Code, cable, contest: Three days of NWERC 2025 on campus

From November 28 to 30, KIT became the hotspot of the Northwest European competitive programming scene: NWERC 2025 brought over 420 participants and 100 coaches from 13 countries to Karlsruhe. For three days, the focus was on algorithmic challenges, clever solutions - and a hell of a lot of colorful balloons.

The event kicked off on Friday evening in the Audimax: goodie bags, badges, contest shirts - and of course the opportunity to hand in your own beloved keyboard, without which some participants obviously don't like programming.

Saturday was used to warm up. During the practice session, many explored the city: city tours, ZKM, Natural History Museum, board games or the Christmas market - those who were not yet networked afterwards had at least drunk mulled wine. In the evening, everyone got together for a meal in the canteen.

Sunday was the big moment: 140 teams from over 70 universities faced 12 algorithmic tasks for five hours. The refectory became a contest arena - 200 laptops, 3000 meters of cable and lots and lots of balloons, each a visible sign of a completed task. Over 900 balloons were inflated - the number per color? Top secret, because it reveals something about the difficulty of the tasks.

More than 100 people worked behind the scenes, including many volunteers from the mathematics/computer science student council and members of CPUlm, who ensured that everything ran smoothly with calm, energy and organizational talent.

For KIT, the competition was also outstanding in sporting terms. Our top team Infinite L∞pers showed a strong performance: ten solved tasks, a silver medal plus the renewed qualification for the European Championship - clear proof of KIT's top position in Europe. But the three other KIT teams also delivered impressive results: KITset solved nine tasks, Kœrrectness In Theory and TIꞰKIT eight each, and all four teams demonstrated the broad strength of our competitive programming community.

Overall, the NWERC 2025 was a mixture of top international competition, chaotic and charming large-scale event and a weekend full of encounters, enthusiasm and team spirit. And best of all: after the NWERC is before the NWERC - we can do it all again next year. Karlsruhe is already looking forward to it!

If you would like to take part in the NWERC yourself or help with the organization, you are cordially invited to join the Discord server of the Scalable Algorithms group. There you will always find up-to-date information on courses, the ICPC, the competitions and internal qualification.

_{The text uses generative AI for stylist expressions; the editorial team is responsible for the content.}