Name: The Sphinx Trial (CP)
Start: 2026-11-12T09:30:00.000Z
End: 2026-11-12T11:30:00.000Z
Location: Mangaluru, Karnataka

The Sphinx Trial (CP) is a two-round competitive programming contest organised by the Sahyadri Open Source Community (SOSC), the student-run open-source and developer community based at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management, Mangaluru. The event is aimed at programmers who enjoy algorithmic reasoning and think naturally in terms of complexity classes, and it is designed so that difficulty escalates as participants progress.

What to expect

A two-round format: a Preliminary Round hosted on CodeChef and a Final Round hosted on POMELO.
A mix of logic-deduction challenges and conventional competitive programming problems.
Logic-deduction problems require participants to study the given examples and infer the underlying rule before coding a solution.
Conventional problems require reading a full problem statement, designing an appropriate algorithm, and implementing it correctly.
Submissions are judged against hidden test cases, so solutions must generalise rather than merely pass the visible samples.

Judging criteria

Accuracy: correct output on all visible and hidden test cases.
Problem solving: ability to derive the required logic and build an effective solution.
Efficiency: solutions must meet the stated time and memory limits.
Scoring: problems carry different weightage based on difficulty.
Tie-breaker: in case of equal total scores, the participant with the lower cumulative solving time ranks higher.

Participation guidelines

Individual competition - one participant per registration.
Permitted languages: C, C++, Java, and Python.
No negative marking; multiple submissions are allowed before the contest closes, and points are awarded once a solution is accepted.
No plagiarism, AI assistance, or external discussion during the contest.
All submissions must go through the designated platform for the respective round.
The contest is held offline at the venue; participants must arrive before the scheduled start time.

Schedule and venue

Date: 12th November 2026
Time: 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm (2 hours)
Venue: Ground floor, CSE Central Lab, Mangaluru, Karnataka

Registration and prizes

Registration is online via Unstop and is individual.
Early Bird Ticket: ₹150 per participant; Normal Ticket: ₹200 per participant.
Prize pool of ₹10,000: 1st Prize ₹5,000, 2nd Prize ₹3,000, 3rd Prize ₹2,000.
Registration deadline: 22 October 2026.

About the organiser Sahyadri Open Source Community is a campus-based developer community that runs open-source drives, coding contests, and technical workshops for students and early-career engineers in the Mangaluru region. Events like The Sphinx Trial are part of its effort to build competitive programming and problem-solving depth within the local developer ecosystem.

The Sphinx Trial (CP)

The Sphinx Trial (CP)

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