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title: Freshers’ Programming Contest 2025

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# Freshers’ Programming Contest 2025

**Greetings Freshers!**

It has been a while since you kick-started your journey at IITK and we hope you are making the best out of your time back at home.

The **Programming Club** is back with a competitive programming contest which provides you a chance to lock horns with the best of your batch and prove your mettle in the **Freshers' Programming Contest!**

FPC is an intra-batch contest for the freshers' batch at IITK, conducted in December every year. Make sure to make an account on the **Codeforces** platform.

## 📅 Event Details

- **Start Time:** 27 December 00:00
- **Platform:** CodeForces GYM
- **Duration:** 50 Hours (initially)
- **Extensions:** Any extensions will be announced by **28th December 00:00**. There will be strictly no further extensions.
- **Registration Link:** [Click Here to Register](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoLRcKfsYUgRN6RWbQ1k2oZ8Y5rcGVcs7emT6cIo-b32Vc0g/viewform?usp=dialog)

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## 📜 Rules

1. **Problem Count:** The contest would have a total of **15-25 problems**.
2. **Release Schedule:**
   - At the start, **10-15 problems** will be available to solve.
   - 5 more problems will be made available either at **00:00 on Dec 28**, OR when a participant solves all problems except one (whichever occurs earlier).
3. **Ranking System (ICPC Style):**
   - Ranking is decided by the number of problems solved.
   - In case of ties, it is decided by the **penalty**.
   - **Penalty:** The time taken in minutes from the start of the contest to solve a problem.
   - *In simple terms: Solve as many problems as you can, and do so as fast as you can.*

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## 💻 Recommended Programming Languages

All major programming languages (like C/C++, Python, Java, Rust, etc.) supported on CodeForces are allowed. You can use any language of your choice.

- **Recommendation:** We recommend the usage of **C++**.
- **Guarantee:** The jury guarantees at least one correct solution exists for all problems in **C++**. No such claim is made regarding other languages.
- **Python Users:** If you are using Python, we recommend you use **PyPy** instead.

### ⚠️ Anti-Plagiarism Policy
- **Do not share your code with anyone else** (not even with PClub secies/coordis - we will not debug your code!).
- **Plagiarism in any form would result in direct disqualification** and a ban from any future involvement/event with the Programming Club, IITK.
- The use of AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) is **strictly prohibited**.

*Keep checking this document for more rules and updates. In case of anything undefined in rules, the decision made by PClub will be final.*

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## 💡 Recommendations and Tips

- **Learn C++**
- **Reading Material:** FPC Resources
- **Basics Matter:** Most problems require minimal knowledge of advanced concepts and can be effectively solved using basic fundamental principles, problem-solving techniques, and mathematics.
- **Roadmap:** The club has prepared the [roadmap](https://pclub.in/roadmap/2024/07/21/cp-roadmap/) for a reason ;). Refer to this for more detailed resources.
- **Large Numbers:** You may need to work with large numbers (order of `10^18`) in some problems, so ensure you know how to handle them in your chosen language.
- **Fast I/O:** You may have to deal with a large amount of input/output in some problems.
  - *Tip:* Google `how to do fastio in <language>`.
- **Difficulty Variance:** The contest has questions of varying difficulty. Some are really easy, others are hard. They are not necessarily sorted by difficulty.
  - Please go through all of them.
  - ***The contest is intentionally long; if you are stuck, you have time to learn new concepts and implement them***.

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## 🏆 Prizes

Apart from earning the bragging rights to flex your FPC rank among your batchmates, we've got some exciting prizes lined up for you! So, give it your best shot in the contest.

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## 👥 Problem Setters

- Abubakar Siddique
- Aditya Sai
- Jithin Joshi
- Arman Singhal
- Yuvraj Singh Nirban
- Jagrav Garg
- Suuvaan Aroraa
- Rohith Nambiar
- Vishu Khare

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## 📞 Contact

For any queries, you are encouraged to use the **#fpc-25** channel on Discord (preferred) or the PClub's Y25 WhatsApp group.

> **Note:** It is highly discouraged and we will not entertain any queries on DMs.

**Sit Vis Vobiscum!**