For the duration of the competition, questions about the task set may be mailed to itsapc05support@cs.um.edu.mt. Relevant questions will be answered, with the answers mailed to all participating teams (make sure that your team appears on the Teams page, with the correct address) and posted onto this page.

Question: Will you answer silly questions such as this one?
Answer: No.

Question: What is the maximum number of pieces the program has to process?
Answer: There is no guaranteed maximum number of pieces appearing in a problem. Similarly, you cannot assume a fixed upper bound on the number of unit squares in a piece.

Question: Can we assume that each line in the input file will represent a part, or can there be empty lines like in problem000.pcs?
Answer: You can assume there will be no empty lines in the input files used for judging.

Question: Does the program have to submit always the best solution to be still considered for judging?
Answer: No. As long as your program submits a valid solution as described in the 'ITSA Programming Challenge 2005' document it will be considered for judging.

Question: Is the 5 minutes runtime an average runtime or is a program that takes 5 minutes inefficient? In other words will the solution probably take much less than 5 minutes?
Answer: 5 minutes is the threshold we have set for the program to give us an output (one solution to one problem). It is neither an average runtime nor are we saying that the BEST solution will be returned within 5 minutes. If your program takes more than 5 minutes to compute a solution then it will not be considered by the judging team.

Question: Can we submit a solution that run on .NET framework 2.0?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Is it possible that the first problem set solution has an error? (followed by an image which shows a valid layout in a 6x3 rectangle). Can you please tell me if this possible solution is not valid?
Answer: The attached solution is a perfectly valid one. It is a better solution in terms of area than the one we give in our document. Note that in the document outlining the task we state that the solution we provide is just one possible packing of the pieces. We are not seeking a best overall solution, but the program which generates most efficient tiling compared to the other programs.

Question: Does the lightning fast solution need to follow the format of the exe (ie: with input and output files given as parameters) or can it be a working beta version with a simple interface for illustration?
Answer: The format of the lightning fast solution has to follow the same format as the final submissions. In other words all submissions (lightning and final) have to follow the same input and output format given in the task description.

Question: I have tried to upload a file, but when I check the uploads, I am getting a "Missing Data".
Answer: Make sure you input your team number and your password before clicking 'Check Uploads'. Also your team number has to start with a '0', example 09 !

Question: Will you run the program more than one time in case of an overlap or program crash?
Answer: Of course not! Each program gets exactly one chance per problem to prove its worth.

Question: What does this exactly mean?
The winner will be the team that obtains the largest total number of points. In the case of an overall tie, teams will be ranked and scored according to the size of the smallest size of the rectangle (again, the smallest wins) and given the points as explained.
Do you mean size? or side?
Answer: Oops! Here are the judging criteria (hopefully) better explained.

1. For each problem, each team will get a score according to their program's ranking ordered by output rectangle area (smallest first). If a team gets a total score higher than all other teams, then that teams wins. Otherwise, keep only the teams with the highest combined score and go to 2 ...
2. For each problem, each team will get a score according to their program's ranking ordered by output rectangle size (narrowest rectangle first, eg 10x3 wins against a 4x4). If a team gets a total score higher than all other teams, then that teams wins. Otherwise, keep only the teams with the highest combined score and go to 3 ...
3. For each problem, each team will get a score according to the time taken by their program (shortest time first). If a team gets a total score higher than all other teams, then that teams wins. Otherwise, keep only the teams with the highest combined score and go to 4 ...
4. The judges set a fair tie-breaker for the remaining teams.