Hello Codeforces!

Kotlin Heroes: Episode 14 has wrapped up, and what an exciting round it was! Thanks to everyone who joined the contest, solved problems, and made this round another great Kotlin Heroes event.

We’ve already had many amazing rounds of the Kotlin Heroes series, and it’s incredible to see the community grow with each episode. Once again, we are proud to celebrate the true heroes of Kotlin who rose to the top and earned well-deserved prizes.

Top 3 contestants are:

1. Golovanov399
2. BucketPotato
3. literalchild

Kotlin Heroes T-shirts will go to the top 50 contestants:

These participants, who solved at least one problem, were randomly selected to receive special Kotlin Heroes T-shirts:

We’ll be in touch soon to coordinate prize delivery. Some participants from the previous round are still waiting for their Kotlin Heroes T-shirts due to shipping delays. We are working to resolve this and will make sure everyone receives their prizes. Thank you so much for your patience!

It's great to see new people learning Kotlin and performing brilliantly in the competition. Want to keep practicing? Challenges from all 14 previous rounds are available here: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5: ICPC Round, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13 and Episode 14.

If you’d like to sharpen your Kotlin skills, start with:

• Tour of Kotlin to learn the basics
• Algorithmic Challenges in Kotlin course, created by some of the competitive programming champions
• Competitive programming tutorial
• Videos on competitive programming in Kotlin from top competitive programmers

Stay tuned for future rounds, and we hope to see you again in the next Kotlin Heroes contest!

TL;DR: Register for the qualification round at https://midnightcodecup.com

Last year we decided to revive the craziest problem solving format of all — the 24-hour onsite. It turned out amazing, so we are bringing more craziness and problems this year.

We’re supported by incredible sponsors: Recraft, OpenAI, Nebius, Alber Blanc, Revolut, Logical Intelligence, and Pinely. Huge thanks to the teams at these companies for backing problem-solving minds – this is the way.

Join the qualification round here at Codeforces on April 11th at 1 PM UTC.

The best 25 teams + 5 wildcards will travel to Belgrade on July 4–5 for a 24-hour final. We can’t wait to see who makes it this year — and the jury will not be shy about challenging you.

Btw, please give it up for The Jury: Aksenov239, qwerty787788, cdkrot, tourist, nsychev, naagi, Gassa, Arpa, pashka, yulik.daniel, xiaowuc1, isaf27, mnaeraxr , aropan, Solenoid555.

Now go register, follow our newly created X account for updates and..

See you at Midnight!

Hello, Codeforces!

IceSerpent and I are pleased to invite you to Codeforces Round 1085 (Div. 1 + Div. 2) on Mar/08/2026 17:35 (Moscow time)! While some of us will be turning our clocks an hour forward for daylight savings, our theme will turn it way back to the 2010s.

You will be given $$$8$$$ problems to solve in $$$3$$$ hours. Note that some of these problems are further divided into subtasks. Some of the problems may be interactive, so please read the guide for interactive problems if you are not familiar with them. The scoring distribution is as follows:

$$$\ \ \ \,$$$ $$$\ $$$ $$$\ \,$$$ $$$\,$$$ $$$\quad\ \ \ \ \,$$$ $$$\quad\ \ \ \ \ \,$$$ $$$\ \ $$$ $$$\qquad\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \,$$$ $$$\qquad\quad\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ $$$

The problems of this round were authored by IceSerpent and myself, awang11. In addition, we would like to thank:

• 244mhq for his excellent coordination of the round and translating the problems to Russian;

• Um_nik for pre-reviewing the round;

• flummoxedfeline for providing beautiful illustrations;

• our army of testers, for their invaluable feedback and eagerness to testsolve: Um_nik, shcal, awesomeguy856, Extile, Noobish_Monk, __baozii__, Amazed, SomethingNew, awoo, -firefly-, ink31930, nik_exists, chromate00, cduckling, madlogic, Hori, misteg168, Dominater069, errorgorn, defnotmee;

• and of course MikeMirzayanov and KAN for the Codeforces and Polygon platforms.

UPD 1: The scoring distribution has been released!

UPD 2: Editorial is released at https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/151886. Hope you enjoyed the round!

UPD 3: The results!

Div. 1 + 2

1. ecnerwala

2. ksun48

3. tourist

4. turmax

5. hitonanode

6. jiangly

7. Elysion

8. Kapt

9. tickcross.y

10. StarSilk

First clears

A. LeonVir, 00:01

B. ksun48, 00:09

C. Golovanov399, 00:11

D. PelicanPilot, 00:16

E1. liaoyanxu, 00:14

E2. Ayush79, 00:33

F. littleju, 00:34

G. ainta, 01:25

H1 + H2 + H3. ecnerwala, 02:31

Hello, Codeforces!

We would like to invite you to participate in the live online mirror contest of The 2026 ICPC Asia Pacific Championship next weekend. ICPC Asia Pacific Championship is the contest for top non-winning teams from all regional contests in the region to qualify to the World Finals. See the region rules and competition page for more details.

The official contest is scheduled to start at Sunday, 8 March 2026, 09:30 AM (UTC+8). The live online mirror contest is scheduled to start only 15 minutes later, to keep both contests run almost in sync. The contest is 5 hours long and consists of several problems.

Please note that we might have to postpone the live online mirror contest in case the official contest is delayed. This is to ensure that the tasks are not available to the public until the official contest starts.

The contest will use ICPC-style scoring (same as the official contest) and will be unrated. You can participate as an individual or as a team, although as a team of three members is preferred.

See you on the top of the leaderboard!

The 2026 ICPC Asia Pacific Championship Judges

[UPD]: Task analysis

Hello Codeforces!

We are happy to announce the new episode of Kotlin Heroes! It is both an opportunity to try learning a new programming language (if you've never coded in Kotlin before) or solve programming problems of very different levels of difficulty in it (if you're already familiar with Kotlin). No matter if you're a professional or a beginner, we'll be glad to see you participate!

This is already the fourteenth time we conduct this competition, and the previous 13 episodes had lots of amazingly talented programmers participating. You can see for yourself by checking them out: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5: ICPC Round, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12 and Episode 13.

To prepare for the Episode 14, we advise you to register to the practice round, which contains several problems of various difficulties from past Codeforces contests. In the practice round, all solutions will be open to view for anyone.

We also recommend that you check some resources which can help you learn more about competitive programming in Kotlin:

• An official competitive programming tutorial.
• A base of solutions for Advent of Code algorithmic puzzles.
• A collection of videos on using Kotlin in Competitive Programming, all arranged into one YouTube playlist.

And if you’d like to see how the top competitive programmers approach these challenges, check out ecnerwala and SecondThread solving problems from this practice round live on stage at the ICPC World Finals in Baku.

On March 2, 2026, the main phase of the contest starts! During Kotlin Heroes: Episode 14, you will have 2 hours and 30 minutes to solve several programming problems, ranging from simple short exercises to challenges that will test both your coding skills and algorithmic thinking.

The use of AI-based tools during the main contest is strictly limited. To find out the guidelines for proper AI use, what is allowed and what is prohibited, please read the post "Rule Restricting the use of AI". Improper use of AI tools during the main contest may result in disqualification. Using automatic translation tools (including but not limited to neural networks and AI) to convert code written in other programming languages to Kotlin goes against the spirit of the competition, so it is also strictly prohibited.

Prizes:

• 🥇 $512 (or equivalent value) for 1st place
• 🥈 $256 for 2nd place
• 🥉 $128 for 3rd place
• 👕 Kotlin Heroes T-shirts for the top 50 participants
• 🎁 A raffle of 50 T-shirts for anyone who solves at least one problem

Please note that we are not able to ship prizes to any country, state, province, or territory subject to comprehensive OFAC sanctions, including Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, or the Crimea, Donetsk, or Luhansk regions. For complete the list, please visit this page.

Good luck to all of the participants! I hope you will enjoy the problems we've prepared.

Hi all!

The second edition of the Blitz Cup is concluding this weekend! The final bracket is shown below. On Saturday, 10 matches were played with live commentary, and we watched quite a few tight fights! Recording is available on Youtube.

Final day

On Sunday, we're playing the remaining matches: two quarterfinals, two semifinals, and the final match! The schedule is as follows:

• Starting 12:05 UTC, tourist vs Ormlis Quarterfinals;
• 13:05 UTC, ecnerwala vs feecle6418 Quarterfinals;
• 14:05 UTC, Um_nik vs winner of (tourist vs Ormlis) Semifinals;
• 15:05 UTC, ksun48 vs winner of (ecnerwala vs feecle6418) Semifinals;
• 16:05 UTC, the final match!

Tune in at 12:00 UTC to the stream below to watch the action!

UPD

Congratulations to Um_nik, our Codeforces Blitz Cup 2026 Champion!

Hi Codeforces!

I have a great announcement for you. This month, we're holding the second Codeforces Blitz Cup! Remember all the WA1s and CEs we've seen from LGMs stressing out to submit before the opponent? They are coming back!

The Codeforces Blitz Cup is a single-elimination personal tournament where matches follow the special Blitz Rules. In short, each match is a 40-minute PvP contest, where problems open one by one, and only the first AC counts. The players can't use any help or prewritten code except a small template, and we get to watch them think and code live.

• Detailed rules
• Bracket

Check out last year's final rounds streams: day 1, and the final day 2 to get the feel for the format.

• Eligibility: Grandmasters or above
• Registration deadline: February 12, 10:00 UTC
• Elimination rounds: February 13th to 26th (free schedule)
• Live finals: February 28 to March 1 (online)

See you blitzing!

UPD

And we know our finalists! Congratulations to __baozii__, 244mhq, Amoo_Safar, Dominater069, ecnerwala, errorgorn, feecIe6418, Geothermal, ksun48, makrav, Ormlis, qiuzx, SSerxhs, tourist, turmax, Um_nik, and see you all on the livestream!

Hello, Codeforces!

I am exhilarated to invite you to participate in Codeforces Round 1084 (Div. 3), which will be held on Feb/27/2026 17:35 (Moscow time)! You will be given $$$7$$$-$$$8$$$ problems to solve in $$$2$$$ hours and $$$15$$$ minutes. All problems were authored and prepared by me.

The round will be hosted by rules of educational rounds (extended ICPC). During the round, all solutions will be judged on preliminary tests. After the round, there will be a 12-hour phase of open hacks. After the open hack phase, all accepted solutions will be rejudged on successful hacks. There will also be the usual penalty of 10 minutes for each wrong submission.

As a reminder, only trusted participants of the third division will be included in the official standings table. This is a compulsory measure for combating unsporting behavior. To qualify as a trusted participant of the third division, you must:

• participate in at least five rated rounds (and solve at least one problem in each of them)

• not have had a rating of 1900 or higher at any moment in time.

Regardless of whether you are a trusted participant of the third division or not, if your rating is less than 1600, then the round will be rated for you (unless you register unrated).

Please note the rules restricting AI use. All violators will be sent directly to cry's basement, which does not have any air.

I would like to thank:

• cry for his Clash Royale addiction amazing coordination.

• Vladosiya for translating the statements into Russian

• omeganot, awesomeguy856, catgirl, __baozii__, Intellegent, and sammyuri for crimson testing.

• temporary1, rhombus, -firefly-, Proof_by_QED, BiggestOtaku, C0DET1GER, jay_jayjay, turska, Friedrich, Broder, efishel, and amsraman for amber testing.

• conjectureguy, SpyrosAliv, wuhudsm, CutSandstone, tin.le2, Edeeva, TheYashB, and Vikas_soni for magenta testing.

• Ermiooo159, Argentum47, Eikyu, simplelife, nimoxide, akane646, chromate00, mathtsai, and Faisal-Saqib for cerulean testing.

• nik_exists and ALnQ417 for turquoise testing.

• aahceL for veridian testing.

• DraxLab for silver testing.

• MikeMirzayanov and KAN for Codeforces and Polygon.

Good luck to everyone and I hope that you enjoy the problems!

Update: Editorial!

你好, Codeforces!

We (DBOI Team) are very glad to invite you to participate in Codeforces Round 1083 (Div. 2), starting at Feb/26/2026 17:35 (Moscow time).

There will be 7 problems for you to solve in 2 hours and 30 minutes. All problems were authored and prepared by cool_milo, StayAlone and me. This round will be rated for all participants with rating below 2100.

I would like to thank the following list of very strong individuals for making this round possible:

• Error_Yuan for the excellent coordination and for making problems better.
• Alexdat2000 for Russian translation.
• CTHOOH, LiHn, Angelic717, StayAlone and me for providing some rejected problems.
• All the testers for testing and sharing feedback: qingbaiqwq, fake_banana, _istil, wangzirui123, __baozii__, liuhangxin, 10circle, Leasier, ZilT, zhy1206, MikaMisono, Murinho, madlogic, wuhudsm, 0htoAi, yanghanyv, y_kx_b, lllsssccc, Comentropy and Muhammad-Daniyal.
• MikeMirzayanov and KAN for incredible Codeforces and Polygon systems.
• You for participating the round.
• Lastly, the main character of the problems — Simons, a young and swag music producer and rapper who likes French fries, in a parallel universe. ⭐⭐⭐

Picture of authors (and there are also some testers off-screen who are shy to show their faces):

(Guess which handle belongs to each author!)

Score distribution: $$$500 - 750 - 1250 - 1750 - 2500 - 2750 - 3250$$$.

Good Luck & Have Fun!

UPD: Editorial is out.