PROGRAMMING FINAL ROUND:
Who may participate? The best 10 to 15 participants from the Programming Olympiad First Round countrywide will be invited to take part in the Final Round in Cape Town.
Requirements: Each participant will be given access to a Computer. Participants will have a choice of a limited range of Computer languages such as C++, Java and Python which are suitable for algorithmic problem solving. The contest stretches over 2 days. Each day the candidates will be given a number of problems to solve in the allotted five hours. Evaluation is automatic.
Location: The competition uses a laboratory at the University of Cape Town. Out-of-town participants are housed at a nearby bed-and-breakfast. The Computer Olympiad office will arrange and pay for flights, accommodation, meals and refreshments.
Prizes:
The winning participants receive medals and cash awards. In addition their schools receive cash awards for the purchase of hardware or software.
| POSITION | MEDAL | LEARNER | SCHOOL |
| 1 | Gold | R6 000 | R5 000 |
| 2 | Silver | R4 000 | R3 000 |
| 3 | Silver | R4 000 | R3 000 |
| 4 | Bronze | R2 000 | R2 000 |
| 5 | Bronze | R2 000 | R2 000 |
| 6 | Bronze | R2 000 | R2 000 |
Each participant also receives a certificate.
Python Prizes
The top participants in the Final Round using Python receive the following prizes – over and above any prizes awarded for coming among the top 6 in South Africa.
Top Python user: R30 000
No 2 Python user: R20 000
No 3 Python user: R20 000
No 4 Python user: R10 000
No 5 Python user: R10 000
No 6 Python user: R10 000
Python: Python is an open source high-level programming language which is available free of charge and can be downloaded from www.python.org. Python is named after Monty Python – emphasizing that users are to have fun. Python is a very well used development tool, specifically because of its easy learning curve and high productivity rate. Among others, it is used extensively by Google, NASA, and Industrial Light and Magic (animators of the Star Wars series) and Pixar (Toy Story, The Incredibles). It is also the language that Mark Shuttleworth used to write the software that allowed him to build and (four years later) sell his digital certificate company, Thawte, to United States based VeriSign for approximately 540 million Dollars.
Mark Shuttleworth wishes other young people to become familiar with Python. To encourage them, he has made available an extra R100,000 in prize money specifically for Python users.