1996 USACO Qualifying Round


Welcome to the 1996 Qualifying Round of the USA Computing Olympiad.
Enclosedyou will find the five problems for this round. To qualify for
the USACO you must correctly solve at least three of the problems.

If you are a student, your mission is to solve as many of these problems as
possible during the period from February 9 to February 16. If you are a local
teacher or coordinator, you should distribute these problems to all interested
students on February 9. Here are the guidelines:

Students may begin working on the problems at any time on February
9, 1996.

Students may work on them at any location (even at home), but they
should work on them individually.

Students should not use any previously written code or other aids
not built into the operating system or the programming language. A
language manual, written or on-line, is allowed.

On or before February 16, students must demonstrate their solutions
to a teacher or coordinator who will compare the output of the test
cases with the answers provided. If there is uncertainty how to enter
the test cases, have the student do it. It is OK to have the student
prepare the input files for testing his or her program. That way
there can be no excuse for not being able to read the test files.

To be judged correct, all programs must give the correct answer to
each test case within three minutes. Unless the program is correct
for all test cases, it should not be judged correct. Some programs
will fail because they are too slow, even if they give the correct
answers.

All judgments in the Qualifying Round are left to the local teacher
or coordinator in consultation with the student. However, a copy of
all source code created by each student who qualifies and enters the
Competition Round must be submitted on disk along with his or her
entry. We may examine these programs if it becomes necessary in our
selection of the finalists. If more than one student is entering,
submit as many as will fit in folders (directories) on one disk.
Please label the disk with the names of the students.

Reaching any of the following three levels qualifies a student for
the Competition Round: