Error Messages Last modified Oct 17, 2013

If a submission is not correct it will be returned with the first applicable error message from the following list. A 20-minute time penalty will be assessed for each incorrect submission. The error messages are described below.

  1. Submission Error
  2. Run-time Error
  3. Time Limit Exceeded
  4. Wrong Answer
  5. Presentation Error

Submission Error. This indicates a violation of the basic contest rules. Teams should never get a Submission Error, but in the heat of competition they sometimes make silly mistakes. Submission errors include (but are not limited to)

Run-time Error. The program crashed when run. Examples of run-time errors include (but are not limited to)

Time Limit Exceeded. Make sure you know your site's specific time limit for your testing. If you get this error, the program ran (without crashing) for more than your site's time limit. It may or may not have produced any output. This error may indicate that the program uses an inefficient algorithm on a large problem, that it was silently waiting for keyboard input, or that it got stuck in an infinite loop.

Wrong Answer. The program ran to completion within the time limit but produced one or more incorrect answers. A program that produces unsorted output when the problem calls for sorted output will receive this error.

Presentation Error. The program ran to completion within the time limit, produced answers that appear to contain essentially the same information as the correct answers, but formatted the output incorrectly in one or more cases. Examples of incorrect formatting include (but are not limited to)

Note: Receiving a Presentation Error guarantees that there are one or more formatting errors, and indicates that the judges did not see any wrong answers based on a brief visual inspection. However, it is not a guarantee that the program produced no incorrect answers.