A hundred participants from multiple countries joined City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) Programming Contest on 27 September 2025. 

The participants hailed from nine universities in the Greater Bay Area, including City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen University and South China Agricultural University. Additionally, it attracted secondary school students from three local schools.

This competition adhered to the rules of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), featuring 13 problems to be solved within a 5-hour time limit. By employing a real-time leaderboard combined with a closing mechanism, it rigorously assessed participants' abilities to code under pressure, analyse problems, and engage in innovative thinking.

Beyond ranking competitors, the event provided a platform for post-contest reviews and technical exchange, fostering knowledge sharing and skill development among programming enthusiasts. It also served as a bridge between higher education and younger students, leveraging university resources to inspire secondary school students and enhance regional programming literacy.

As a campus-level programming competition, the individual ranking event not only offered participants a platform to demonstrate their professional skills but also fostered experience sharing and skill enhancement among programming enthusiasts through post-competition reviews and technical discussions.

Following the warm-up session, the competition commenced in earnest. Participants were ranked based on the number of problems solved as the primary criterion, with penalty time in descending order serving as the secondary criterion. After the competition, all participants gathered in the library lecture hall for the roll-call, award ceremony, and problem review sessions. The results submitted by participants during the closed period were announced sequentially, with rankings being dynamically updated to determine the final list of winners.

Arman Nurushev, an undergraduate student from Kazakhstan at City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), remarked, "I’ve participated in many contests in my own country and I wanted to try and challenge my skills here. I even did some preparation the night before."

“I think the problems were pretty interesting but some of them were kind of hard. Solving problems under the pressure and there is the time limit, I feel like challenging on myself， this way will help me to handle real-life tasks more efficiently and swiftly under pressure,” shared Gizatullin Timur, a student from Russia at City University of Hong Kong.

The competition featured two ranking lists. In the overall ranking, gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded, with the remaining participants receiving "iron medals" as a token of encouragement. In the official participant ranking, gold, silver, and bronze medalists were selected proportionally.

Upon receiving the gold award, Guo Liuhanwen, a 2025 undergraduate student from City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), added, "The entire competition process was meticulously organised, providing contestants with an authentic ICPC experience and stimulating our problem-solving acumen and practical skills. This award not only signifies my ranking but also motivates me to continue participating in such high-caliber competitions in the future."

City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) will continue to leverage the disciplinary strengths of its Computer Science programme and its Dongguan Key Laboratory of Computational Intelligence and Security to organise more high-quality academic competitions and technical exchange events.