If there’s one single ICPC India prelims contest for all regionals, why are we forced to pay separately for each regional site we register for?

As we know, the ICPC India preliminary round for all four Indian regional sites is conducted as one common online contest. The same preliminary contest is used by the different regional sites to prepare their respective ranklists. A team can register for at most 2 regional sites, but the preliminary registration fee is paid separately for each site.

This year, the preliminary registration fee is ₹1,500 per team per regional site. Last year, the fee was around ₹1,100, which means the fee has increased by approximately 36%.

For many students, especially those whose colleges do not reimburse ICPC expenses, this is not simply "a bit expensive". It can genuinely affect whether a team can participate.

And this raises a simple question:

If the preliminary contest is common across all four regional sites, why does registering for a second site require paying for the same preliminary contest again?

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ICPC India now feels like a business

The math behind this ICPC “business” is insane.
Last year, 2,402 teams registered for the Amritapuri prelims, paying ₹1,100 each. That makes:

total = 1100 × 2402 = ₹26,42,200

just in registration fees for that preliminary round. And if we assume a similar number of teams this year, the total becomes:

total = 1500 × 2402 = ₹36,03,000

Can they really justify this much amount for a single contest?
I understand they need to pay for the platform (CodeChef / DOMjudge), problem setting, administration, marketing, and employees to manage the contest. I am not claiming that the entire amount is profit. But ₹30+ lakh in registration fees for a single preliminary round still feels huge, and I think it is fair for participants to ask where this money goes.

And this is just for a single site. The same ₹1,500 fee is charged by the other regional sites as well.

I understand that offline contests require accommodation, meals, goodies, technical accessories and all of that. But for a 3-hour online contest, is this fee really justified?

All 4 ICPC India Regional Sites: Fees and Onsite Slots (2026)

Note by me: Exact onsite slot counts can change year to year. Amritapuri advertises “350+” onsite slots, while Kanpur, Chennai and Mathura typically offer a few hundred slots each. The important point is: all four sites charge ₹1,500 for the same common online prelim.

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Too many “regionalists”, too little credibility?

This year, there are 4 regional sites in India, out of which 2 are multisite regionals (like Amritapuri and Kanpur with multiple onsite centres). Looking at the number of onsite slots being offered, it feels like the credibility of being a “regionalist” might get diluted.

If around 700 teams can become regionalists across these sites, and each team has 3 members, that means around 2,100 ICPC “regionalists” in a single year.

It starts feeling like ICPC is being treated as a money-making machine rather than a prestigious, selective competition.

I know that increasing the number of regional sites and onsite slots also means more students get an opportunity to experience an ICPC regional, which is a good thing. But at the same time, I think it is worth discussing whether this expansion affects the selectiveness and credibility of being a regionalist.

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A request to the ICPC community and organizers

I also agree with the blog written by mack_lykyn86 about conducting ICPC preliminary rounds at examination centres, which could at least justify some of the cost and add more structure to the process.

More importantly, I would request the organizers to consider whether a single preliminary fee could cover registration for up to two regional sites, or whether there could at least be a reduced fee for the second site.

If there are genuine additional costs involved in registering for another regional site, I think it would also help if the organizers could provide some transparency about what those additional costs are.

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Small note:

All the information and facts here are based on publicly available information from official sites and past contests, but I can still make mistakes.

The ₹26.42 lakh and ₹36.03 lakh figures above are gross registration-fee calculations, not profit estimates. I do not have access to the internal budgets or expenses of the organizers.

The main motto behind this blog was to raise concerns over the increasing cost and paying double for the same contest.

If you feel anything is written wrong, or if you have more data (like exact team counts, budgets, or internal cost breakdowns), please comment below and rectify it. The more we discuss this openly, the higher the chance that next year’s structure actually reflects what students can afford.

The goal isn't to attack ICPC India. The goal is to make ICPC more transparent, affordable and accessible to the students who participate in it.