Greek Collegiate Programming Contest (GRCPC) 2026

√DIcomposition wins GRCPC 2026, a first for the University of Athens

The Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens is proud to announce that the Department's team √DIcomposition took 1st place at the Greek Collegiate Programming Contest (GRCPC) 2026. This is the first time in the competition's history that a UoA team has topped the national ranking. The team solved 8 of the 13 problems, one more than any other Greek team (official scoreboard).

About the competition

GRCPC is the Greek national contest of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), the world's largest programming competition for university students. GRCPC was first held in 2023 and is organised by volunteers of Algoforum at the University of Patras.

• Format: teams of three students from the same university share one computer with no internet access and have 5 hours to solve as many algorithmic problems as they can (13 this year).
• Problems: this year's problems are available for practice on Codeforces Gym, along with an editorial that explains the solutions.
• 2026 edition: held on 24 October 2026 at venues in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Ioannina, Kavala and Heraklion, plus an online track. The Cypriot contest (CYCPC) ran alongside it in Paphos.
• Participation: 95 Greek teams from 13 universities competed, out of 112 teams on the joint Greece and Cyprus scoreboard.
• Up next: the best teams from each university advance to the Southeastern European Regional Contest (SEERC), the route to the European championship and the ICPC World Finals.

Congratulations to our teams

√DIcomposition, with third-year student Markos Radaios, fourth-year student Stathis Konstantinou and Panagiotis Megas, won the gold. Panagiotis is a postgraduate student in our ALMA MSc programme who joined our department from Harokopio University. Stathis and Panagiotis also volunteer on the GRCPC organising team.

√DIcomposition, from left: Markos Radaios, Stathis Konstantinou, Panagiotis Megas.

omada pou xanei den kerdizei placed 5th and won a silver medal. The team brings together Spyros Alivizatos, a first-year student, Diomidis Varvaresos from the Department of Mathematics, and Stamatina Nadali, a fourth-year student.

omada pou xanei den kerdizei, from left: Spyros Alivizatos, Diomidis Varvaresos, Stamatina Nadali.

Well done to all 10 UoA teams, 30 students in total, who participated and took on a demanding problem set:

Source: GRCPC 2026 scoreboard, Greek teams.

Growing participation and steady improvement, year after year

In four editions, UoA has gone from two teams with no problems solved (2023) to first place and a gold medal, with 10 teams in total (2026).

This year's success comes in a highly competitive environment. The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) has won every previous edition, and this year it again had one of the largest delegations of any university (15 teams) and took 2nd to 4th place. With fewer teams, UoA placed three in the top 11. Warm congratulations to NTUA, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Patras and every university that took part.

The competition continues to grow. It started in 2023 at a single main venue in Patras with 79 teams. It now runs across six Greek cities, has an online track, and shares its day with a parallel Cypriot contest. On the joint scoreboard, MIR from Neapolis University Pafos solved 12 problems, which shows how high the bar for the regional stage is. We thank the GRCPC organisers and volunteers, and we invite every student of the Department who enjoys algorithms to join the Coding Club and train with us for next year.

Finally, we wish the very best of luck to every team, from every university, that qualified for the next phase, the Southeastern European Regional Contest (SEERC). May they have inspiration, clean code and plenty of “Accepted” solutions for every challenge that lies ahead!