Hello CodeForces!
ICPC just announced Europe Women's Programming Contest 2026 — an individual algorithmic programming contest for women and non-binary students across Europe. Online qualification is on July 4, and top 20 contestants advance to the onsite finals in Stockholm on August 21-24!
Registration is open on ewpc.icpc.global.
See you there!
Auto comment: topic has been updated by prvocislo (previous revision, new revision, compare).
Thank you very much for sharing! We would be happy to answer any questions about the contest or eligibility!
And huge thank you goes to our team,
- Contest director Fredrik Niemelä,
- Head Judge Tagl Arnar Bjarni Arnarson,
- Judges Atli Fannar Franklín, Dagur Benjamínsson, Giovanna Kobus Conrado, Harry Zhang, Joshua Anderson, Konráð Elí Sigurgeirsson, Matthías Andri Hrafnkelssson, Michael Zündorf, Wendy Yi, Yidi Zang, and Zara Zong,
- Organizing committee Mikael Renström, Maddy Wang Renström, Veronika Soboleva, Joshua Andersson, Lotte Lakeman, Giovanna Kobus Conrado, and Thomas Verwoerd
- ICPC titanium sponsors Jane Street :)
Off-topic, but when is the list of WF-qualified teams from the Asia-West region being released? AWC took place more than three months ago and there has been no official communication ever since.
Thank you all for organizing this:)
but non-binary are not women
so you're only excluding men?
I've googled non-binary. It said "Non-binary describes individuals whose gender identity falls outside the traditional male/female binary" If gender identity falls outside the traditional male/female , are they humans ??
It's crazy to see your comment went from +30 to -40
Too many Crazy people out there ..
so if i say i am non binary will i be allowed?
lol! I think we should do that!
Bruh! Why do we need a Women's ICPC when we already have an ICPC where both men and women can participate together? It isn't like other sports where physical strength dominates, so why separate it? Do people still think women are inferior at cognitive thinking? That feels racist!
I don't think the primary purpose is to give a 'handicapped' version of the competition to women. Rather, it is to encourate women and I guess non-binary people to paricipate in programming and coding, which remains a vastlt men/male dominated field. So more about encouragement than fairness.
I don't think so. A lot of people have already explained why gender-based contests can feel unfair, so I won't repeat all of those points, However, if you genuinely think that lower female participation is a problem, then I think the solution is different, In regular contests, men and women already compete together on the same problems under the same rules. If there are fewer women participating, then naturally there will also be fewer women on the winners' podium. But that does not mean the contest itself is the problem, when people see others from their own group succeed, they often become motivated to work harder. As more women participate, improve, and achieve strong results in open contests, they can inspire other girls to join as well. Over time, that gap can naturally become smaller, what I don't understand is the argument that women need a separate or more comfortable space to compete. Do men who participate in ICPC not feel pressure? Do beginners, regardless of gender, not feel intimidated when competing against stronger contestants? Pressure and competition are things that everyone faces, on the other hand, when a contest is created specifically because a particular gender has lower participation, many people will see that as unfair. Some may even feel demotivated because they are excluded from an opportunity based on something they cannot change
I largely agree with you, that this is an inoptimal solution to the problem of lacking female participation in coding. I just meant that the organizers aren't worried about fairness and they're worried about participation.
finally, a sane comment
i said some dumb stuff
lol, that match was hilarious!
I identify as a binary string of length N. Does this count as non-binary?
Of course not, you must be NON-BINARY string!
Bitter men in comments — what's your problem? This is not for you; move on. Moreover, as far as I can tell, none of you will fit even by geographical metric, so, again, what's your problem with this opportunity that is not for you? Yeah, maybe in Bangladesh non-binary people are not a thing right now — don't worry, you'll get there. Well, in Europe they are; and they, as well as women, are underrepresented in programming in general and competitive programming in particular.
I do hope this competition will encourage more women and non-binary people to do competitive programming. Good luck!
I don't really see how hosting competitions that exclude some genders is going to motivate more people of other genders to get into competitive programming.
Here is why:
If someone is already reading this blog and knows about the contest, they are likely already involved in CP. It doesn't reach or attract people that don't do CP.
Based on point 1, since most participants are already part of the CP community, it’s unclear how this kind of event helps retain this specific demographic in the long run.
Creating events that exclude a large part of the community can make those people feel penalized simply because of their gender.
Personally, I believe that all genders and races are equal. The underrepresentation we see isn't due to discrimination within the CP community, but rather because individuals from those groups simply have different interests or better opportunities elsewhere, not because of a lack of access to CP.
Did you ever feel penalized for not being able to participate in the other countries' olympiads due to your nationality? Would collegiate students feel bad they can't participate in the IOI because it discriminates their age?
"...because individuals from those groups simply have different interests or better opportunities elsewhere." It is not for you to assume circumstances of not your own.
Do you think this competition hurts the men that make up the vast majority of this community more than it encourages the inclusion of a minority?
"Did you ever feel penalized for not being able to participate in the other countries' olympiads due to your nationality?"Actually, yes, I do. It is genuinely frustrating to be excluded from competitions due to circumstances beyond my control.
"Would collegiate students feel bad they can't participate in the IOI because it discriminates their age?"This is a flawed analogy. Age restrictions in events like the IOI exist to ensure a level playing field based on educational stages and experience (separating school-level beginners from university students with years of advanced training). Gender, however, does not determine a person's cognitive or programming capability. Equating a gender barrier to an age limit implicitly suggests an inherent difference in capability, which contradicts the very principle of equality.
"Do you think this competition hurts the men that make up the vast majority of this community more than it encourages the inclusion of a minority?"I believe the net effect is counterproductive. An exclusive contest doesn't provide any unique motivational or educational value to a minority that a well-organized, open competition wouldn't already offer. However, by restricting participation based on demographic criteria, it actively creates a sense of alienation among the majority for something they cannot change.
The gender limit supposes a solution that aims to encourage, promote, and highlight a start minority in the community. Here, women can be better represented, be better connected, and be able to bring forth an advancement of the community.
Using similar reasoning, these types of competitions ensure a level-playing field of women without the gender barrier and eliminating possibilities for intimidation and allowing safer exploration, reasons that you have failed to consider under the assumption that they have other preferences or different interests. Do you not realize that your casual statement and assumption is damaging, and your ignorant take is an example of casual gendered dismissal they experience.
"eliminating possibilities for intimidation and allowing safer exploration"
Suddenly women seem to be scaredy cats. It seems as if men are ready to jump on them at the first opportunity if that is what you mean.
"aims to encourage, promote, and highlight a start minority in the community."
Women are already in the programming community. 25% is today's size by some estimates but in fact it peaked in the 1990s at 37%. So please do not think that just because there are fewer women we need to "bring in" or "encourage" them by providing "safer spaces". They need to come in themselves, just as Ada and Grace Hopper did. They don't need babysitting and they need to face men upfront, not hide behind some organizers.
IDK why my comments get downvoted so low when all I said are facts above.
I think it is probably because your comments seem to point towards the opposite.
One cannot deny that women were discouraged from participating in academic activities back in the day (Just because someone like Ada did it doesn't mean there was no barrier, it depends on many other conditions, and I am sure there was a barrier back then).
However, I am also opposed to the idea of hosting a competitive programming contest exclusively for women. If a woman can participate in this contest, I would say it is very likely that they have already been participating in competitive programming contests. Also competing (in context of competitive programming) in a separate gender based pool is more likely to be a subject of ridicule (by people who discourage women, since I think it is more like those people think men are better at this skillset in general or something along those lines) than participating in a gender-neutral contest.
But apparently, that is the only way society knows how to fix things. By that I mean if a society wants to "uplift" a particular group of people, the first to benefit are usually the most privileged ones, it is inefficient but also the method that scales the best.
Mhm, and interests are something we are all born with, not something that society forms for us and forces on us.
Smart girls in my class were encouraged to do Olympiads in languages or social subjects. It is never as simple as "they simply have different interests".
Yeah when I was in school, they never even pronounced the word "Olympiad". So much for access to CP.
So maybe you should fight for better access for everyone in your community, rather than fighting against better access for women?
When did I fight against better access for women? Prove that I even said that.
women have the same access as men , at least in my country. idk about Europe and the US.
You make a fair point about societal conditioning. I agree that society often unfairly steers people toward certain fields based on their gender, and our goal should be to eliminate those stereotypes so anyone can pursue CP without societal friction.
If that is the ultimate goal, I can see the theoretical benefit of this kind of contest: it creates visibility and shows that CP is not just for one gender.
However, I believe the negative impact heavily outweighs this benefit. By creating a separate, exclusive competition for specific genders, the underlying implication is that these groups cannot compete on an equal footing with the gender that was excluded.
You don't get to assert that discrimination doesn't cause under-representation whilst perpetuating that very discrimination.
I think you are confusing wordplay with discrimination
These are not mutually exclusive.
yes and that is exactly how women felt for hundreds of years so.. kinda like they deserve it
Yeah, maybe in Bangladesh non-binary people are not a thing right now — don't worry, you'll get there.
The way you talk about Europe is like as if you all are forward-looking and the rest of us are backward, or let's say "outdated".
It is just impossible for people like you to say that when you have been funding a wholesale genocide for the past two and the half year under "terrorism" charges and not even be able to lay a single sanction on America when America attacks Iran but oh obviously sanction Russia for the war in Ukraine. If you don't have the balls do even sanction America then where are your morals?
If you claim to be on higher ground, impose them consistently on your self. Then judge others.
P.S: These are the same people who tell that gender-segregated universities in the Global South are immoral. Look at what this competition is: "Gender Segregation".
Brow! It is not your job to tell us what we need to believe or where we need to arrive. Stop telling other people what they should believe. Besides males and females, we already have a third-gender category, so the situation is more complex than simply saying that non-binary people "are not a thing" here. The fact that some of you think that, just because we do not believe in your ideology or philosophy, we are somehow inferior is exactly the problem. Stop your racist remarks there!
I think Westerners are underestimating the degree to which their culture and language have shaped the orthodox discourse in the West. Most languages in the world do not have separate words for 'sex' (the categories, not the behaviour) and 'gender'; and in many languages gender is not mentioned so frequently (for example, in Chinese, there is only one third-person singular pronoun (if we don't count a terrible, discriminatory invention by Liu Bannong), and we say 'person' everywhere when describing someone), so it is not something that goes with you everywhere. To be frank, many people simply cannot understand what the gender theorists are talking about, not because they are particularly conservative, but because it is something that does not even feel natural in their language. Someone here says that non-binary-ness is not a thing in Bangladesh; I have to remind him that it is not a thing in Singapore, and if Singapore sounds too conservative, look at Taiwan, which has become proudly progressive in recent years, championing human rights, Net Zero transition, multiculturalism, etc. but which, still, has found itself unable to accept the queer theory. I think if progressives in the West genuinely support multiculturalism, they need to listen more to people of non-Western cultures instead of forcing a theory whose creation had no non-Western input, or cherrypicking things in non-Western cultures that seemingly support their theories.
I appreciate your calm and reasonable response.
Languages certainly shape how we think. But languages are not set in stone, they develop to incorporate new ideas. The word "gender" did not exist in English forever; heck, English did not exist forever. But certainly the word "gender" was (and still is in many contexts) a synonym for "sex" much longer than it was distinct. This is a relatively new idea, but it doesn't mean it's wrong (neither does it mean it is right). I'm pretty sure the word for "computer" didn't exist in Chinese 1000 years ago, and probably not even 100 years ago, at least in the modern meaning. It doesn't mean that Chinese people cannot learn how to use computers, does it?
I don't think this competition forces anything on non-Western cultures. My point was exactly that this competition is limited to Europe, where non-binary people exist proudly.
In fact your quote says it all: Yeah, maybe in Bangladesh non-binary people are not a thing right now — don't worry, you'll get there.
And now you tell I don't think this competition forces anything on non-Western cultures.
One time you tell that we are backward looking, and wanting us to "coexist" with arcane principles. I think that in Asian cultures, we accept transgender because they were born like that. Although I do agree that those people must have more support, I still do not care about men caring to call themselves women.
Where did you get the idea that Taiwan has found itself unable to accept queer theory?
As far as I know, Taiwan's law does not recognise any non-binary gender, and a change in the M/F gender marker on the ID card requires a surgery. There have been several court cases where a transgender person fought to change the gender marker without a surgery and won, but courts never strike down the Interior Ministry's surgery requirement entirely but hear these cases case-by-case instead. I don't mean there aren't groups that advocate for more recognition of transgender-ness, but the laws stop short of what queer theorists say is necessary. Correct me if I am wrong.
And since you are from Taiwan, I'm eager to learn more information from you about how people around you and Taiwan's society in general think regarding this topic.
Making a competition for only women is encouraging them? how? in what world being sexist is supporting? losing is a part of learning , If I lost I will train , when a women wins this she would say " that's enough I'm a winner why should I train".
it's dump at it's best , and shaming other people nationalities is rude, having a culture of no self respect and being dirty af and living like animals is not better.
Well said!
All the best to the team and all the women out there . Go and shine .
Then shouldn't it be called Europe Non-Men Programming Contest? I'm not sure how it works, but i think calling a non-binary person 'woman' might be considered rude
What is the definition of non-binary people according to EWPC? Some people do not understand it, so they are making inappropriate comments.
only_forward_ Tajikistan is relying on youuu ))) (didn't know it's EWOI)
I believe it would be appropiate to organize such things also for everyone that is stil a student.Altough the current format of ICPC is fun , I believe it would be nice to have a continuation of the high school olympiads in college.
The reason why non-binary people are welcomed is because during the contest, their submissions will be compiled to binary.
Newbies only programming contest when?
div. 4 already exists
Saw this in recent actions. The blog title + "div. 4 already exists" is hilarious out of context
Good initiative! I think this will be very complimentary to the EGOI!
Why are non-binary people allowed to participate in the Europe Women's Programming Contest if it is a women's contest?
i identify my self as a cat, can i join???
this is good
maybe i can find myself a hot programmer chick who can help me become a grandmaster :blushes:
Why's everyone fighting here, if its for women and non-binary then let them participate and enjoy the contest rather than making it a subject of debate!
Make a separate contest specifically for non-binary participants, or exclude them from our world.
Bro do you have a personal vendetta again non-binary people or something? Just let them get on with life without people like you getting in the way.
funny how ppl who had over 30 upvotes against this shiit agenda is now getting review boombed keep it up bots
What third world does to a forum
So who gets mapped to 0 and who gets mapped to 1? Also, shouldn't non-binary be represented by 2? I mean, 2 != 0 and 2 != 1. I'm genuinely curious what logic was used when designing these contest requirements.
And what happens if someone chooses the opposite bit and their XOR becomes 1? Does the judge immediately disqualify him/her/them/it and remove them from the test case?
What's the expected pronoun here? I don't want to fail pretest #1 because of a pronoun mismatch.
wow，when can we hold MTF only(
Making a competition for only women is sexist and implies that women are not good enough to compete elsewhere , and allowing non-binary participant's is a joke! a man can easily say that "I'm not a man" , that would not give him an advantage because it's not a physical sport but still it's unfair .
Is it possible for women and non-binary students from other parts of the world to participate unofficially this year? I imagine there may be students elsewhere (e.g., in Pakistan, or other underrepresented regions) who'd be interested but hesitant to ask publicly.
Thank you very much for your consideration.
P.S : I condemn the comment section (which hasn't asked a single meaningful question).
Thanks for the good question!
Yes, I believe you are welcome to participate unofficially in the online round;)
(ICPCNews will post the official confirmation and more eligibility clarifications soon)
We will run an open version in parallel, which will allow unofficial participation. More information on that will come soon.
We have opened for unofficial registration now. See the FAQ on the website.
There's literally a war here.
could non binary people and girls from africa participate unofficially ?
We have opened for unofficial registration now. See the FAQ on the website.
why is it exclusive to Europe? EGOI, the pre-college equivalent, is an international contest and not exclusive to europe. EGMO is the math equivalent of EGOI, and it too allows countries outside of europe to participate.
The format of this is of course different from the Olympiads, but the real answer to your question is because this is a discussion which started within NWERC and we were confident in being able to support this size of a region. Since travel is paid for the finalists, there are also budget considerations.
WTF are these comments
the israeli bots really did a number on this thread, huh
I support.
ahhhh so much is going on in the comments, its going to be a longg and intresting ride
mens only contest next so that women and other non binary feel safer ?? i mean why not lol
As a contestant, I wonder whether and where the test cases can be downloaded after the contest finished.
We will publish contest data later on, but it will probably take more than a few days.