United States of America Computing Olympiad

This is an AoPSWiki Word of the Week for Sep 27-Oct 3

The United States Computing Olympiad includes a series of seven internet programming contests and a training camp, used to eventually choose the team that will represent the US in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).

Internet Competitions

There are seven Internet Competitions held each year, including the qualification contest, and USACO's flagship contest, the US Open, which tests the programmer's ability to write correct programs, with restrictions on runtime and memory usage.

These Internet Competitions have different level, Gold (the most difficult), Silver, and Bronze (the least difficult).

Qualification Round

The qualification round is held in the October of each season, to give participants the chance of being in the Gold or Silver divisions. This contest does not count for deciding who goes to the training camp or not however.

There are other ways to qualify for the Silver or Gold divisions, including doing well on a previous contest.