OLYMPIADS IN INFORMATICS, 2008, Vol. 2, 16-36
© Institute of Mathematics and Informatics,

ISSN 1822-7732

Creating Informatics Olympiad Tasks: Exploring the Black Art

Benjamin A. BURTONa, Mathias HIRONb

aDepartment of Mathematics, SMGS, RMIT University GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia E-mail: bab@debian.org

bFrance-IOI 5, Villa Deloder, 75013 Paris, France E-mail: mathias.hiron@gmail.com

Abstract

Each year a wealth of informatics olympiads are held worldwide at national, regional and international levels, all of which require engaging and challenging tasks that have not been seen before. Nevertheless, creating high quality tasks can be a difficult and time-consuming process. In this paper we explore some of the different techniques that problem setters can use to find new ideas for tasks and refine these ideas into problems suitable for an informatics olympiad. These techniques are illustrated through concrete examples from a variety of contests.

Keywords:

programming contests, task creation


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Copyright © Olympiads in Informatics, Vilnius University Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, 2008