Competition Instructions
Programming languages
Your entry may be submitted in any of the following languages:
Java, VB, Swift, C'Dent, Node, PHP, Python
Class and file names
Entries must be submitted only in one of the languages specified.
The entry for a question must be a single zipped text file containing the source code of the program; you may not include binary files such as executables or Java archives.
As the question relates to Decathlon scoring, the main class name (if the language you are using uses one) must be Decathlon.
You must submit the solution for each question as a single source file called Decathlon.<e>, where <e> must be replaced with the appropriate extension for the language used.
Input and output files
Your program must read its input from a file called Decathlon.dat and send its output to a file called Decathlon.out. The main class must be named as noted above in order that the compiled executable can be run in the manner described above.
Your program must produce no screen output. If, for example, your program displays debugging or information messages on the screen it will be deemed to have failed regardless of the correctness of the content of the output file. By all means use this type of output for debugging during development, but be sure to remove it before you submit the solutions for judging.
Similarly the output file must be formatted precisely as per the specification in the question with regard to content, spacing and capitalisation. Again, extraneous output will cause an automatic failure. So if, for instance, the question asks for two blank lines between items and your program only leaves one, it will be classed as a failure. Similarly, if the question asks (say) for a certain number of space characters between items on a line, or for a column of numbers to be right-aligned with the rightmost character in a particular column, you must conform to these requirements or your solution will fail.
You may assume that the data lines within the input file (i.e. the items that your program is expected to process) are formatted correctly and are within the bounds specified in the question. You should, however, be prepared for the possibility that there may be extra characters and/or lines after the marker that denotes the end of the input file.
Time limit
The time limit for any submitted program to run to completion on the judges' computer is 60 seconds. All questions have been devised such that they are able to run to completion within this time limit so long as a sufficiently efficient algorithm is used.
Multiple submissions
If you have submitted your entry and you wish to submit another, that's absolutely fine (for instance, you may have done further testing after submission and found a bug). The judges will, however, mark only the last entry you submit.
Entries and judging
You should submit your solution via this web page. The judge will run your programme using test data (which is not published). No feedback will be given prior to the end of the competition.