The framework, committees, and procedures that keep Stelele Informaticii fair — from problem-setting to medals.
Stelele Informaticii ("Stars of Informatics") is a computer science contest run by the International Computer High School of Bucharest (ICHB). This site, steleleinformaticii.ichb.ro, is the contest's official source for announcements, tasks, and results.
A Scientific Committee — a lead plus faculty and student members — writes and prepares the problem set, oversees how solutions are graded, and reviews participants' results.
The contest runs over two rounds on two separate days. Each round gives contestants four hours to work through three problems. Any change to this format is announced by the Committee at least two days in advance.
Problems are published in both Romanian and English directly by the Committee; translations into other languages are arranged by individual team leaders. During a round, contestants may send the Committee short written questions about a problem's wording — these are answered with "yes," "no," or a brief clarification, and only when the statement itself is genuinely unclear.
Solutions are submitted through the contest platform and graded against test data contestants never see beforehand, based solely on what the program outputs. During the round, contestants can see limited feedback, including their running score.
If a grading issue turns up mid-contest — a bad test case, a flawed interactor — the Committee can fix it, but only with everyone on the Committee agreeing. After grading wraps and the Committee has met to review it, any further issue can only be corrected in ways that don't hurt a contestant's result, and disagreements are settled by vote.
Organizers set the score cut-offs for gold, silver, and bronze medals so that the three roughly follow a 1:2:3 ratio, with about half of all contestants medalling. Everyone who competes receives a certificate of participation by email afterward. Contestants who finish in the top half of either contest day without earning another medal receive an Honourable Mention. Online and on-site results are judged on equal footing.
You can register if you're enrolled in the Romanian school system in 9th grade or below, or if you were born after January 1, 2011. If neither applies, you're still welcome to take part through the Official Mirror, which runs on Codeforces shortly after the main event.
Problem difficulty sits around the level of a junior team-selection test or a regional olympiad. See the tasks archive for past problem sets before you decide to register.
Contestants who aren't Romanian citizens can only take part as members of a registered team — up to four eligible contestants plus up to two team leaders, who coordinate their team, pass along important information, and can help with translation.
Contestants competing online must email a screen recording and a room recording to steleleinformaticii@ichb.ro, clear enough to identify everything they do — minimum 960×540 resolution at 10 FPS. Full proctoring details follow by email closer to the contest.