[tmyklebu]

This really is quite sad.

The first stage of the CCC is written in pretty heterogeneous conditions. There are several thousand competitors across the world. Students use a language of their choice and their work is graded by their teacher against a rubric sent out by the contest organisers. I recall that the teacher has to send the work to Waterloo, postmarked within a couple of days after the contest.

Sometime in the summer, the University of Waterloo then flies out and puts up the top 15 or 20 students in that more informal contest to compete in what was the "CCC Stage 2" and is now the "Canadian Computing Olympiad." This second contest is done under more controlled conditions and its results largely determine which four students will represent Canada at the International Olympiad in Informatics.

The first stage has always relied on teachers' honesty. The contest organisers mail contest packets to teachers in advance of the contest. Teachers have some time between contest day and when the results need to be mailed back to Waterloo. Students are comparing notes and discussing the contest immediately after the contest.

Nonetheless, in my experience (more than 15 years ago), all or almost all of the students who make it to the second stage deserved to be there. I hope that continues to be true.