First Round
The first round takes place during October and November of 2008. Depending on your personal interests, you can choose one of two possible approaches:
| Track of Round 1 | Description |
|---|---|
| Theoretical (1-T) | Solve the given tasks by means of logic and explain your solution in words |
| Practical (1-P) | For each task you should write a program that can calculate the solution |
Qualification
Both the qualification for the second round and the selection of the participants for the Davos camp will be evenly distributed among these two parts. Thus you can choose either of them (or both, if you like). The top participants will be invited to the Davos camp (up to five spots each). The remaining spots will be filled by wild cards chosen by the coaches. These wild cards are given to students which showed exceptional devotion and a steep learning curve during the first round.
Creativity Task
By tradition there is always a special task in the first round, which does not ask for a perfect solution, but rather requires ingenuity and some good ideas to be tackled. By turning your strategy into an efficient program, you can take part in the tournament that will be hosted on the SOI Day. There all the submitted programs will compete against each other to elicit the best solution.
| Creativity Task | Description |
|---|---|
| Grand Theft Cake | Write an innovative solution for this interactive task |
Note: this part of the first round does not count directly for the qualification (davos or round 2), but a smart solution can earn you a wild card, should you even need it …
Presentation of the Results
After correction and grading, the results for the first round will be published on the SOI day, which will be held at ETH in Zurich. Besides the results there will be some interesting talks by guest speakers, as well as the long awaited tournament for the creative task.
