# BAPC

Benelux Algorithm Programming Contest (BAPC) is a programming contest for students from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It is organized annually by an institution of higher education. From 1991 through 2004, the contest was held under the name NKP (Dutch Programming Championship).

## Organisation

Since 2006, BAPC is an official preliminary of NWERC (Northwestern Europe Regional Contest). In practice, this means the participating institutions determine which teams they will send to NWERC based on the results at BAPC. The top teams of NWERC (typically the top two or the top three), are invited to take part in the International Collegiate Programming Contest.
A month before BAPC, a preliminary round is held to determine which teams are allowed to represent their institution at BAPC.
Besides the student ranking, there is a ranking for companies. However, the contest is the same for all participants.

## Contest format

A team consists of, at most, three people and has five hours to solve a set of six to ten problems. During the contest, each team is only allowed to use a single computer. The problems are algorithmic in nature and of varying degree of difficulty.

### Judging

Solutions to a problem, in the form of computer programs, can be submitted more than once. The BAPC jury checks whether a submission satisfies certain criteria and replies with a simple verdict. In case the submitted program gives the correct answer to all predefined tests within the allotted time, the response will be Accepted or Correct.
If a program requires too much time to pass all tests, the jury will reply Time Limit Exceeded. If it terminates with an error, the response will be Runtime Error, and if the program terminates correctly, but doesn't pass all tests, the reply will be Wrong Answer or Incorrect. Under no circumstances will the jury give hints as to what caused the error, which tests failed, or where the Bug is.

### Scoring

For each solved problem, one point is awarded. For each point scored within the first four hours of the contest, a helium balloon is attached to the team's computer. After four hours, the scoreboard is no longer updated, so that it remains a secret who won until the award ceremony.
Ties are solved by a time penalty (the lower, the better). Every team starts out with a penalty time of 0 minutes. For every solved problem, the time from the start of the contest until the correct submission in minutes is added to the time penalty. For every prior wrong submission for a solved problem, 20 minutes are added. Wrong submissions for problems that are not eventually solved do not affect the a team's score.

### Prizes

The prizes for the top three teams are typically a power of two. In 2008, for example, the prizes for the first, second, and third student teams were 1024, 512, and 256 euro respectively. The best company team received 512 euro. Participation costs for companies were 500 euro per team, while participation for student teams was free.

## History

| Year | Organizer | Winner | Team members | Institution |
| 2022 | TU Eindhoven | Segfault go BRRRR | | Delft University of Technology |
| 2020 | Delft University of Technology (Online contest) | while (false) break; | | Universiteit Utrecht |
| 2019 | Radboud University Nijmegen | git merge -s octopus solution cup | | Leiden University |
| 2018 | Université catholique de Louvain | Mostly Harmless Bogosort | | Université catholique de Louvain |
| 2017 | University of Amsterdam | Unproved Convexity Lemma | | Université catholique de Louvain |
| 2016 | TU Delft | 🐢➕🐇 | Mattéo Couplet, Victor Lecomte and Simon Tihon | Université catholique de Louvain |
| 2015 | Universiteit Leiden | That empty teamname | Thijs Miedema, Bas Nieuwenhuizen and David Venhoek | Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen |
| 2014 | TU Eindhoven | Syntax Error | Bas Nieuwenhuizen, Mathijs van de Nes and Niels ten Dijke | Universiteit Leiden |
| 2013 | Universiteit Utrecht | Geen Syntax | Raymond van Bommel, Mathijs van de Nes and Bas Nieuwenhuizen | Universiteit Leiden |
| 2012 | Universiteit Utrecht | team5 | Jan Elffers | TU Delft |
| 2011 | TU Eindhoven | Geen Commentaar | Raymond van Bommel, Josse van Dobben de Bruyn and Erik Massop | Universiteit Leiden |
| 2010 | Universiteit Leiden | Joy | Pieter Bootsma, Bauke Conijn and Thijs Marinussen | TU Eindhoven |
| 2009 | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen | Doeke en Jelle | Jelle van den Hooff and Doeke de Wolf | Universiteit van Amsterdam |
| 2008 | TU Delft | Prime Suspects | Thomas Beuman, Johan de Ruiter and Misha Stassen | Universiteit Leiden |
| 2007 | Universiteit Twente | Prime Suspects | Thomas Beuman, Johan de Ruiter and Misha Stassen | Universiteit Leiden |
| 2006 | Universiteit Leiden | Messed Up | Erik-Jan Krijgsman and Boris de Wilde | Universiteit Twente |
| 2005 | TU Delft | Messed Up | Kamiel Cornelissen, Erik-Jan Krijgsman and Boris de Wilde | Universiteit Twente |
| 2004 | Universiteit Utrecht | Klasse | Bram Fokke and Erik Tillema | Universiteit Utrecht |
| 2003 | Universiteit Twente | Makkelijk zat... | Jaap Eldering, Jan Kuipers and Wouter Waalewijn | Universiteit Utrecht |
| 2002 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Bug Fiction | Teun Koeman, Mathijs Vogelzang and Phebo Wibbens | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
| 2001 | TU Delft | Makkelijk zat... | Jaap Eldering, Jan Kuipers and Wouter Waalewijn | Universiteit Utrecht |
| 2000 | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen | Bug Fiction | Teun Koeman, Mathijs Vogelzang and Phebo Wibbens | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
| 1999 | no NKP | | | |
| 1998 | Universiteit Twente | The Wizards of DOZ | Daniël Mantione, Joris van Rantwijk and Roland Stoker | TU Delft |
| 1997 | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen | *scratch* | Ernst Jan Plugge, Wouter Teepe and Roel Vandewall | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
| 1996 | TU Eindhoven | Without Limits | | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |
| 1995 | Universiteit Twente | m38c | Rutger Nijlunsing, Kristian Helmholt and Kero van Gelder | Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |
| 1994 | University of Amsterdam | | Michel Oey, Edo Poll and Sjoerd Schreuder | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |
| 1993 | TU Delft | | Gert Beukema, Gerton Lunter and Marco Vervoort | RUG + UvA |
| 1992 | Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen | | Gerton Lunter and Marco Vervoort (and ?) | RUG + UvA |
| 1991 | Rijksuniversiteit Leiden | RUL | Patrick Min, Frank van der Neut and Rudy van Vliet | Rijksuniversiteit Leiden |
In 1997, the company team Bolesian (Victor Allis, Seppo Pieterse, and Paul-Erik Raué) defeated all student teams and was crowned Dutch Champion. In 1998, the company team Quintiq (Victor Allis, Seppo Pieterse and Paul-Erik Raué) defeated all student teams, but the best student team was declared the official winner. In 2020, the contest was held online due to governmental regulations regarding the COVID-19 pandemic