Divide and Conquer Challenge Sponsored by Jane Street

Guidelines

• Eligibility: Open to all school and college students.
• Team Size: Teams can consist of 2–4 members.
• Inter-college teams: Allowed.
• Inter-specialization teams: Allowed.
• Track Allocation: Each team must have at least 1 and at most 2 members in each track.
• 2 members: 1 in Track A + 1 in Track B
• 3 members: 1 in Track A + 2 in Track B, or 2 in Track A + 1 in Track B
• 4 members: 2 in Track A + 2 in Track B
• Track A - DSA Round: A competitive programming round consisting of 2–3 coding questions.
• Track B - Maths Round: A mathematics-based problem-solving round.
• Duration: Track A and Track B will be conducted simultaneously for 1.5 hours.
• Break: A 1–1.5 hour break will follow the preliminary rounds.
• Final Round: The Grand Finale will be conducted for 1 hour, with all members of qualifying teams participating together.
• Qualification: The top 20 teams based on their combined scores from Track A and Track B will qualify for the Final Round.
• Venue: The event will be conducted on the premises of IIIT Hyderabad (IIITH).
• Event Date: October 2, 2026.

Rules

• The DSA and Maths tracks will be conducted simultaneously under supervision.
• Participants must compete in their respective assigned tracks during the preliminary round.
• The preliminary rounds will be conducted on laptops under high supervision.
• Mobile phones must be submitted before the preliminary rounds begin.
• Participants are expected to use only the resources and systems permitted by the organizers.
• Cheating or use of unauthorized resources is strictly prohibited. Any participant found cheating will be disqualified, and their team's score for that round will be forfeited.
• The scores from Track A and Track B will be combined to determine the preliminary ranking.
• The top 20 teams will advance to the Final Round.
• All members of a qualifying team will compete together in the Final Round.
• Once an answer is submitted in the Final Round, it is locked and cannot be changed.
• The Final Round will be 1 hour long.

Winner Decision:

• The Final Score is calculated as Track A (150) + Track B (150) + Grand Finale (300) = 600 points.
• In the event of a tie between teams, time taken to achieve the score will be used as the tie-breaker, with the team completing the required performance in less time ranked higher.
• The total prize pool is ₹2,00,000, with prizes of ₹1,00,000 for Overall Champion, ₹50,000 for Overall Runner-up, and ₹25,000 each for the Best Track A and Best Track B teams.
• Prizes are non-stackable: a team can win at most one cash prize. If an Overall Champion or Runner-up is also eligible for a Best Track prize, that track prize passes to the next eligible team.