitted problems must be kept in strict confidence until the end of HPC³ 2025.
Confidentiality requirements also apply to variants and techniques specific to that problem.

Note that by submitting the problem, authors assert that they are authorized to grant, and do grant,
exclusive licenses to HPC³ to use, modify, and reproduce submissions for the duration of HPC³ 2025,
and guarantee they have met, and will continue to meet, all requirements for submissions.

Submission review process

Submissions will be acknowledged via the contact address provided.
The 2025 Committee will carefully review every submission and create a shortlist of problems.
The shortlist will be condensed further, and potentially modified, until 13 problems are chosen.

Authors of each problem on the shortlist are invited to HPC³ 2025 as guests (responsible for their travel, but with their stay covered).
You will not be told beforehand whether your submission is used in the competition or how much it has been modified.

Authors of all submitted problems will receive feedback on their submissions after the competition.
Authors of used problems will be acknowledged on the official HPC³ website's problem sections.

Summary

• Submission deadline: December 31st, 2024, 11:59PM
• Language: English
• Text format: PDF
• Multiple files for one problem (e.g., diagrams, solution code): in a single zipped or tarred file
• Multiple problems: submit separately
• Minimum submission:
• Author information: name, email, country, and role.
• problem statement
• Description of the desired solution.
• Also recommended:
• Solution implementations (At least one in C++).
• Suggestions for grading.
• Test data.
• Alternative or near-expected solutions.
• General information about the problem.
• Any other comments relevant to the problem.