International Programming Proggy-Buggy Contest 2024

The Ultimate Question and the Contest Inspiration

The concept of a 42-minute time limit is derived from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” a book by Douglas Adams. In the story, a unique computer named Deep Thought is programmed to answer the “Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” and provide the key to solving all the problems in the universe. After seven million years of continuous calculations, the computer finally revealed the answer: “42.”

Another concept inspired by the book is the name of our Spring competition. It’s called the Towel Contest and is held on Towel Day, celebrated worldwide every year on May 25th as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans.

It has become a tradition for participants to come to the May competitions with towels. A towel is the most helpful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have because, as Douglas Adams writes, “Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

Place and Time

The contest is held twice a year – Towel Day on May 25th and the Proggy-Buggy Contest on October 26th, 2024.

Registration is required to participate in the competition. One day before the contest, all registered participants will receive two links: one to the contest page, which will become active at the start of the competition, and another to the live stream, where the official start of the competition will be announced.

You can practice solving problems on the Training page. You can use your previous registration or create a new account to access it. To do so, follow the link to one of last year’s contests.

On October 26, 2024, join us online from anywhere in the world (except the Russian Federation, as well as other sanctioned territories), or in-person at one of our DataArt R&D Centers or Partner Hubs:

Kyiv, Solomyanska str. 7 (State University of Information and Communication Technologies, State University of Information and Communication Technologies);
— Kyiv, Politekhnichna St, 41, Academic building №18(Faculty of Informatics and Computer Engineering, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute).