Can you solve algorithmic programming challenges, efficiently and correctly, in practice, as a team, under time pressure?
Highlights
- open to everyone
- for teams of up to 3 members
- 5 hours time
- about 10 algorithmic programming challenges to solve
Time & Place
The contest takes place on Saturday, 21 November 2026 in the Computer Science building, Konemiehentie 2, Espoo.
Schedule:
- 11:00: doors open
- 12:00: contest starts
- 17:00: contest ends
Please arrive by 11:30.
Rules
The contest is open to everyone, including university students, high-school students, university researchers, and teams from companies.
We will mostly follow the same rules as in the NCPC. In brief:
- each team has 1–3 members
- each team must bring their own laptop; only one computer may be used per team
- you can bring any written material with you, but no electronic material
- all AI tools are forbidden, including AI assistants and AI code completion, whether online or offline
- printing is not possible
- internet access and web browsing are only allowed for the contest system and online documentation provided by the organisers
- no email, no chat, no mobile phones, etc.
Submission system
The CSES contest system will be used in HIIT Open 2026. The system automatically evaluates the solutions submitted for the tasks.
You can test the contest system beforehand at cses.fi. For example, you can try to solve problems from HIIT Open 2016, HIIT Open 2017, HIIT Open 2018, HIIT Open 2019, HIIT Open 2024, and HIIT Open 2025.
Computers
Each team must bring their own laptop with the programming tools they need installed in advance. Please test your setup before the contest and disable all AI features in your editor, IDE, and other tools.
Registration
There is no registration fee.
Registration is now open. Please register your team.
Organisers
People
- Juha Harviainen (main contact)
- Antti Laaksonen
- Henrik Lievonen
- Alesya Raevskaya
- Jukka Suomela
Institutions
- Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT
- HALT — Helsinki Algorithms & Theory
- Aalto University
- University of Helsinki