Contest API

Introduction

This page describes an API for accessing information provided by a Contest Control System (CCS) or Contest Data Server. Such an API can be used by a multitude of clients:

  • an external scoreboard
  • a scoreboard resolver application
  • contest analysis software, such as the ICAT toolset
  • another "shadow" CCS, providing forwarding of submissions and all relevant information
  • internally, to interface between the CCS server and judging instances

This API is meant to be useful, not only at the ICPC World Finals, but more generally in any ICPC-style contest setup. It is meant to incorporate and supersede a number of deprecated or obsolete specifications amongst which the JSON Scoreboard, the REST interface for source code fetching and the Contest start interface.

This REST interface is specified in conjunction with a new NDJSON event feed, which provides all changes to this interface as CRUD-style events and is meant to supersede the old XML Event Feed.

General design principles

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

The interface is implemented as a HTTP REST interface that outputs information in JSON format (RFC 7159). All access to the API must be provided over HTTPS to guard against eavesdropping on sensitive contest data and authentication credentials.

Endpoint URLs

The specific base URL of this API will be dependent on the server (e.g. main CCS or CDS) providing the service; in the specification we only indicate the relative paths of API endpoints with respect to a baseurl. In all the examples below the baseurl is https://example.com/api.

We follow standard REST practices so that a whole collection can be requested, e.g. at the URL path

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/teams

while an object with a specific ID is requested as

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/teams/10

A collection is always returned as an array of JSON objects. Every item in the array is a single object (and always includes the ID). When requesting a single object the exact same object is returned. E.g. the URL path

GET baseurl/collection

returns

[ { "id":<id1>, <other properties for object id1> },
  { "id":<id2>, <other properties for object id2> },
     ...
]

while the URL path

GET baseurl/<collection>/<id1>

returns

{ "id":<id1>, <other properties for object id1> }

HTTP headers

A server should allow cross-origin requests by setting the Access-Control-Allow-Origin HTTP header:

Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

A server should specify how clients should cache file downloads by setting the Cache-Control or Expires HTTP headers:

Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600, s-maxage=18000

Expires: Wed, 18 Jul 2018 07:28:00 GMT

HTTP methods

The current version of this specification only requires support for the GET method, unless explicitly specified otherwise in an endpoint below (see e.g. PATCH start_time). However, for future compatibility below are already listed other methods with their expected behavior, if implemented.

  • GET Read data. This method is idempotent and does not modify any data. It can be used to request a whole collection or a specific object.

  • POST Create a new object. This can only be called on a collection endpoint, and the id property may not be specified as it is up to the server to assign one. If successful the response will contain a Location header pointing to the newly created object.

  • PUT Creates or replaces a specific object. This method is idempotent, can only be called on a specific object, and replaces its contents with the data provided. The payload data must be complete, i.e. the id is required and no partial updates are allowed.

  • PATCH Updates/modifies a specific object. This method is idempotent, can only be called on a specific object, and replaces the given properties with the data provided. For example PATCH https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/teams/10 with JSON contents {"name":"Our cool new team name"}.

  • DELETE Delete a specific object. Idempotent, but will return a 404 error code when repeated. Any provided data is ignored, and there is no response body if successful. Example: DELETE https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/teams/8. Note that deletes must keep referential integrity intact.

Success, Failure, and HTTP Responses

Standard HTTP status codes are returned to indicate success or failure. If successful DELETE will have no response body, GET on a collection will return the collection, and every other method will contain the current (updated) state of the object.

If a POST, PUT, PATCH would cause any of the following issues it must fail, in addition to any endpoint or type-specific requirements:

  • A PATCH on an id that doesn't exist. Will return a 404 error code.
  • A PUT or PATCH containing an id that does not match the URL. Will return a 409 error code.
  • A required property is missing.
  • A property that must not be provided is provided.
  • A property type that is incorrect or otherwise invalid (e.g. non-nullable property set to null).
  • A reference to another object is invalid (to maintain referential integrity).

In addition to any endpoint or object-specific requirements, DELETE must fail if the object id doesn't exist, and return a 404 error code. If the object being deleted is referenced by another object, the server must either fail or implement a cascading delete (to maintain referential integrity)

When there is a failure using any method the response message body must include a JSON object that contains the properties ‘code' (a number, identical to the HTTP status code returned) and ‘message' (a string) with further information suitable for the client making the request, as per the following example:

{"code":403,
 "message":"Teams cannot send clarifications to another team"}

Authentication

The API provider may allow unauthenticated access to information that is fully public, i.e. that may be visible to everyone including spectators and teams. If provided this must be read-only access (no POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE methods allowed).

All other access to the API must be controlled via authenticated accounts. The API provider must support HTTP basic authentication (RFC). This provides a standard and flexible method; besides HTTP basic auth, other forms of authentication can be offered as well.

Depending on the client account's access, the API provider may completely hide some objects from the client, may omit certain properties, or may embargo or omit objects based on the current state of the contest.

Referential integrity

Some properties in an object are references to IDs of other objects. When such a property has a non-null value, then the referenced object must exist. That is, the full set of data exposed by the API must at all times be referentially intact. This implies for example that before creating a team with an organization_id, the organization must already exist. In reverse, that organization can only be deleted after the team is deleted, or alternatively, the team's organization_id is set to null.

Furthermore, the ID property (see below) of objects are not allowed to change. However, note that a particular ID might be reused by first deleting an object and then creating a new object with the same ID.

JSON property types

Property types are specified as one of the standard JSON types, or one of the more specific types defined below. Implementations must be consistent with respect to the optional parts of each type, e.g. if the optional .uuu is included in any absolute timestamp it must be included when outputting all absolute timestamps.

  • Strings (type string in the specification) are built-in JSON strings.
  • Numbers (type number in the specification) are built-in JSON numbers.
  • Booleans (type boolean in the specification) are built-in JSON booleans.
  • Integers (type integer in the specification) are JSON numbers that are restricted to be integer. They should be represented in standard integer representation (-)?[0-9]+.
  • Absolute timestamps (type TIME in the specification) are strings containing human-readable timestamps, given in ISO 8601 extended combined date/time format with timezone: yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss(.uuu)?[+-]zz(:mm)? (or timezone Z for UTC).
  • Relative times (type RELTIME in the specification) are strings containing human-readable time durations, given in a slight modification of the ISO 8601 extended time format: (-)?(h)*h:mm:ss(.uuu)?
  • Identifiers (type ID in the specification) are given as string consisting of characters [a-zA-Z0-9_.-] of length at most 36 and not starting with a - (dash) or . (dot) or ending with a . (dot). IDs are unique within each endpoint. IDs are assigned by the person or system that is the source of the object, and must be maintained by downstream systems. For example, the person configuring a contest on disk will typically define the ID for each team, and any CCS or CDS that exposes the team must use the same ID. Some IDs are also used as identifiable labels and are marked below along with the recommended format. These IDs should be meaningful for human communication (e.g. team "43", problem "A") and are as short as reasonable but not more than 10 characters. IDs not marked as labels may be random characters and cannot be assumed to be suitable for display purposes.
  • Geographic locations (type LOCATION in the specification) are represented as a JSON object with properties as defined below.
  • File references (type FILE in the specification) are represented as a JSON object with properties as defined below.
  • Arrays (type array of <type> in the specification) are built-in JSON arrays of some type defined above.
  • Nullable types (type <type> ? in the specification) are either a value of a type defined above, or null.

Properties for geographic location objects:

Name Type Description
latitude number Latitude in degrees with value between -90 and 90.
longitude number Longitude in degrees with value between -180 and 180.

Properties for file reference objects:

Name Type Description
href string ? URL where the resource can be found. Relative URLs are relative to the baseurl. Must point to a file of intended mime-type. Resource must be accessible using the exact same (possibly none) authentication as the call that returned this data.
filename string POSIX compliant filename. Filenames must be unique within the endpoint object where they are used. I.e. an organization can have (multiple) logo and country_flag file references, they must all have a different filename, but different organizations may have files with the same filename.
hash string ? MD5 hash of the file referenced.
mime string Mime type of resource.
width integer ? Width of the image. Required for files with mime type image/*.
height integer ? Height of the image. Required for files with mime type image/*.

The href property may be an absolute or relative URL; relative URLs must be interpreted relative to the baseurl of the API. For example, if baseurl is https://example.com/api, then the following are equivalent JSON response snippets pointing to the same location:

  "href":"https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/submissions/187/files"
  "href":"contests/wf14/submissions/187/files"

For images, the supported mime types are image/png, image/jpeg, and image/svg+xml.

For images in SVG format, i.e. those having a mime type of image/svg+xml, the values of width and height should be the viewport width and height in pixels when possible, but otherwise the actual values don't matter as long as they are positive and represent the correct aspect ratio.

If implementing support for uploading files pointed to by resource links, substitute the href property with a data property with a base64 encoded string of the associated file contents as the value.

For example

PUT https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/organizations/inst105

with JSON data

{ "id":"inst105",
  "name":"Carnegie Mellon University",
  ...
  "logo": [{"data": "<base64 string>", "width": 160, "height": 160}]
}

Capabilities

The API specifies several capabilities that define behaviors that clients can expect and actions they can perform. For instance, a team account will typically have access to a "team_submit" capability that allows a team to perform POST operations on the submissions endpoint, but doesn't allow it to set the submission id or timestamp; an administrator may have access to a "contest_start" capability that allows it to PATCH the start time of the contest. These coarse-grained capabilities allow more flexibility for contest administrators and tools to define capabilities that match the requirements of a specific contest, e.g. whether teams can submit clarifications or not.

All capabilities are listed in the table below, and are defined inline with each endpoint. Clients can use the Access endpoint to see which capabilities they have access to.

Capability Description
contest_start Control the contest's start time
contest_thaw Control the contest's thaw time
team_submit Submit as a team
team_clar Submit clarifications as a team
proxy_submit Submit as a shared team proxy
proxy_clar Submit clarifications as a shared team proxy
admin_submit Submit as an admin
admin_clar Submit clarifications as an admin

TODO - add capabilities related to team view and awards.

Notification format

There are two mechanisms that clients can use to receive notifications of API updates (events): a webhook and a streaming HTTP feed. Both mechanisms use the same payload format, but have different benefits, drawbacks, and ways to access. Webhooks are typically better for internet-scale, asynchronous processing, and disconnected systems; the HTTP feed, on the other hand, might be better for browser-based applications and onsite contests.

The notifications are effectively a changelog of create, update, or delete events that have occurred in the REST endpoints. Some endpoints (specifically the Scoreboard and the Event feed) are aggregated data, and so these will only ever update due to some other REST endpoint updating. For this reason there is no explicit event for these, since there will always be another event sent.

The events are served as JSON objects, with every event corresponding to a change in a single object (submission, judgement, language, team, etc.) or entire collection. The general format for events is:

{"type": "<type>", "id": "<id>", "data": <JSON data for object> }
Name Type Description
type string The type of contest object that changed. Can be used for filtering.
id ID ? The id of the object that changed, or null for the entire collection/singleton.
data array or object ? The updated value, i.e. what would be returned if calling the corresponding API endpoint at this time: an array, object, or null for deletions.
token string ? An optional token used to identify this notification. For one use see event feed Reconnection below.

All event types correspond to an API endpoint, as specified in the table below.

Type API Endpoint
contest /contests/<id>
judgement-types /contests/<id>/judgement-types/<id>
languages /contests/<id>/languages/<id>
problems /contests/<id>/problems/<id>
groups /contests/<id>/groups/<id>
organizations /contests/<id>/organizations/<id>
teams /contests/<id>/teams/<id>
persons /contests/<id>/persons/<id>
accounts /contests/<id>/accounts/<id>
state /contests/<id>/state
submissions /contests/<id>/submissions/<id>
judgements /contests/<id>/judgements/<id>
runs /contests/<id>/runs/<id>
clarifications /contests/<id>/clarifications/<id>
awards /contests/<id>/awards/<id>
commentary /contests/<id>/commentary/<id>

Each event is a notification that an object or a collection has changed (and hence the contents of the corresponding endpoint) to data.

If type is contest, then id must be null and the endpoint /contests/<id> will return the contents of data.

If id is not null, then the endpoint /contests/<contest_id>/<type>/<id> will return the contents of data.

If id is null, then the endpoint /contests/<contest_id>/<type> will return the contents of data.

Examples

Event:

{
   "type": "contest",
   "data": {
      "id": "dress2016",
      "name": "2016 ICPC World Finals Dress Rehearsal",
      "start_time": null,
      "countdown_pause_time": "0:03:38.749",
      "duration": "2:30:00"
  }
}

Means that endpoint /contests/dress2016 has been updated to:

{
   "id": "dress2016",
   "name": "2016 ICPC World Finals Dress Rehearsal",
   "start_time": null,
   "countdown_pause_time": "0:03:38.749",
   "duration": "2:30:00"
}

Event:

{
   "type": "problems",
   "data": [
      {"id":"asteroids","label":"A","name":"Asteroid Rangers","ordinal":1,"color":"blue","rgb":"#00f","time_limit":2,"test_data_count":10},
      {"id":"bottles","label":"B","name":"Curvy Little Bottles","ordinal":2,"color":"gray","rgb":"#808080","time_limit":3.5,"test_data_count":15}
   ]
}

Means that endpoint /contests/<contest_id>/problems has been updated to:

[
   {"id":"asteroids","label":"A","name":"Asteroid Rangers","ordinal":1,"color":"blue","rgb":"#00f","time_limit":2,"test_data_count":10},
   {"id":"bottles","label":"B","name":"Curvy Little Bottles","ordinal":2,"color":"gray","rgb":"#808080","time_limit":3.5,"test_data_count":15}
]

and the child endpoints /contests/<contest_id>/problems/asteroids and /contests/<contest_id>/problems/bottles are updated accordingly.

Event:

{
   "type": "submissions",
   "id": "187",
   "data": {
      "id": "187",
      "team_id": "123",
      "problem_id": "10-asteroids",
      "language_id": "1-java",
      "time": "2014-06-25T11:22:05.034+01",
      "contest_time": "1:22:05.034",
      "entry_point": "Main",
      "files": [{"href":"contests/wf14/submissions/187/files","filename":"files.zip","mime":"application/zip"}]   
   }
}

Means that endpoint /contests/<contest_id>/submissions/187 has been updated to:

{
   "id": "187",
   "team_id": "123",
   "problem_id": "10-asteroids",
   "language_id": "1-java",
   "time": "2014-06-25T11:22:05.034+01",
   "contest_time": "1:22:05.034",
   "entry_point": "Main",
   "files": [{"href":"contests/wf14/submissions/187/files","filename":"files.zip","mime":"application/zip"}]
}

Extensibility

This specification is meant to cover the basic data of contests, with the idea that server/client implementations can extend this with more endpoints, properties, and/or capabilities. The following requirements are meant to ease extensibility:

  • Clients should accept additional (unknown) event types in notifications.
  • Clients should accept additional (unknown) properties in endpoints.
  • Clients should accept additional (unknown) capabilities.
  • Servers should not expect clients to recognize more than the basic, required specification.
  • In this specification and extensions, a property with value null may be left out by the server (i.e. not be present). A client must treat a property with value null equivalently as that property not being present.

Interface specification

The following list of API endpoints may be supported, as detailed below. All endpoints should support GET; specific details on other methods are mentioned below.

Types of endpoints

The endpoints can be categorized into 4 groups as follows:

  • Metadata: api, access
  • Configuration: accounts, contests, judgement-types, languages, problems, groups, organizations, persons, teams;
  • Live data: state, submissions, judgements, runs, clarifications, awards, commentary;
  • Aggregate data: scoreboard, event-feed.

The metadata endpoints contain data about the API, and are the only required API endpoints. They are not included in the event feed. The access endpoint specifies which other endpoints are offered by the API. That is, any endpoints and their properties listed in access must be provided (possibly with a null value when the property is optional), and only these endpoints and properties.

Configuration is normally set before contest start. Is not expected to, but could occasionally be updated during a contest. It does not have associated timestamp/contest time property. Updates are notified via the event feed.

Live data is generated during the contest and new objects are expected. Data is immutable though: only inserts, no updates or deletes of objects. It does have associated timestamp/contest time property. Inserts and deletes are notified via the event feed. Note: judgements are the exception to immutability in a weak sense: they get updated once with the final verdict.

Aggregate data: Only GET makes sense. These are not included in the event feed, also note that these should not be considered proper REST endpoints, and that the event-feed endpoint is a streaming feed in NDJSON format.

Note that api, access, account, state, scoreboard, and event-feed are singular nouns and indeed contain only a single object.

Required and optional endpoints

The only required endpoints are metadata: api and access. The only requirements for properties are that collections must have an id property. Referential integrity must also be kept (for example, if a submission has a team_id, then teams must be supported).

All other endpoints and properties are optional. access exists so that you can discover which endpoints and properties are supported by a given provider.

In practice there are different types of providers that will offer similar sets of endpoints. Some examples:

  • A contest management system will support at least contests and teams, and may support other configuration endpoints.
  • A CCS will support at least submissions, judgements, and dependencies of these. It will likely support a scoreboard, and usually an event-feed.

Separate specifications (for example, the CCS System Requirements) will provide more information on which endpoints and properties can be expected, often in the form of a minimal access response.

Table column description

In the tables below, the columns are:

  • Name: Property name; object sub-properties are indicated as property.subproperty.
  • Type: Data type of the property; one of the types listed above.
  • Description: Description of the meaning of the property and any special considerations. Required means that the property must be present and must not be null. Default values specify how missing or null values should be interpreted.

Note that all results returned from endpoints:

  • Must only have null values if the type of the property is <type> ?.
  • Must contain all properties specified in the Access endpoint that have non-null values.
  • Should not contain any properties not specified in the Access endpoint.

Filtering

Endpoints that return a JSON array must allow filtering on any property with type ID (except the id property) by passing it as a query argument. For example, clarifications can be filtered on the recipient by passing to_team_id=X. To filter on a null value, pass an empty string, i.e. to_team_id=. It must be possible to filter on multiple different properties simultaneously, with the meaning that all conditions must be met (they are logically ANDed). Note that filtering on any other property, including property with the type array of ID, does not have to be supported.

API information

Provides information about the API and the data provider.

The following endpoint is associated with API information:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/ application/json JSON object representing information about the API with all properties defined in the table below.

Properties of version object:

Name Type Description
version string Version of the API. For this version must be the string 2023-06. Will be of the form <yyyy>-<mm>, <yyyy>-<mm>-draft, or simply draft.
version_url string Link to documentation for this version of the API.
provider provider object ? Information about the data provider

Properties of the provider object:

Name Type Description
name string Name of this data provider.
version string ? Provider's application version string
logo array of FILE ? Logo for this data provider, intended to be an image with aspect ratio near 1:1. Only allowed mime types are image/*. The different files in the array should be different file formats and/or sizes of the same image.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/

Returned data:

{
   "version": "2023-06",
   "version_url": "https://ccs-specs.icpc.io/2023-06/contest_api",
   "provider" : {
      "name": "DOMjudge",
      "version" : "8.3.0DEV/4ac31de71",
      "logo": [{
         "href": "/api/logo",
         "hash": "36dcf7975b179447783cdfc857ce9ae0",
         "filename": "logo.png",
         "mime": "image/png",
         "width": 600,
         "height": 600
      }]
   }
}

Access

Information on which endpoints and properties are visible to the current client, and what capabilities this client has access to or can perform.

The following endpoint is associated with access:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/access application/json JSON object representing the current client's access with all properties defined in the table below.

Properties of access objects:

Name Type Description
capabilities array of string An array of capabilities that the current client has. The array may be empty.
endpoints array of endpoint objects An array of endpoint objects that are visible to the current client, as described below. The array may be empty.

Properties of endpoint objects:

Name Type Description
type string The type of the endpoint, e.g. "problems". See table in Notification format for the list of types.
properties array of string An array of supported properties that the current client has visibility to. The array must not be empty. If the array would be empty, the endpoint object should instead not be included in the endpoints array.

This endpoint provides information about what is accessible to a specific client in a live contest, and hence will not exist in a contest package.

The set of properties listed must always support referential integrity, i.e. if a property with a ID value referring to some type of object is present the endpoint representing that type of object (and its ID property) must also be present. E.g. if group_ids is listed among the properties in the team endpoint object, that means that there must be an endpoint object with type groups containing at least ID in its properties.

This information is provided so that clients know what endpoints are available, what notifications may happen, and what capabilities they have, regardless of whether objects currently exist or the capability is currently active. For instance, a client logged in with a team account would see the problems type and team_submit capability before a contest starts, even through they cannot see any problems nor submit yet. Clients are not expected to call this endpoint more than once since the response should not normally change during a contest.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/access

Returned data:

{
   "capabilities": ["patch_time"],
   "endpoints": [
     { "type": "contests", "properties": ["id","name","formal_name",...]},
     { "type": "problems", "properties": ["id","label",...]},
     { "type": "submissions", "properties": ["id","language_id","reaction",...]}
     ...
   ]
}

or:

{
   "capabilities": ["team_submit"],
   "endpoints": [
     { "type": "contests", "properties": ["id","name","formal_name",...]},
     { "type": "problems", "properties": ["id","label",...]},
     { "type": "submissions", "properties": ["id","language_id",...]},
     ...
   ]
}

Contests

Provides information on the current contest.

The following endpoints are associated with contest:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests application/json JSON array of all contests with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single contest with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of contest objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the current contest.
name string Short display name of the contest.
formal_name string ? Full name of the contest. Defaults to value of name.
start_time TIME ? The scheduled start time of the contest, may be null if the start time is unknown or the countdown is paused.
countdown_pause_time RELTIME ? The amount of seconds left when countdown to contest start is paused. At no time may both start_time and countdown_pause_time be non-null.
duration RELTIME Length of the contest.
scoreboard_freeze_duration RELTIME ? How long the scoreboard is frozen before the end of the contest. Defaults to 0:00:00.
scoreboard_thaw_time TIME ? The scheduled thaw time of the contest, may be null if the thaw time is unknown or not set.
scoreboard_type string What type of scoreboard is used for the contest. Must be either pass-fail or score.
penalty_time integer Penalty time for a wrong submission, in minutes. Only relevant if scoreboard_type is pass-fail.
banner array of FILE ? Banner for this contest, intended to be an image with a large aspect ratio around 8:1. Only allowed mime types are image/*.
logo array of FILE ? Logo for this contest, intended to be an image with aspect ratio near 1:1. Only allowed mime types are image/*.
location LOCATION ? Location where the contest is held.

The expected/typical use of countdown_pause_time is that once a start_time is defined and close, the countdown may be paused due to unforeseen delays. In this case, start_time should be set to null and countdown_pause_time to the number of seconds left to count down. The countdown_pause_time may change to indicate approximate delay. Countdown is resumed by setting a new start_time and resetting countdown_pause_time to null.

Modifying contests

Clients with the contest_start capability have the ability to set or clear the contest start time via a PATCH method.

The PATCH must include a valid JSON object with two or three properties: the contest id (used for verification), a start_time (a <TIME> value or null), and an optional countdown_pause_time (<RELTIME>). As above, countdown_pause_time can only be non-null when start time is null.

The request should fail with a 403 error code if the contest is started or within 30s of starting, or if the new start time is in the past or within 30s.

Clients with the contest_thaw capability have the ability to set a time when the contest will be thawed via a PATCH method.

The PATCH must include a valid JSON object with two properties: the contest id (used for verification) and a scoreboard_thaw_time, a <TIME> value.

The request should succeed with a 204 response code with no body if the server changed the thaw time to the time specified.

The server may also thaw the contest at the current server time if the provided scoreboard_thaw_time is in the past. In that case the server must reply with a 200 response code and the modified contest as body, so the client knows the server used a different thaw time.

The request should fail with a 403 error code if the contest can't be thawed at the given time, for example because the thaw time is before the contest end, the contest is already thawed or the server does not support setting this specific thaw time.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf2014

Returned data:

{
   "id": "wf2014",
   "name": "2014 ICPC World Finals",
   "formal_name": "38th Annual World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest",
   "start_time": "2014-06-25T10:00:00+01",
   "duration": "5:00:00",
   "scoreboard_freeze_duration": "1:00:00",
   "scoreboard_type": "pass-fail",
   "penalty_time": 20,
   "banner": [{
       "href": "https://example.com/api/contests/wf2014/banner",
       "filename": "banner.png",
       "mime": "image/png",
       "width": 1920,
       "height": 240
   }]
}

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/dress2016

Returned data:

{
   "id": "dress2016",
   "name": "2016 ICPC World Finals Dress Rehearsal",
   "start_time": null,
   "countdown_pause_time": "0:03:38.749",
   "duration": "2:30:00",
   "scoreboard_type": "pass-fail",
   "penalty_time": 20
}

Request:

PATCH https://example.com/api/contests/wf2014

Request data:

{
   "id": "wf2014",
   "start_time": "2014-06-25T10:00:00+01"
}

Request:

PATCH https://example.com/api/contests/wf2016

Request data:

{
   "id": "wf2016",
   "start_time": null
}

Request:

PATCH https://example.com/api/contests/wf2014

Request data:

{
   "id": "wf2014",
   "scoreboard_thaw_time": "2014-06-25T19:30:00+01"
}

Judgement Types

Judgement types are the possible responses from the system when judging a submission.

The following endpoints are associated with judgement types:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/judgement-types application/json JSON array of all judgement types with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/judgement-types/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single judgement type with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of judgement type objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the judgement type, a 2-3 letter capitalized shorthand, see table below.
name string Name of the judgement. (might not match table below, e.g. if localized).
penalty boolean Whether this judgement causes penalty time. Required iff contest:penalty_time is present.
solved boolean Whether this judgement is considered correct.

Known judgement types

The list below contains standardized identifiers for known judgement types. These identifiers should be used by a server. Please create a pull request at https://github.com/icpc/ccs-specs when there are judgement types missing.

The column Big 5 lists the "big 5" equivalents, if any. A * in the column means that the judgement is one of the "big 5".

The Translation column lists other judgements the judgement can safely be translated to, if a system does not support it.

ID Name A.k.a. Big 5 Translation Description
AC Accepted Correct, Yes (YES) * - Solves the problem
RE Rejected Incorrect, No (NO) WA? - Does not solve the problem
WA Wrong Answer * RE Output is not correct
TLE Time Limit Exceeded * RE Too slow
RTE Run-Time Error * RE Crashes
CE Compile Error * RE Does not compile
APE Accepted - Presentation Error Presentation Error, also see AC, PE, and IOF AC AC Solves the problem, although formatting is wrong
OLE Output Limit Exceeded WA WA, RE Output is larger than allowed
PE Presentation Error Output Format Error (OFE), Incorrect Output Format (IOF) WA WA, RE Data in output is correct, but formatting is wrong
EO Excessive Output WA WA, RE A correct output is produced, but also additional output
IO Incomplete Output WA WA, RE Parts, but not all, of a correct output is produced
NO No Output WA IO, WA, RE There is no output
WTL Wallclock Time Limit Exceeded TLE TLE, RE CPU time limit is not exceeded, but wallclock is
ILE Idleness Limit Exceeded TLE WTL, TLE, RE No CPU time used for too long
TCO Time Limit Exceeded - Correct Output TLE TLE, RE Too slow but producing correct output
TWA Time Limit Exceeded - Wrong Answer TLE TLE, RE Too slow and also incorrect output
TPE Time Limit Exceeded - Presentation Error TLE TWA, TLE, RE Too slow and also presentation error
TEO Time Limit Exceeded - Excessive Output TLE TWA, TLE, RE Too slow and also excessive output
TIO Time Limit Exceeded - Incomplete Output TLE TWA, TLE, RE Too slow and also incomplete output
TNO Time Limit Exceeded - No Output TLE TIO, TWA, TLE, RE Too slow and also no output
MLE Memory Limit Exceeded RTE RTE, RE Uses too much memory
SV Security Violation Illegal Function (IF), Restricted Function RTE RTE, RE Uses some functionality that is not allowed by the system
IF Illegal Function Illegal Function (IF), Restricted Function RTE SV, RTE, RE Calls a function that is not allowed by the system
RCO Run-Time Error - Correct Output RTE RTE, RE Crashing but producing correct output
RWA Run-Time Error - Wrong Answer RTE RTE, RE Crashing and also incorrect output
RPE Run-Time Error - Presentation Error RTE RWA, RTE, RE Crashing and also presentation error
REO Run-Time Error - Excessive Output RTE RWA, RTE, RE Crashing and also excessive output
RIO Run-Time Error - Incomplete Output RTE RWA, RTE, RE Crashing and also incomplete output
RNO Run-Time Error - No Output RTE RIO, RWA, RTE, RE Crashing and also no output
CTL Compile Time Limit Exceeded CE CE, RE Compilation took too long
JE Judging Error - - Something went wrong with the system
SE Submission Error - - Something went wrong with the submission
CS Contact Staff Other - - Something went wrong

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/judgement-types

Returned data:

[{
   "id": "CE",
   "name": "Compiler Error",
   "penalty": false,
   "solved": false
}, {
   "id": "AC",
   "name": "Accepted",
   "penalty": false,
   "solved": true
}]

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/judgement-types/AC

Returned data:

{
   "id": "AC",
   "name": "Accepted",
   "penalty": false,
   "solved": true
}

Languages

Languages that are available for submission at the contest.

The following endpoints are associated with languages:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/languages application/json JSON array of all languages with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/languages/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single language with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of language objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the language from table below.
name string Name of the language (might not match table below, e.g. if localized).
entry_point_required boolean Whether the language requires an entry point.
entry_point_name string ? The name of the type of entry point, such as "Main class" or "Main file"). Required iff entry_point_required is true.
extensions array of string File extensions for the language.
compiler Command object Command used for compiling submissions.
runner Command object Command used for running submissions. Relevant e.g. for interpreted languages and languages running on a VM.

Properties of Command objects:

Name Type Description
command string Command to run.
args string ? Argument list for command. {files} denotes where to include the file list. Defaults to empty string.
version string ? Expected output from running the version command. Defaults to empty string.
version_command string ? Command to run to get the version. Defaults to <command> --version.

The compiler and runner objects are intended for informational purposes. It is not expected that systems will synchronize compiler and runner settings via this interface.

Known languages

Below is a list of standardized identifiers for known languages with their name, extensions and entry point name (if any). When providing one of these languages, the corresponding identifier should be used. The language name and entry point name may be adapted e.g. for localization or to indicate a particular version of the language. In case multiple versions of a language are provided, those must have separate, unique identifiers. It is recommended to choose new identifiers with a suffix appended to an existing one. For example cpp17 to specify the ISO 2017 version of C++.

ID Name Extensions Entry point name
ada Ada adb, ads
c C c
cpp C++ cc, cpp, cxx, c++, C
csharp C# cs
go Go go
haskell Haskell hs
java Java java Main class
javascript JavaScript js Main file
kotlin Kotlin kt Main class
objectivec Objective-C m
pascal Pascal pas
php PHP php Main file
prolog Prolog pl
python2 Python 2 py Main file
python3 Python 3 py Main file
ruby Ruby rb
rust Rust rs
scala Scala scala

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/languages

Returned data:

[{
   "id": "java",
   "name": "Java",
   "entry_point_required": true,
   "entry_point_name": "Main class",
   "extensions": ["java"],
   "compiler": {
      "command": "javac",
      "args": "-O {files}",
      "version": "javac 11.0.4",
      "version_command": "javac --version"
   },
   "runner": {
      "command": "java",
      "version": "openjdk version \"11.0.4\" 2019-07-16"
   }
}, {
   "id": "cpp",
   "name": "GNU C++",
   "compiler": {
      "command": "gcc",
      "args": "-O2 -Wall -static {files}",
      "version": "gcc (Ubuntu 8.3.0-6ubuntu1) 8.3.0"
   },
   "entry_point_required": false,
   "extensions": ["cc", "cpp", "cxx", "c++", "C"]
}, {
   "id": "python3",
   "name": "Python 3",
   "entry_point_required": true,
   "entry_point_name": "Main file",
   "extensions": ["py"]
}]

Problems

The problems to be solved in the contest.

The following endpoints are associated with problems:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/problems application/json JSON array of all problems with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/problems/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single problem with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of problem objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the problem, at the WFs the directory name of the problem package.
uuid string ? UUID of the problem, as defined in the problem package.
label string Label of the problem on the scoreboard, typically a single capitalized letter.
name string Name of the problem.
ordinal integer A unique number that determines the order the problems, e.g. on the scoreboard.
rgb string ? Hexadecimal RGB value of problem color as specified in HTML hexadecimal colors, e.g. #AC00FF or #fff.
color string ? Human readable color description associated to the RGB value.
time_limit number Time limit in seconds per test data set (i.e. per single run). Should be a non-negative integer multiple of 0.001. The reason for this is to not have rounding ambiguities while still using the natural unit of seconds.
test_data_count integer Number of test data sets.
max_score number Maximum expected score, although teams may score higher in some cases. Typically used to indicate scoreboard cell color in scoring contests. Required iff contest:scoreboard_type is score.
package array of FILE ? Problem package. Expected mime type is application/zip. Only exactly one package is allowed. Not expected to actually contain href for package during the contest, but used for configuration and archiving.
statement array of FILE ? Problem statement. Expected mime type is application/pdf.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/problems

Returned data:

[{"id":"asteroids","label":"A","name":"Asteroid Rangers","ordinal":1,"color":"blue","rgb":"#00f","time_limit":2,"test_data_count":10},
 {"id":"bottles","label":"B","name":"Curvy Little Bottles","ordinal":2,"color":"gray","rgb":"#808080","time_limit":3.5,"test_data_count":15}
]

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/problems/asteroids

Returned data:

{"id":"asteroids","label":"A","name":"Asteroid Rangers","ordinal":1,"color":"blue","rgb":"#00f","time_limit":2,"test_data_count":10}

Groups

Grouping of teams. At the World Finals these are the super regions; at other contests these may be the different sites, divisions, or types of contestants.

Teams may belong to multiple groups. For instance, there may be a group for each site, a group for university teams, a group for corporate teams, and a group for ICPC-eligible teams. Teams could belong to two or three of these. When there are different kinds of groups for different purposes (e.g. sites vs divisions), each group or set of groups should have a different type property (e.g. "type":"site" and "type":"division").

Groups must exist for any combination of teams that must be ranked on a group scoreboard, which means groups may be created for combinations of other groups. For instance, if there is a requirement to show a scoreboard for teams in each of D divisions at every one of S sites, then in addition to the D + S groups there will also be DxS combined/product groups. It is recommended that these groups have a type like "type":"<group1>-<group2>", e.g. "type":"site-division".

The following endpoints are associated with groups:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/groups application/json JSON array of all groups with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/groups/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single group with properties as specified by /access.

Note that these endpoints must be provided if groups are used. If they are not provided no other endpoint may refer to groups (i.e. return any group_ids).

Properties of group objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the group.
icpc_id string ? External identifier from ICPC CMS.
name string Name of the group.
type string ? Type of the group.
location LOCATION ? A center location of this group.

Known group types

The list below contains standardized identifiers for known group types. These identifiers should be used when the purpose of a group matches.

Type Description
site A physical location where teams are competing, e.g. the "Hawaii site". Teams generally should not be in more than one group of this type.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/groups

Returned data:

[
  {"id":"asia-74324325532","icpc_id":"7593","name":"Asia"}
]

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/groups

Returned data:

[
  {"id":"42425","name":"Division 2","type":"division"}
]

Organizations

Teams can be associated with organizations which will have some associated information, e.g. a logo. Typically organizations will be universities.

The following endpoints are associated with organizations:

Endpoint Type Description
/contests/<id>/organizations application/json JSON array of all organizations with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/organizations/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single organization with properties as specified by /access.

Note that the first two endpoints must be provided if organizations are used. If they are not provided no other endpoint may refer to organizations (i.e. return any organization_ids).

Properties of organization objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the organization.
icpc_id string ? External identifier from ICPC CMS.
name string Short display name of the organization.
formal_name string ? Full organization name if too long for normal display purposes.
country string ? ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the organization's country.
country_flag array of FILE ? Flag of the country. A server is recommended to provide flags of size around 56x56 and 160x160. Only allowed mime types are image/*.
url string ? URL to organization's website.
twitter_hashtag string ? Organization Twitter hashtag.
twitter_account string ? Organization Twitter account.
location LOCATION ? Location where this organization is based.
logo array of FILE ? Logo of the organization. A server must provide logos of size 56x56 and 160x160 but may provide other sizes as well. Only allowed mime types are image/*.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/<id>/organizations

Returned data:

[{"id":"inst123","icpc_id":"433","name":"Shanghai Jiao Tong U.","formal_name":"Shanghai Jiao Tong University"},
 {"id":"inst105","name":"Carnegie Mellon University","country":"USA",
  "logo":[{"href":"http://example.com/api/contests/wf14/organizations/inst105/logo/56px","filename":"56px.png","mime":"image/png","width":56,"height":56},
          {"href":"http://example.com/api/contests/wf14/organizations/inst105/logo/160px","filename":"160px.png","mime":"image/png","width":160,"height":160}]
 }
]

Teams

Teams competing in the contest.

The following endpoints are associated with teams:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/teams application/json JSON array of all teams with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/teams/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single team with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of team objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the team. Usable as a label, at WFs normally the team seat number.
icpc_id string ? External identifier from ICPC CMS.
name string Name of the team.
label string Label of the team, at WFs normally the team seat number.
display_name string ? Display name of the team. If not set, a client should revert to using the name instead.
organization_id ID ? Identifier of the organization (e.g. university or other entity) that this team is affiliated to.
group_ids array of ID ? Identifiers of the group(s) this team is part of (at ICPC WFs these are the super-regions). No meaning must be implied or inferred from the order of IDs. The array may be empty. Required iff groups endpoint is available.
hidden boolean ? If the team is to be excluded from the scoreboard. Defaults to false.
location team location object ? Position of team on the contest floor. See below for the specification of this object.
photo array of FILE ? Registration photo of the team. Only allowed mime types are image/*.
video array of FILE ? Registration video of the team. Only allowed mime types are video/*.
backup array of FILE ? Latest file backup of the team machine. Only allowed mime type is application/zip.
key_log array of FILE ? Latest key log file from the team machine. Only allowed mime type is text/plain.
tool_data array of FILE ? Latest tool data usage file from the team machine. Only allowed mime type is text/plain.
desktop array of FILE ? Streaming video of the team desktop. Only allowed mime types are video/*.
webcam array of FILE ? Streaming video of the team webcam. Only allowed mime types are video/*.
audio array of FILE ? Streaming team audio.

Properties of team location objects:

Name Type Description
x number Team's x position in meters.
y number Team's y position in meters.
rotation number Team's rotation in degrees.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/teams

Returned data:

[{"id":"team11","icpc_id":"201433","label":"11","name":"Shanghai Tigers","organization_id":"inst123","group_ids":["asia-74324325532"]},
 {"id":"team123","label":"123","name":"CMU1","organization_id":"inst105","group_ids":["8","11"]}
]

Persons

Persons involved in the contest.

The following endpoints are associated with persons:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/persons application/json JSON array of all persons with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/persons/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single person with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of person objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the person.
icpc_id string ? External identifier from ICPC CMS.
team_ids array of ID ? Team of this person. Required to be non-empty iff role is contestant or coach.
name string Name of the person.
title string ? Title of the person, e.g. "Technical director".
email string ? Email of the person.
sex string ? Either male or female, or possibly null.
role string One of contestant, coach, staff, or other.
photo array of FILE ? Registration photo of the person. Only allowed mime types are image/*.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/persons

Returned data:

[{"id":"john-smith","team_ids":["43"],"icpc_id":"32442","name":"John Smith","email":"john.smith@kmail.com","sex":"male","role":"contestant"},
 {"id":"osten-umlautsen","team_ids":["43","44"],"icpc_id":null,"name":"Östen Ümlautsen","sex":null,"role":"coach"},
 {"id":"bill","name":"Bill Farrell","sex":"male","title":"Executive Director","role":"staff"}
]

Accounts

The accounts used for accessing the contest, as well as information about the account currently accessing the API.

The following endpoints are associated with accounts:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/accounts application/json JSON array of all accounts with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/accounts/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single account with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/account application/json JSON object representing a single account of the client making the request, with properties as specified by /access for /accounts.

Properties of account objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the account.
username string The account username.
password string ? The account password.
name string ? The name of the account.
type string The type of account, e.g. team, judge, admin, analyst, staff.
ip string ? IP address associated with this account, used for auto-login.
team_id ID ? The team that this account is for. Required iff type is team.
person_id ID ? The person that this account is for, if the account is only for one person.

Accounts exist in the API primarily for configuration from a contest package, or an administrator comparing one CCS to another. It is expected that non-admin clients never see passwords, and typically do not see accounts other than their own.

The account endpoint exists so that the clients can tell which account (and hence which person or team) they are logged in as. It is not expected to exist in a contest package, and will fail with a 404 error code if the client is not authenticated.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/accounts

Returned data:

[{"id":"stephan","username":"stephan","name":"Stephan's home account","type":"judge","ip":"10.0.0.1"},
 {"id":"team45","username":"team45","type":"team","ip":"10.1.1.45","team_id":"45"}
]

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/accounts/nicky

Returned data:

{"id":"nicky","username":"nicky","type":"admin"}

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/account

Returned data:

{"id":"nicky","username":"nicky","type":"admin"}

Contest state

Current state of the contest, specifying whether it's running, the scoreboard is frozen or results are final.

The following endpoints are associated with state:

Endpoint Type Description
/contests/<id>/state application/json JSON object representing the current contest state with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of state objects:

Name Type Description
started TIME ? Time when the contest actually started, or null if the contest has not started yet. When set, this time must be equal to the contest start_time.
frozen TIME ? Time when the scoreboard was frozen, or null if the scoreboard has not been frozen. Required iff scoreboard_freeze_duration is present in the contest endpoint.
ended TIME ? Time when the contest ended, or null if the contest has not ended. Must not be set if started is null.
thawed TIME ? Time when the scoreboard was thawed (that is, unfrozen again), or null if the scoreboard has not been thawed. Required iff scoreboard_freeze_duration is present in the contest endpoint. Must not be set if frozen is null.
finalized TIME ? Time when the results were finalized, or null if results have not been finalized. Must not be set if ended is null.
end_of_updates TIME ? Time after last update to the contest occurred, or null if more updates are still to come. Setting this to non-null must be the very last change in the contest.

These state changes must occur in the order listed in the table above, as far as they do occur, except that thawed and finalized may occur in any order. For example, the contest may never be frozen and hence not thawed either, or, it may be finalized before it is thawed. That, is the following sequence of inequalities must hold:

started < frozen < ended < thawed    < end_of_updates,
                   ended < finalized < end_of_updates.

A contest that has ended, has been thawed (or was never frozen) and is finalized must not change. Thus, end_of_updates can be set once both finalized is set and thawed is set if the contest was frozen.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/state

Returned data:

{
  "started": "2014-06-25T10:00:00+01",
  "ended": null,
  "frozen": "2014-06-25T14:00:00+01",
  "thawed": null,
  "finalized": null,
  "end_of_updates": null
}

Submissions

Submissions, a.k.a. attempts to solve problems in the contest.

The following endpoints are associated with submissions:

Endpoint Type Description
/contests/<id>/submissions application/json JSON array of all submissions with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/submissions/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single submission with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of submission objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the submission. Usable as a label, typically a low incrementing number.
language_id ID Identifier of the language submitted for.
problem_id ID Identifier of the problem submitted for.
team_id ID Identifier of the team that made the submission.
time TIME Timestamp of when the submission was made.
contest_time RELTIME Contest relative time when the submission was made.
entry_point string ? Code entry point for specific languages.
files array of FILE Submission files, contained at the root of the archive. Only allowed mime type is application/zip. Only exactly one archive is allowed.
reaction array of FILE ? Reaction video from team's webcam. Only allowed mime types are video/*.

The entry_point property must be included for submissions in languages which do not have a single, unambiguous entry point to run the code. In general the entry point is the string that needs to be specified to point to the code to be executed. Specifically, for Python it is the file name that should be run, and for Java and Kotlin it is the fully qualified class name (that is, with any package name included, e.g. com.example.myclass for a class in the package com.example in Java). For C and C++ no entry point is required and it must therefore be null.

The files property provides the file(s) of a given submission as a zip archive. These must be stored directly from the root of the zip file, i.e. there must not be extra directories (or files) added unless these are explicitly part of the submission content.

Modifying submissions

To add a submission, clients can use the POST method on the submissions endpoint or the PUT method directly on an object url. One of the following capabilities is required to add submissions, with descriptions below:

Name Description
team_submit POST a submission as a team
proxy_submit POST a submission as a proxy (able to submit on behalf of team(s))
admin_submit POST or PUT a submission as an admin

All requests must include a valid JSON object with the same properties as the submissions endpoint returns from a GET request with the following exceptions:

  • The property team_id, time, and contest_time are optional depending on the use case (see below). The server may require properties to either be absent or present, and should respond with a 4xx error code in such cases.
  • Since files only supports application/zip, providing the mime property is optional.
  • reaction may be provided but a CCS does not have to honour it.
  • The team_submit capability only has access to POST. time must not be provided and will always be set to the current time as determined by the server. team_id may be provided but then must match the ID of the team associated with the request.
  • The proxy_submit capability only has access to POST. time must not be provided and will always be set to the current time as determined by the server. team_id must be provided.
  • For more advanced scenarios the admin_submit capability may use a POST (must not include an id) or PUT (client is required to include a unique id). In both cases time is required. For example in a setup with a central CCS with satellite sites where teams submit to a proxy CCS that forwards to the central CCS, this might be useful to make sure that the proxy CCS can accept submissions even when the connection to the central CCS is down. The proxy can then forward these submissions later, when the connection is restored again.

The request must fail with a 4xx error code if any of the following happens:

  • A required property is missing.
  • A property that must not be provided is provided.
  • The supplied problem, team or language can not be found.
  • An entrypoint is required for the given language, but not supplied.
  • The mime property in files is set but invalid.
  • Something is wrong with the submission file. For example it contains too many files, it is too big, etc.
  • The provided id already exists or is otherwise not acceptable.

The response will contain a Location header pointing to the newly created submission and the response body will contain the initial state of the submission.

Performing a POST or PUT is not supported when these capabilities are not available.

Use cases for POSTing and PUTting submissions

The POST and PUT submissions endpoint can be used for a variety of reasons, and depending on the use case, the server might require different properties to be present. A number of common scenarios are described here for informational purposes only.

Team client submitting to CCS

The most obvious and probably most common case is where a team directly submits to the CCS, e.g. with a command-line submit client.

In this case the client has the team_submit capability and a specific team_id already associated with it. POST must be used and the properties id, team_id, time, and contest_time should not be specified; the server will determine these properties and should reject submissions specifying them, or may ignore a team_id that is identical to the one that the client has authenticated as.

A proxy server forwarding to a CCS

A proxy server may receive submissions from team clients (like above) and forward these to a CCS. This might be useful, for example, in a multi-site contest setup, where each site runs a proxy that would still be reachable if connectivity with the central CCS is lost, or where the proxy forwards the submission to multiple CCS's that run in parallel (like the shadowing setup at the ICPC World Finals).

In such a scenario, the proxy server would timestamp the submissions and authenticate the submitting team, and then forward the submission to the upstream CCS using the proxy_submit capability. The proxy would provide team_id and time properties and the CCS should then accept and use these.

To allow the proxy to return a submission id during connectivity loss, the admin_submit capability would be required and each site could be assigned a unique prefix such that the proxy server itself can generate unique ids and then submit a PUT to the central CCS with the id property included. The central CCS should then accept and use that id property.

Further potential extensions

To allow for any further use cases, the specification is deliberately flexible in how the server can handle optional properties.

  • The contest_time property should normally not be specified when time is already specified as it can be calculated from time and the wallclock time is unambiguously defined without reference to contest start time. However, in a case where one would want to support a multi-site contest where the sites run out of sync, the use of contest_time might be considered.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/submissions

Returned data:

[{"id":"187","team_id":"123","problem_id":"10-asteroids",
  "language_id":"1-java","time":"2014-06-25T11:22:05.034+01","contest_time":"1:22:05.034","entry_point":"Main",
  "files":[{"href":"contests/wf14/submissions/187/files","filename":"files.zip","mime":"application/zip"}]}
]

Note that the relative link for files points to the location https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/submissions/187/files since the base URL for the API is https://example.com/api.

Request:

POST https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/submissions

Request data:

{
   "language_id":"1-java",
   "problem_id":"10-asteroids",
   "team_id":"123",
   "time":"2014-06-25T11:22:05.034+01",
   "entry_point":"Main",
   "files":[{"data": "<base64 string>"}]
}

Returned data:

{
   "id":"187",
   "language_id":"1-java",
   "problem_id":"10-asteroids",
   "team_id":"123",
   "time":"2014-06-25T11:22:05.034+01",
   "contest_time":"1:22:05.034",
   "entry_point":"Main",
   "files":[{"href":"contests/wf14/submissions/187/files","filename":"files.zip","mime":"application/zip"}]
}

Judgements

Judgements for submissions in the contest.

The following endpoints are associated with judgements:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/judgements application/json JSON array of all judgements with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/judgements/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single judgement with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of judgement objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the judgement.
submission_id ID Identifier of the submission judged.
judgement_type_id ID ? The verdict of this judgement. Required iff judgement has completed.
score number Score for this judgement. Required iff contest:scoreboard_type is score.
start_time TIME Absolute time when judgement started.
start_contest_time RELTIME Contest relative time when judgement started.
end_time TIME ? Absolute time when judgement completed. Required iff judgement_type_id is present.
end_contest_time RELTIME ? Contest relative time when judgement completed. Required iff judgement_type_id is present.
max_run_time number ? Maximum run time in seconds for any test case. Should be a non-negative integer multiple of 0.001. The reason for this is to not have rounding ambiguities while still using the natural unit of seconds.

When a judgement is started, each of judgement_type_id, end_time and end_contest_time will be null (or missing). These are set when the judgement is completed.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/judgements

Returned data:

[{"id":"189549","submission_id":"wf2017-32163123xz3132yy","judgement_type_id":"CE","start_time":"2014-06-25T11:22:48.427+01",
  "start_contest_time":"1:22:48.427","end_time":"2014-06-25T11:23:32.481+01","end_contest_time":"1:23:32.481"},
 {"id":"189550","submission_id":"wf2017-32163123xz3133ub","judgement_type_id":null,"start_time":"2014-06-25T11:24:03.921+01",
  "start_contest_time":"1:24:03.921","end_time":null,"end_contest_time":null}
]

Runs

Runs are judgements of individual test cases of a submission.

The following endpoints are associated with runs:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/runs application/json JSON array of all runs with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/runs/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single run with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of run objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the run.
judgement_id ID Identifier of the judgement this is part of.
ordinal number Ordering of runs in the judgement. Must be different for every run in a judgement. Runs for the same test case must have the same ordinal. Must be between 1 and problem:test_data_count.
judgement_type_id ID The verdict of this run (i.e. a judgement type).
time TIME Absolute time when run completed.
contest_time RELTIME Contest relative time when run completed.
run_time number Run time in seconds. Should be a non-negative integer multiple of 0.001. The reason for this is to not have rounding ambiguities while still using the natural unit of seconds.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/runs

Returned data:

[{"id":"1312","judgement_id":"189549","ordinal":28,"judgement_type_id":"TLE",
  "time":"2014-06-25T11:22:42.420+01","contest_time":"1:22:42.420","run_time":0.123}
]

Clarifications

Clarification message sent between teams and judges, a.k.a. clarification requests (questions from teams) and clarifications (answers from judges).

The following endpoints are associated with clarification messages:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/clarifications application/json JSON array of all clarifications with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/clarifications/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single clarification with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of clarification message objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the clarification.
from_team_id ID ? Identifier of team sending this clarification request, null iff a clarification sent by jury.
to_team_id ID ? Identifier of the team receiving this reply, null iff a reply to all teams or a request sent by a team.
reply_to_id ID ? Identifier of clarification this is in response to, otherwise null.
problem_id ID ? Identifier of associated problem, null iff not associated to a problem.
text string Question or reply text.
time TIME Time of the question/reply.
contest_time RELTIME Contest time of the question/reply.

Note that at least one of from_team_id and to_team_id has to be null. That is, teams cannot send messages to other teams.

Modifying clarifications

To add a clarification, clients can use the POST method on the clarifications endpoint or the PUT method directly on an object url. One of the following capabilities is required to add clarifications, with descriptions below:

Name Description
team_clar POST a clarification as a team
proxy_clar POST a clarification as a proxy (able to submit on behalf of team(s))
admin_clar POST or PUT a clarification as an admin

All requests must include a valid JSON object with the same properties as the clarifications endpoint returns from a GET request with the following exceptions:

  • When a property value would be null it is optional - you do not need to include it. e.g. if a clarification is not related to a problem you can choose to include or exclude the problem_id.
  • The team_clar capability only has access to POST. id, to_team_id, time, and contest_time must not be provided. from_team_id may be provided but then must match the ID of the team associated with the request. The server will determine an id and the current time and contest_time.
  • The proxy_clar capability only has access to POST. id, to_team_id, time, and contest_time must not be provided. from_team_id must be provided. The server will determine an id and the current time and contest_time.
  • The admin_clar capability may use a POST (must not include an id) or PUT (client is required to include a unique id). In both cases time is required.

The request must fail with a 4xx error code if any of the following happens:

  • A required property is missing.
  • A property that must not be provided is provided.
  • The supplied problem, from_team, to_team, or reply_to cannot be found or are not visible to the client that's submitting.
  • The provided id already exists or is otherwise not acceptable.

The response will contain a Location header pointing to the newly created clarification and the response body will contain the initial state of the clarification.

Performing a POST or PUT is not supported when these capabilities are not available.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/clarifications

Returned data:

[{"id":"wf2017-1","from_team_id":null,"to_team_id":null,"reply_to_id":null,"problem_id":null,
  "text":"Do not touch anything before the contest starts!","time":"2014-06-25T11:59:27.543+01","contest_time":"-0:15:32.457"}
]

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/clarifications

Returned data:

[{"id":"1","from_team_id":"34","to_team_id":null,"reply_to_id":null,"problem_id":null,
  "text":"May I ask a question?","time":"2017-06-25T11:59:27.543+01","contest_time":"1:59:27.543"},
 {"id":"2","from_team_id":null,"to_team_id":"34","reply_to_id":"1","problem_id":null,
  "text":"Yes you may!","time":"2017-06-25T11:59:47.543+01","contest_time":"1:59:47.543"}
]

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/clarifications

Returned data:

[{"id":"1","from_team_id":"34","text":"May I ask a question?","time":"2017-06-25T11:59:27.543+01","contest_time":"1:59:27.543"},
 {"id":"2","to_team_id":"34","reply_to_id":"1","text":"Yes you may!","time":"2017-06-25T11:59:47.543+01","contest_time":"1:59:47.543"}
]

Request:

POST https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/clarifications

Request data:

{
   "problem_id":"10-asteroids",
   "from_team_id":"34",
   "text":"Can I assume the asteroids are round?"
}

Returned data:

{
   "id":"clar-43",
   "problem_id":"10-asteroids",
   "from_team_id":"34",
   "text":"Can I assume the asteroids are round?",
   "time":"2017-06-25T11:59:47.543+01",
   "contest_time":"1:59:47.543"
}

Awards

Awards such as medals, first to solve, etc.

The following endpoints are associated with awards:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/awards application/json JSON array of all awards with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/awards/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single award with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of award objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the award.
citation string Award citation, e.g. "Gold medal winner".
team_ids array of ID ? JSON array of team ids receiving this award. No meaning must be implied or inferred from the order of IDs. If the value is null this means that the award is not currently being updated. If the value is the empty array this means that the award is being updated, but no team has been awarded the award at this time.

Semantics

  • Awards are not final until the contest is.
  • An award may be created at any time, although it is recommended that a system creates the awards it intends to award before the contest starts.
  • If an award has a non-null team_ids, then it must be kept up to date during the contest. E.g. if "winner" will not be updated with the current leader during the contest, it must be null until the award is updated.
  • If an award is present during the contest this means that if the contest would end immediately and then become final, that award would be final. E.g. the "winner" during the contest should be the current leader. This is of course subject to what data the client can see; the public client's winner may not change during the scoreboard freeze but an admin could see the true current winner.

Known awards

For some common award cases the following IDs should be used.

ID Meaning during contest Meaning when contest is final Comment
winner Current leader(s). Empty if no team has scored. Winner(s) of the contest.
gold-medal Teams currently placed to receive a gold medal. Empty if no team has scored. Teams being awarded gold medals.
silver-medal Teams currently placed to receive a silver medal. Empty if no team has scored. Teams being awarded silver medals.
bronze-medal Teams currently placed to receive a bronze medal, assuming no extra bronze are awarded. Empty if no team has scored. Teams being awarded bronze medals.
rank-<rank> Teams currently placed to receive rank <rank>. Empty if no team has scored. Teams being awarded rank <rank>. Only useful in contests where the final ranking awarded is different from the default ranking of the scoreboard. E.g. at the WF teams not getting medals are only ranked based on number of problems solved, and not total penalty time accrued nor time of last score improvement, and teams solving strictly fewer problems than the median team are not ranked at all.
honorable-mention Teams currently placed to receive an honorable mention. Teams being awarded an honorable mention.
first-to-solve-<id> The team(s), if any, that was first to solve problem <id>. This implies that no unjudged submission made earlier remains. Same. Must never change once set, except if there are rejudgements.
group-winner-<id> Current leader(s) in group <id>. Empty if no team has scored. Winner(s) of group <id>.
organization-winner-<id> Current leader(s) of organization <id>. Empty if no team has scored. Winner(s) of organization <id>. Not useful in contest with only one team per organization (e.g. the WF).

POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE awards

Clients with the admin role may make changes to awards using the normal HTTP methods as specified above. Specifically, they can POST new awards, create or replace one with a known id via PUT, PATCH one or more properties, or DELETE an existing award.

The server may be configured to manage (assign or update) some award ids, and may block clients from modifying them. However, if a client is able to modify an award it must assume that it is responsible for managing that award id unless and until it sees an indication that something else is now managing that award - either a change that it did not request, or a future modification fails.

For example, the server may be configured to assign the winner award and not allow any client to modify it. The same server may assign *-medal awards by default, but allow clients to modify them. Once a client modifies any of the *-medal awards, it is responsible for updating it if anything changes. Likewise, the client could add any arbitrary awards like first-submission-for-country-* and would be responsible for managing these.

The server should create all the awards it is configured to manage before the start of the contest, so that clients can know which awards are already handled.

The request must fail with a 4xx error code if any of the following happens:

  • A POST that includes an id.
  • A PATCH, or DELETE on an award that doesn't exist.
  • A POST or PUT that is missing one of the required properties (citation and team_ids).
  • A PATCH that contains an invalid property (e.g. null citation or team_ids).
  • A PUT or PATCH that includes an award id that doesn't match the id in the url.
  • A POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE on an award id that the server is configured to manage exclusively.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/awards

Returned data:

[{"id":"gold-medal","citation":"Gold medal winner","team_ids":["54","23","1","45"]},
 {"id":"first-to-solve-a","citation":"First to solve problem A","team_ids":["45"]},
 {"id":"first-to-solve-b","citation":"First to solve problem B","team_ids":[]}
]

Request:

POST https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/awards

Request data:

{"citation":"Best team costumes","team_ids":["42"]}

Response data:

{"id":"best-costume","citation":"Best team costumes","team_ids":["42"]}

Request:

PUT https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/awards/best-costume

Request data:

{"id":"best-costume","citation":"Best team costumes","team_ids":["24"]}

Request:

PATCH https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/awards/best-costume

Request data:

{"citation":"Best team cosplay"}

Request:

DELETE https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/awards/best-costume

Commentary

Commentary on events happening in the contest

The following endpoints are associated with commentary:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/commentary application/json JSON array of all commentary with properties as specified by /access.
/contests/<id>/commentary/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single commentary with properties as specified by /access.

Properties of commentary objects:

Name Type Description
id ID Identifier of the commentary.
time TIME Time of the commentary message.
contest_time RELTIME Contest time of the commentary message.
message string Commentary message text. May contain special tags referring to endpoint objects using the format {<endpoint>:<object ID>}. This is most commonly used for references to teams and problems as {teams:<team ID>} and {problems:<problem ID>} respectively.
tags array of string JSON array of tags describing the message.
source_id ID ? Source person of the commentary message.
team_ids array of ID ? JSON array of team IDs the message is related to.
problem_ids array of ID ? JSON array of problem IDs the message is related to.
submission_ids array of ID ? JSON array of submission IDs the message is related to.

For the message, if a literal { is needed, \{ must be used. Similarly for a literal \, \\ must be used.

Known tags

Below is a list of known tags. If any of the tags below are used, they must have the corresponding meaning. If the any of the meanings below are needed, the corresponding tag should be used. There is no requirement that any of the tags below are used.

Tag Meaing
submission A submission was made.
submission-medal A submission was made that if accepted would change the set of teams awarded a medal.
submission-gold-medal A submission was made that if accepted would change the set of teams awarded a gold medal.
submission-silver-medal A submission was made that if accepted would change the set of teams awarded a silver medal.
submission-bronze-medal A submission was made that if accepted would change the set of teams awarded a bronze medal.
submission-winner A submission was made that if accepted would change the set of teams currently in the lead.
submission-<award> A submission was made that if accepted would change the set of teams awarded <award>. Note that the above 4 are special cases of this.
rejected A submission was rejected.
accepted A submission was accepted.
accepted-medal A submission was accepted that changed the set of teams awarded a medal.
accepted-gold-medal A submission was accepted that changed the set of teams awarded a gold medal.
accepted-silver-medal A submission was accepted that changed the set of teams awarded a silver medal.
accepted-bronze-medal A submission was accepted that changed the set of teams awarded a bronze medal.
accepted-winner A submission was accepted that changed the set of teams currently in the lead.
accepted-<award> A submission was accepted that changed the set of teams awarded <award>. Note that the above 4 are special cases of this.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/commentary

Returned data:

[{"id":"143730", "time":"2021-03-06T19:02:02.328+00", "contest_time":"0:02:02.328", "message": "{t:314089} made a submission for {p:anttyping}. If correct, they will solve the first problem and take the lead", "team_ids": ["314089"], "problem_ids": ["anttyping"]}, 
 {"id": "143736", "time": "2021-03-06T19:02:10.858+00", "contest_time": "0:02:10.858", "message": "{t:314089} fails its first attempt on {p:anttyping} due to WA", "team_ids": ["314089"], "problem_ids": ["anttyping"]}, 
 {"id": "143764", "time": "2021-03-06T19:03:07.517+00", "contest_time": "0:03:07.517", "message": "{t:314115} made a submission for {p:march6}. If correct, they will solve the first problem and take the lead", "team_ids": ["314115"], "problem_ids": ["march6"]}
]

Scoreboard

Scoreboard of the contest.

Since this is generated data, only the GET method is allowed here, irrespective of role.

The following endpoint is associated with the scoreboard:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/scoreboard application/json JSON object with scoreboard data as defined in the table below.

Scoreboard request options

The following options can be passed to the scoreboard endpoint.

Group scoreboard

By passing group_id with a valid group ID a scoreboard can be requested for the teams in a particular group:

/scoreboard?group_id=site1

Each group scoreboard is ranked independently and contains only the teams that belong to the specified group. If a client wants to know ‘local' vs ‘global' rank it can query both the group and primary scoreboards.

A 4xx error code will be returned if the group id is not valid. Groups that are not included in the groups endpoint for the role making the request are not valid.

Scoreboard format

Properties of the scoreboard object.

Name Type Description
time TIME Time contained in the event after which this scoreboard was generated. Implementation defined if the event has no associated time.
contest_time RELTIME Contest time contained in the associated event. Implementation defined if the event has no associated contest time.
state object Identical data as returned by the contest state endpoint. This is provided here for ease of use and to guarantee the data is synchronized.
rows array of scoreboard row objects A list of rows of team with their associated scores.

The scoreboard rows array is sorted according to rank and alphabetical on team name within identically ranked teams. Here alphabetical ordering means according to the Unicode Collation Algorithm, by default using the en-US locale.

Properties of scoreboard row objects:

Name Type Description
rank integer Rank of this team, 1-based and duplicate in case of ties.
team_id ID Identifier of the team.
score object JSON object as specified in the rows below (for possible extension to other scoring methods).
score.num_solved integer Number of problems solved by the team. Required iff contest:scoreboard_type is pass-fail.
score.total_time integer Total penalty time accrued by the team. Required iff contest:scoreboard_type is pass-fail.
score.score number Total score of problems by the team. Required iff contest:scoreboard_type is score.
score.time integer Time of last score improvement used for tiebreaking purposes.
problems array of problem data objects ? JSON array of problems with scoring data, see below for the specification of each object.

Properties of problem data objects:

Name Type Description
problem_id ID Identifier of the problem.
num_judged integer Number of judged submissions (up to and including the first correct one),
num_pending integer Number of pending submissions (either queued or due to freeze).
solved boolean Required iff contest:scoreboard_type is pass-fail.
score number Required iff contest:scoreboard_type is score.
time integer Minutes into the contest when this problem was solved by the team. Required iff solved=true or score>0.

Examples

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/contests/wf14/scoreboard

Returned data:

{
  "time": "2014-06-25T14:13:07.832+01",
  "contest_time": "4:13:07.832",
  "state": {
    "started": "2014-06-25T10:00:00+01",
    "ended": null,
    "frozen": "2014-06-25T14:00:00+01",
    "thawed": null,
    "finalized": null,
    "end_of_updates": null
  },
  "rows": [
    {"rank":1,"team_id":"123","score":{"num_solved":3,"total_time":340},"problems":[
      {"problem_id":"1","num_judged":3,"num_pending":1,"solved":false},
      {"problem_id":"2","num_judged":1,"num_pending":0,"solved":true,"time":20},
      {"problem_id":"3","num_judged":2,"num_pending":0,"solved":true,"time":55},
      {"problem_id":"4","num_judged":0,"num_pending":0,"solved":false},
      {"problem_id":"5","num_judged":3,"num_pending":0,"solved":true,"time":205}
    ]}
  ]
}

Event feed

Change notifications (events) of the data presented by the API.

The following endpoint is associated with the event feed:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/contests/<id>/event-feed application/x-ndjson NDJSON feed of events as defined in notification format.

The event feed is a streaming HTTP endpoint that allows connected clients to receive change notifications. The feed is a complete log of contest objects that starts "at the beginning of time" so all existing objects will be sent upon initial connection, but may appear in any order (e.g. teams or problems first).

Each line is an NDJSON formatted notification. The feed does not terminate under normal circumstances, so to ensure keep alive a newline must be sent if there has been no event within 120 seconds.

Since this is generated data, only the GET method is allowed for this endpoint, irrespective of role.

General requirements

Every notification provides the current state of a single contest object. There is no guarantee on order of events (except for general requirements below), whether two consecutive changes cause one or two events, duplicate events, or even that different clients will receive the same order or set of events. The only guarantees are:

  • when an object changes one or more times a notification will be sent,
  • the latest notification sent for any object is the correct and current state of that object. E.g. if an object was created and deleted the delete notification will be sent last.
  • when a notification is sent the change it describes must already have happened. I.e. if a client receives an update for a certain endpoint a GET from that endpoint will return that state or possible some later state, but never an earlier state.
  • the notification for the state endpoint setting end_of_updates must be the last event in the feed.
Reconnection

If a client loses connection or needs to reconnect after a brief disconnect (e.g. client restart), it can use the since_token parameter to specify the last notification token it received:

/event-feed?since_token=xx

If specified, the server will attempt to start sending events since the given token to reduce the volume of events and required reconciliation. If the token is invalid, the time passed is too large (a server that supports since_token should support an expiry time of at least 15 minutes), or the server does not support this parameter, the request will fail with a 400 error.

The client is guaranteed to either get a 400 error or receive at least all changes since the token (but it could also get (a lot) more, e.g. if the server is multithreaded and needs to resend some events to ensure they were received).

Server support for reconnecting

Some servers may not support any form of reconnection and may not include any notification tokens, or will always return 400 when the since_token parameter is used.

Other servers may support reconnecting, but only at certain checkpoints or time periods. These providers might use timestamps or counters as tokens, or only output them in certain events.

Other servers may include tokens in every notification and support reconnecting at any point.

Examples

The following are examples of contest events:

{"type":"problems","id":null,"data":[
   {"id":"asteroids","label":"A","name":"Asteroid Rangers","ordinal":1,"color":"blue","rgb":"#00f","time_limit":2,"test_data_count":10},
   {"id":"bottles","label":"B","name":"Curvy Little Bottles","ordinal":2,"color":"gray","rgb":"#808080","time_limit":3.5,"test_data_count":15}]}
{"type":"state","id":null,"data":{
   "started": "2014-06-25T10:00:00+01",
   "ended": null,
   "frozen": "2014-06-25T14:00:00+01",
   "thawed": null,
   "finalized": null,
   "end_of_updates": null}}
{"type":"teams","id":"11","data":{"id":"11","icpc_id":"201433","name":"Shanghai Tigers","organization_id":"inst123","group_id":"asia"}}
{"type":"teams","id":"11","data":{"id":"11","icpc_id":"201433","name":"The Shanghai Tigers","organization_id":"inst123","group_id":"asia"}}
{"type":"teams","id":"11","data":null}

Webhooks

Webhooks receiving change notifications (events) of the data presented by the API.

The following endpoints are associated with webhooks:

Endpoint Mime-type Description
/webhooks application/json JSON array of all webhook callbacks with properties as defined in the table below. Also used to register new webhooks.
/webhooks/<id> application/json JSON object representing a single webhook callback with properties as defined in the table below.

Properties of webhook callback objects:

Name Type Description
id ID identifier of the webhook.
url string The URL to post HTTP callbacks to.
endpoints array of string Names of endpoints to receive callbacks for. Empty array means all endpoints.
contest_ids array of ID ID's of contests to receive callbacks for. Empty array means all configured contests.

A webhook allows you to receive HTTP callbacks whenever there is a change to the contest. Clients are only notified of changes after signing up; they are expected to use other mechanisms if they need to determine the current state of the contest. Every callback will contain one JSON object containing the id of the contest that changed and any number of notifications objects as follows:

{"contest_id": "<id>", "notifications":[ <JSON notification format>, <JSON notification format> ] }

Responding to each callback with a 2xx response code indicates successful receipt and ensures that the events in the payload are never sent again. If the client responds with anything other than 2xx, the server will continue to periodically try again, potentially with different payloads (e.g. as new events accumulate). Callbacks to each client are always sent synchronously and in order; clients do not need to worry about getting callbacks out of order and should always process each callback fully before processing the next one.

If the client fails to respond to multiple requests over a period of time (configured for each contest), it will be assumed deactivated and automatically removed from future callbacks.

Adding a webhook

To register a webhook, you need to post your server's callback URL. To do so, perform a POST request with a JSON body with the properties (except id) from the above table to the /webhooks endpoint together with one additional property, called token. In this property put a client-generated token that can be used to verify that callbacks come from the CCS. If you don't supply contest_ids and/or endpoints, they will default to [].

Examples

Request:

POST https://example.com/api/webhooks

Payload:

{"url": "https://myurl", "token": "mysecrettoken" }

Request:

GET https://example.com/api/webhooks

Returned data:

[{
    "id":"icpc-live",
    "url":"https://myurl",
    "endpoints": [],
    "contest_ids": [],
    "active": true
},{
    "id":"shadow",
    "url":"https://myotherurl",
    "endpoints": ["teams", "problems"],
    "contest_ids": ["wf2014"],
    "active": false
}]

When a system wants to send out a callback, it will check all active webhooks, filter them on applicable endpoint and contest ID and perform a POST to the URL. The system will add a header to this request called Webhook-Token which contains the token as supplied when creating the webhook. Clients should verify that this token matches with what they expect.

Client callback:

{"contest_id":"finals","notifications":[
  {"type":"teams","id":"11","data":{"id":"11","icpc_id":"201433","name":"Shanghai Tigers","organization_id":"inst123","group_id":"asia"}},
  {"type":"submissions","id":"187","data":{
      "id": "187",
      "team_id": "123",
      "problem_id": "10-asteroids",
      "language_id": "1-java",
      "time": "2014-06-25T11:22:05.034+01",
      "contest_time": "1:22:05.034",
      "entry_point": "Main",
      "files": [{"href":"contests/wf14/submissions/187/files","mime":"application/zip"}]}},
   {"type":"state","data":{
      "started": "2014-06-25T10:00:00+01",
      "ended": null,
      "frozen": "2014-06-25T14:00:00+01",
      "thawed": null,
      "finalized": null,
      "end_of_updates": null}}
]}