MCC 2024

What’s new

• Categories of MCC 2024 will be by age, not by education level.
• There will be an open category for those not eligible for IOI.
• AI and Large Language Model (LLM) systems are not permitted.

Table of Contents

• What’s new
• Table of Contents
• Key Dates
• What is MCC?
• Format
  • Contest format
  • Problem format
  • Sample Problem
• Categories
• Awards
• Registration
  • Independent Participation
  • Fee
  • Payment Method
  • Instructions for schools
    • Teachers
    • Participants
  • Instructions for independent participants
    • Parents
    • Open Categories
• Honour Code
• Beyond MCC
• Organizers
• Contact
• Problems and Solutions
• Results

Key Dates

• 1 October 2024: Registration opens.
• 3 November 2024: Deadline for registration.
• 16 November 2024 (Saturday) 00:00 (GMT+8): MCC 2024 begins.
• 17 November 2024 (Sunday) 23:59 (GMT+8): MCC 2024 ends.

What is MCC?

The MCC (Malaysian Computing Challenge) is an annual online competition designed to evaluate participants’ computational thinking abilities. Knowledge of programming is recommended but not required.

MCC is also the first round in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) Malaysian team selection process.

Format

Contest format

• MCC will be held on SimpleCMS (our in-house contest system!).
• Participants will be required to solve 4-6 problems within a 48-hour window.
• Participants may solve the problems throughout the entire two-day window.
• Only the final score will be used for ranking.
  • Incorrect answers and submission time will not affect your ranking.
• Participants may work on the contest anywhere, including at home.
• During the competition, usage of all printed/online resources and tutorials are permitted.
• Usage of AI or Large Language Model (LLM) systems, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or GitHub Copilot are not permitted for the competition.
• However, discussing the problems with others is not allowed.
• Please review the Honour Code section later on this page.

Problem format

The problem statements will be available in both English and Bahasa Malaysia.

• Each problem consists of a statement describing the problem and several inputs.
• The inputs are unique to each participant.
• For each input, participants are required to submit an output (by typing/pasting the output into a text box) that satisfies the statement and input.
• Full score for a task will be awarded if the output submitted is correct, zero score will be awarded otherwise. Participants will know whether their submission is correct immediately after it is made.
• Each input has a submission limit independent of each other (to prevent answer spamming).
• Participants will not need to upload code during the contest. As long as they can produce the correct output, they can use any programming language or method (even solving by hand for small inputs).
• The more difficult tasks will likely require programming knowledge.
  • Python is recommended for beginners, and C++ is recommended as it is the only language supported in the later rounds (see the Beyond MCC section).
• Participants are encouraged to save any code they have written to be submitted for the exit survey.

Sample Problem

Given a list of numbers a_1, a_2, ..., a_n. Output the sum of all numbers.

Input format:

n
a_1 a_2 ... a_n

Output format:

Output the sum of all numbers on one line.

Sample input:

100
22 39 68 90 22 53 80 36 16 44 48 29 13 24 51 69 99 65 58 41 68 57 66 5 44 10 23 1 24 64 29 85 6 22 51 14 98 93 71 77 100 92 62 69 76 83 19 68 75 40 16 20 47 95 60 71 34 11 80 90 14 39 69 71 18 64 63 89 57 88 52 2 71 2 71 20 12 49 97 33 43 7 30 37 8 83 9 68 96 72 99 21 53 68 25 71 2 31 65 69

Sample output:

5021

Past MCC problems are available here.

Categories

There are four categories in MCC. Contestants should join the first category that applies to them:

• Bongsu / Junior – 15 years old or below (based on birth year)
• Muda / Intermediate – 17 years old or below (based on birth year)
• Sulung / Senior – 19 years old or below (born on 1 July and later)
• Open – otherwise

The Open category is open to everyone.

The Junior, Intermediate, and Senior categories are only open to anyone who:

• is either studying in Malaysia or is a Malaysian citizen studying abroad; AND
• is enrolled in a school at a level of secondary education or lower; AND
• is not enrolled in a degree programme at a tertiary education institution with a half-time or greater load; AND
• is born on or after 1 July in year (MCC year - 19).

Only participants from Junior, Intermediate, and Senior categories are eligible for IOI selection.

Awards

There will be Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards for each category. All contestants will work on the same problems, but award cutoffs will be different for each category.

We will be giving out digital certificates instead of physical ones.

Registration

Independent Participation

We strongly urge that anyone interested to participate to talk to your school teacher about sending a team. In the case that your school is not sending a team, or you are not currently attached to any school, you may register as an Independent Participant. If you would like to participate as an Independent Participant, please ask your parent to register on the registration website below.

Fee

The fee is RM20 per participant.

If you have financial difficulties, email us at mcc [at] ioimalaysia [dot] org and we will consider waiving the fee.

Payment Method

You may pay the registration fee via bank-in or online transfer to our bank account (info below). Payment should be uploaded (via registration website) after submission of participants list to finalize the registration.

Bank account information:

Account Name: PERTUBUHAN INFORMATIK DAN PENGATURCARAAN MALAYSIA
Account Number: 8600213076
Bank: CIMB Islamic Bank (Taman Danau Kota branch)

Instructions for schools

Teachers

• Registration
  1. Head to the registration site and create a teacher account. Each school should have no more than 1 teacher account.
  2. Verify your email address by clicking the link in the email sent to your address.
  3. Log in and complete your school profile.
  4. Add participants to the list under the “Students” tab and click “save”. If the student profile is not bound, remind your student to register an account and complete individual details.
  5. Make sure that your students verifies their email address. This is very important as we will send the login credentials for MCC to that address.
• Payment
  1. View payments under the “Payments” tab. “Payment due” is the overall amount that your school has to pay. “Payment outstanding” is the amount that your school has not yet paid.
  2. Make payment. See “Payment Method” above for more information.
  3. Click “New Payment” to enter amount paid and upload your proof of payment.
  4. Once your payment has been verified, the status will be updated to “verified”.
  5. You may add or delete participants at any time before registration closes. The “Payments” tab will reflect the corresponding amount you have to pay.
  6. If you need a receipt, please email mcc [at] ioimalaysia [dot] org.

Participants

1. Once your teacher has created an account and added you to the list, you may head to the registration site and log in using your IC number (or passport number if you’re not a Malaysian citizen).
2. You may edit your name. Note that this is the name that will appear on all certificates that you will receive.
3. Enter your email address and verify it by clicking the link in the email sent to your address. This is very important as we will send your login credentials for MCC to this address.
4. Fill in the rest of your credentials and check the box if you agree to the terms.

Instructions for independent participants

Parents

• Registration
  1. Head to the registration site and create a parent account.
  2. Verify your email address by clicking the link in the email sent to your address.
  3. Log in and click “New Student” to add your child.
  4. Add your children to the list under the “Students” tab and click “save”. If the student profile is not bound, remind your child to register an account and complete individual details.
  5. Make sure that your child verifies their email address. This is very important as we will send the login credentials for MCC to that address.
• Payment
  1. View payments under the “Payments” tab. “Payment due” is the overall amount that you have to pay. “Payment outstanding” is the amount that you have not yet paid.
  2. Make payment. See “Payment Method” above for more information.
  3. Click “New Payment” to enter amount paid and upload your proof of payment.
  4. Once your payment has been verified, the status will be updated to “verified”.
  5. You may add or delete participants at any time before registration closes. The “Payments” tab will reflect the corresponding amount you have to pay.
  6. If you need a receipt, please email mcc [at] ioimalaysia [dot] org.

Open Categories

We kindly inform you that registration for open categories requires a parent account. We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to create an account to proceed with your registration.

Honour Code

All participants in MCC agree that they will:

• Not discuss the problems with anyone else during the competition time;
• Neither share problem statements with anyone else nor post problem statements online during the competition time;
• Neither share solutions with anyone else nor post solutions online during the competition time;
• Not use any AI or Large Language Model (LLM) systems, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or GitHub Copilot for the contest;
• Notify the organisers (mcc [at] ioimalaysia [dot] org) immediately if they become aware of other participants cheating.

If the MCC team has reason to suspect you of breaking the rules, you will be disqualified.

If you are unsure whether a tool is allowed, please email the organisers.

Beyond MCC

MCC is the preliminary selection process of a year-long program to identify and train the top computing talents in Malaysian schools. Top scorers in MCC will be:

• Invited to a training camp introducing algorithms and algorithmic thinking, tentatively held in December.
• Invited to the Malaysian Computing Olympiad (MCO), a programming competition tentatively held in April next year.

The top scorers in MCO will be called for a series of intensive training camps conducted by experienced Olympiad participants. Students who qualify at this level will participate in the Asia-Pacific Informatics Olympiad (APIO), an annual online contest among countries in the Pacific Rim region. After the training camps and APIO, four students will be selected to represent Malaysia in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).

Organizers

MCC is brought to you by the Malaysian Informatics and Programming Society. See our About page for more details.

Contact

Please direct all inquiries about MCC via email to mcc [at] ioimalaysia [dot] org.

Problems and Solutions

TBA

Results

TBA