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Welcome to Al Zimmermann's Programming Contests. You've entered an arena where demented computer programmers compete for glory and for the adulation of their peers.
I run one or two contests per year. Each contest asks that you come up with your best solutions to a set of computationally intensive problems, generally involving sophisticated heuristics. And, although I speak of "programming" contests, you don't need to write a computer program to enter. You can enter whether you use a computer, manual calculations, or tea leaves to solve the problems. You send me solutions, not programs.
To enter a contest, you must
register.
Once registered, you submit your solutions through this website. You get instant
feedback and your name immediately appears on the contest's standings page where, if
you've done well, you can start to bask in some of that aforementioned glory.
Upcoming Contests
| Grand Canyon | 22 Nov 2025 16:00 | 21 Feb 2026 |
| Yosemite | 18 Jul 2026 15:00 | 17 Oct 2026 |
| Yellowstone | 20 Mar 2027 15:00 | 19 Jun 2027 |
A contest's description is not available until the contest begins.
All times are in UTC. Please log on to see times in your local time zone.
"Perhaps the best way to proactively procrastinate I have yet to find!"
– Benjamin Laken, Madrid, Spain
"Here I am, so much actual work to do, but totally entranced by yet another Al Zimmermann programming contest."
– Tom Rokicki, Palo Alto, California
"Your competitions are, without doubt, the best. I may have lost months of my free time but, by Jove, it has been worth every second."
– Mathew Davies, Luton, England
"For this I sent him to college? Oy."
– Al Zimmermann's mother
