If an answer is incorrect, it will be returned by the panel of judges and there will be one more chance to continue answering; the time for answering in this case will be added to the previous one.

Very quickly, an feedback from the competition committee was received on Xu Bin's computer - AC!

It means that it has passed!

"Mist City Arts and Science University passed [Question A] in 15 minutes and 14 seconds!"

Accompanied by the announcement from the competition center, Ding Yue finally breathed a small sigh of relief upon hearing this result.

Since it was Xu Bin's first time participating in the ACM contest, factors such as nervousness could slow down their answering speed.

However, it wasn't as slow as expected. Compared to ace school teams like those from Haicheng University of Transportation and Moscow State University, they were only about 20 seconds slower.

And compared to St. Petersburg State University, the first to solve [Question A], it was less than five minutes behind.

All these could be made up later, hence Ding Yue was not that pessimistic.

In regards to his buddy Xu Bin, Ding Yue treated him with an optimistic and confident attitude. The more nervous he got, the more likely he would be disappointed.

"Principal Ding, what is the standard of our 15-minute-14-second score?"

Wen Ruohan, the secretary on the side, didn't understand the rules and scores of the competition very well. Seeing that their university had passed the first [Question A] and the timing results were out, she asked Principal Ding curiously.

"Upper-middle level, I guess." Ding Yue glanced at Wen Ruohan, responding with a smile.

"That means, we could catch up later based on the forthcoming questions, right?" Huang Youjie, upon hearing this, was still hopeful about the final results.

At least they hadn't been left behind in the first question and had not yet lost the chance of winning.

"Yes, generally speaking, if the time exceeds 20 minutes, it becomes a bit difficult to catch up. If it exceeds 25 minutes, there will be almost no chance, as one question typically takes around 30 minutes, and a more difficult one may take an hour,"

Ding Yue nodded and explained briefly to Huang and Wen Ruohan.

"University of Cape Town answered [Question A] - WA!"

Suddenly, an announcement from the competition committee came from the center of the competition, there was the first university that had answered [Question A] incorrectly.

"University of Cape Town? The one in Africa?" Ding Yue felt somewhat familiar when he heard the name of the university.

This was when Huang Youjie nodded and said, "Yes, that South African university. It seems to be quite powerful, and it's also a member of the World University Union."

"I wonder how they managed to get this first [Question A] wrong." Wen Ruohan murmured curiously.

To the general audience at the scene, and those watching the competition through other channels, the first question in the ACM competition, [Question A], was apparently the easiest. It can't be true that they couldn't even solve this one, right?

The majority of the teams from the participating universities solved this question within about 20 minutes.

Only the University of Cape Town from South Africa had answered this question incorrectly, eventually taking more than 30 minutes.

This implied that the University of Cape Town from South Africa was virtually out of the competition.

Since they didn't score anything on the first question, even if they wanted to catch up later, it would be very difficult.

However, despite getting [Question A] wrong, the team from the University of Cape Town can still continue to participate and solve the remaining questions.

The ACM competition rules do not include any rules for elimination, just timing, right and wrong answers, or other special circumstances. All universities have the right to answer all the questions in the entire competition.

Of course, by this time, the universities that have not yet solved [Question A] have another choice - leaving the competition directly.

However, the University of Cape Town obviously wouldn't choose this. Instead of leaving, they might as well continue to answer the remaining questions, though they've basically lost the chance of winning by this point.

If they would directly leave, it would be really embarrassing.

"I don't think the Computer Science major at the University of Cape Town is a top-tier one, right?" Huang Youjie mumbled.

"Even so, it's absurd that all 33 university teams were able to answer [Question A] correctly but the University of Cape Town answered it incorrectly. I think the University of Cape Town might be joking."

Ding Yue joked.

Isn't it absurd enough that they stumbled right at [Question A]?

Half an hour has passed since the competition started; the time given by the contest committee for the first question has now ended.

Next, it signifies that [Problem B] will be making its debut soon.

The difficulty will increase by a notch.

"Now, the organizing committee will provide [Problem B] to all participating university teams. Each team has up to 30 minutes to complete the problem!"

With the announcement of the organizing committee, [Problem B] officially took the stage.

Clearly, for those leading college teams with illustrious reputations, [Problem B] posed absolutely no difficulty. The challenges that they aimed to take on were naturally the final two or three problems.

Ding Yue noticed that whether it was the universities participating from Russia, or America, or even that from Europe, when encountering [Problem B], they seemed pretty much at ease.

Of course.

For the teams participating from Xia Country, Haicheng University of Transportation was also under no stress. Indeed, [Problem B] was rather simple for them.

How the Northwestern University of Science and Technology was faring, Ding Yue did not know. He saw that the expressions of the three participating team members from the Northwestern University of Science and Technology were frozen, seemingly a tad tense.

In the end, Ding Yue redirected his gaze to his own home team from Mist City Arts and Science University. Watching Xu Bin, Chen Jun, and Ouyang Chen, he noted their calm composure and complete lack of tension. They had already started to tackle [Problem B] proficiently.

Chen Jun was the one who analyzed [Problem B]. Ouyang Chen was assisting him, while Xu Bin wrote the solution to the problem based on Chen Jun's analysis.

The whole process was like a smooth flow of events. Xu Bin was gradually getting into the groove thanks to the first problem.

Thus.

Now, Xu Bin had already more or less gotten the hang of typing code to solve the problems. Being proficient, it was time for him to compete against the other universities in terms of speed.

"The University of Cape Town submits a solution to [Problem B], WA!"

Suddenly, about eight or nine minutes in, the committee's voice announcing the reports echoed in the venue.

The University of Cape Town submitted a solution to [Problem B] in less than ten minutes, and the result was WA! Which meant it was wrong!

"Hahahaha!"

"What is the University of Cape Town doing?"

"Did they answer incorrectly again?"

"I get it, the University of Cape Town came to make up the numbers for this competition!"

"OMG, what's gotten into the University of Cape Town's team?"

"Unfortunately, it appears the University of Cape Town should be out of the running for the championship of this ACM competition."

Whether they were international or domestic followers of the ACM competition, they all felt a sense of "humor" about the University of Cape Town's performance in [Problem A] and [Problem B].

"Yue, this is confirmed, the University of Cape Town is here to create humor, hahahaha!" Huang Youjie couldn't help laughing.

Comparatively, Ding Yue was more attentive—he observed the three players of the University of Cape Town's team.

Upon learning that their submitted solution was incorrect, all three players were visibly dejected and regretful.

It was clear that they didn't seem to be here to fool around.

They really were...

Subpar in skills!

"Huang, maybe they truly are limited in ability. As far as I know, the computer major of the University of Cape Town is indeed not very good. The fact that they managed to secure the qualification for this year's ACM competition, I believe, is due to the university's reputation in Africa. Probably they couldn't find a better recommendation," Ding Yue said rationally to Huang.

"Yue, what you just mentioned sounds reasonable. From [Problem A] to [Problem B], we can indeed see that their skills are quite mediocre. Let's just hope that Bin and the others can quickly solve [Problem B]."

Ding!

"Congratulations..."

As Huang Youjie finished speaking, the competing university team who first solved [Problem B] emerged.

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