Est. 1990s · nationwide
New Zealand Programming Contest
An annual team programming contest open to school, tertiary and open competitors across New Zealand. The next contest is planned for Saturday 8 August 2026.
Register a team
Reserve places once registration opens, and find the rules and step-by-step guides for your category.
Go to registration →Five categories
From school pupils to professional programmers — each category has its own winner.
See categories →Contest sites
Compete at an official site around New Zealand, each run by a local director.
Find a site →Results archive
Winners, scoreboards, problem sets and editorials from every past contest.
Browse results →The New Zealand Programming Contest (NZPC) is an annual team programming contest, open to all programmers in New Zealand. The next contest will be held on Saturday 8 August 2026, simultaneously at official contest sites around the country. Teams from outside New Zealand may enter the SPAR contest (formerly the ANZAC League), which runs at the same time on the same problem set.
How the contest works
Teams of up to three contestants have five hours to solve as many problems as they can on a single computer. There are five categories – from school pupils to professional programmers – each with its own winner.
Solutions are written in one of the available languages (usually C#, C++, Java and Python) and submitted to DOMjudge, the automatic judging system, on the contest server. A solution is accepted when its output matches the judge’s on every test case.
Problems are graded 3, 10, 30 or 100 points by difficulty. Within each category the team with the most points wins; ties are broken by the time taken to reach the solutions.
Contest day schedule
The contest runs from 2:00pm to 7:00pm. The full timetable below is indicative only: the optional sessions and their exact timing are arranged by each site, so please confirm the schedule with your contest site before the day.
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 12:30 – 12:45 | Registration and briefing — optional, arranged by your site |
| 12:45 – 13:45 | Practice contest — compulsory, to familiarise contestants with the contest environment |
| 13:45 – 13:55 | Preparation for the main contest (e.g. restarting machines) |
| 14:00 – 19:00 | The contest |
| 19:00 onwards | Refreshments — arranged by your site |
| 19:30 – 19:45 | Results announcement — held over Zoom; your site may choose to join |
| 19:45 onwards | Editorial — same Zoom session; optional |
Taking part
Registration and the entry fee are arranged per site, so contact your site coordinator for the details at your venue. Teams usually reserve their places through TeamUp using the code NZPC2026. See the Registration page for full details, the contest rules and the category guides.
Practice and past contests
Practise on questions from previous contests at prog4fun. The Results page has the winners, scoreboards, problem sets and editorials from every past contest.