The world's oldest and most prestigious university programming contest is coming to Dhaka. On Tuesday, 8 March 2022, at the Bangladesh Computer Council auditorium in Agargaon, Bangladesh was formally named host of the 45th ICPC World Finals, to be held at International Convention City Bashundhara from 6 to 11 November. More than 150 teams from 75 countries are expected to compete in person.
What the ICPC is
The International Collegiate Programming Contest began in Texas in 1970. Teams of three students share one computer and five hours to solve a dozen or so algorithmic problems; the team that solves the most, fastest, wins. Regional rounds are held on every continent and only the winners reach the World Finals. Past champions include MIT, Stanford, St Petersburg, Moscow State, Warsaw and Peking universities; a World Finals medal is the closest thing computer science has to an Olympic gold, and recruiters from every large technology company sit in the stands.
Who is putting it on
The host is the government's ICT Division, with the Bangladesh Computer Council as co-organiser and the University of Asia Pacific as academic host. ICPC Foundation president Bill Poucher led an 11-member delegation to inspect the venue and hotels before the announcement; ICPC deputy executive director Jeff Donahoo, ICT senior secretary N M Zeaul Alam and UAP vice-chancellor Qamrul Ahsan were on stage. State minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the goal was to "encourage young people towards programming from childhood".
Bangladesh's quarter century in the contest
Bangladeshi universities have competed in the ICPC since the late 1990s. BUET, Dhaka University and Shahjalal University teams are regulars at the World Finals through the Dhaka regional, and BUET has finished in the top 30 in the world more than once. The country has never hosted the finals, and no South Asian country had before this. For the several thousand students who grind through Codeforces and the national programming camps each year, the finals being a bus ride away rather than a visa application is the point.
Registration for the Dhaka regional, the route to the finals for local teams, opens later in the year.
Update: the finals were held on 8-10 November 2022. MIT won; eight Bangladeshi teams competed, the most the country has ever sent.
