Georgia Student Programming Competition
Friday, March 6, 2026
Registration must be completed by a school proctor.
Each team will need a HackerRank account to compete (1 account per team).
Team Registration closed on February 6th, 2026.
Competition Structure
Students in grades 5-12 are eligible to compete as an individual or on a team. Teams can have no more than 3 students. Students must be physically present with an approved proctor during the entire competition window.
Grade Levels
5th - 6th Grade
7th - 8th Grade
9th - 10th Grade
11th - 12th Grade
Approved Programming Languages
The following programming languages are approved for use during the competition. Official documentation links are provided for reference during the competition.
| Language | Version | Official Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| C | GCC 8.3.0, C11 standard | C Documentation |
| C# | .NET 8.0.2, C# 12 | C# Documentation |
| C++ | G++ 8.3.0, C++11 standard | C++ Documentation |
| C++14 | G++ 8.3.0, C++14 standard | C++14 Documentation |
| C++20 | G++ 8.3.0, C++20 standard | C++20 Documentation |
| Java | Sun Java 1.7.0_80 | Java Documentation |
| Java 8 | OpenJDK 1.8.0_342 | Java 8 Documentation |
| Java 15 | OpenJDK 15.0.2 | Java 15 Documentation |
| JavaScript (Node.js) | Node.js v20.15.1 | Node.js Documentation |
| Python 3 | Python 3.12.4 | Python 3 Documentation |
| VB.NET | Mono v6.4.0.198, .NET 4.7.2 | VB.NET Documentation |
Approved resources
Students are limited on the resources they have access to during the competition. Each team may use only one device to submit challenge responses, regardless of team size. Under no circumstance should students access any unapproved resources during the competition. The only approved resources are the official documentation links for each programming language listed in the table above. Students are not allowed to access any outside resources such as search engines, Stack Overflow, W3 Schools, etc. during the competition. Under no circumstance should students use any AI tools. Using resources that are not approved will lead to immediate disqualification and could also lead to a ban on participating in the competition the following year.
Leaderboard and Scoring
Students will be presented with a set of problems to solve during the 2 hour window. Problems may be solved in any order (non-linear). Some problems are worth more points than other problems. All test cases must pass in order to receive full credit for the problem. The leaderboard will include teams from all age divisions and will be accessible to students until near the end of the competition.
Ties will be broken by using the lowest sum of time of first correct submission for all the problems.
HackerRank Platform
The programming challenge will be hosted on HackerRank. Each team must use a HackerRank account to compete. Students under the age of 13 will be required to use an account set up by their approved proctor.
There is a practice competition set up that students can use to test out the platform at any time before the event. This is not required but highly recommended for students to familiarize themselves with the platform prior to the event and ensure everything is working properly. Anyone may access the practice competition at HackerRank to try out the competition process.
If you have any questions, please email Bucky Bush.
