📋 Official Rules

Rules &
Guidelines

These rules govern all aspects of AlgoNation 2026. All participants are expected to read, understand, and abide by these guidelines. Registering constitutes full acceptance.

🎓 Eligibility✍️ Registration💻 Round 1🤝 Round 2🚀 Round 3🏆 Round 4🤝 Code of Conduct💡 Intellectual Property📄 Terms & Conditions🔒 Privacy Policy💳 Refund Policy
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Read Before Registering

By completing your registration and paying the ₹99 entry fee, you confirm that you have read and agree to all rules on this page. Ignorance of the rules is not a valid ground for appeal or refund. The organising committee's decision on any rule interpretation is final and binding.

🎓
Section 01

Eligibility

  1. 1Open to all undergraduate (B.Tech, B.E., BCA, B.Sc CS/IT) and postgraduate (M.Tech, MCA, M.Sc CS) students currently enrolled at any AICTE/UGC-recognised Indian college or university.
  2. 2Participants must be Indian citizens or hold a valid Indian student visa.
  3. 3Students in their final year who have completed their last exam but are awaiting results are eligible to participate.
  4. 4Gap year students and working professionals are not eligible.
  5. 5Each participant may register only once. Duplicate registrations will result in automatic disqualification.
  6. 6Participants must be at least 18 years of age on the date of Round 1 (August 16, 2026).
✍️
Section 02

Registration

  1. 1Registration is individual. You register yourself — teams are formed during Round 2.
  2. 2The registration fee of ₹99 is non-refundable under any circumstances, including withdrawal, disqualification, or inability to attend.
  3. 3Participants must provide accurate and verifiable information including their college name, student ID number, and contact details.
  4. 4False information provided during registration is grounds for immediate disqualification.
  5. 5Registrations close on July 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, or earlier if the 500-seat cap is reached.
  6. 6A seat confirmation email will be sent within 48 hours of successful payment.
💻
Section 03

Round 1 — Online Coding Challenge

  1. 1Round 1 is an individual event. Collaboration with any other person during the contest window is strictly prohibited.
  2. 2Participants must use the designated AlgoNation contest platform. Submissions on any other platform will not be accepted.
  3. 3Use of AI code generation tools (GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, etc.) is prohibited. Use of standard reference documentation (MDN, cppreference, etc.) is permitted.
  4. 4Any attempt to share problems, answers, or hints during the active contest window constitutes cheating and will result in permanent disqualification.
  5. 5Connectivity issues are the participant's responsibility. No extensions will be granted for technical issues on the participant's end.
  6. 6Plagiarism detection is applied to all submissions. Matching code between participants will result in disqualification of all parties involved.
🤝
Section 04

Round 2 — Team Formation

  1. 1Only participants who qualify from Round 1 are eligible to participate in Round 2.
  2. 2Teams consist of exactly 3–4 members. No exceptions will be made for teams outside this range.
  3. 3Team matching is facilitated by AlgoNation organisers through a structured process. Participants may express preferences but final team assignment is at the discretion of the organisers.
  4. 4Once teams are confirmed at the end of Round 2, team composition is final and cannot be changed.
  5. 5Participants who fail to attend Round 2 without prior written notice forfeit their place and are not eligible for subsequent rounds.
🚀
Section 05

Round 3 — Project Development

  1. 1Rounds 3 is an in-person event. Failure to attend in person constitutes withdrawal from the competition.
  2. 2The problem statement is revealed at 9:00 AM on the day. No prior knowledge of the specific problem will be shared.
  3. 3Teams must work exclusively on the problem statement provided. Pre-built projects, libraries, or boilerplate unrelated to the problem are not permitted.
  4. 4Open-source libraries, public APIs, and standard frameworks are permitted. Teams must declare all external dependencies in their submission.
  5. 5AI tools (including generative AI) may be used as development aids in Round 3 only, but the core architectural decisions and implementations must be original.
  6. 6All work must be submitted through the designated submission portal before the 5:00 PM deadline. Late submissions will not be accepted.
  7. 7The project must be the original work of the team created entirely during Round 3. Any pre-existing code discovered will lead to disqualification.
🏆
Section 06

Round 4 — Grand Finale

  1. 1Grand Finale is an in-person event. All qualifying team members must be present.
  2. 2Each team is allocated a 10-minute presentation slot followed by a 5-minute Q&A with the judge panel.
  3. 3Presentations must demonstrate the working product from Round 3. Purely slide-based presentations without a live demo will be penalised.
  4. 4Judge scores are final and no appeals will be entertained post-announcement.
  5. 5Cash prizes will be transferred via bank transfer to the team representative within 14 business days of the finale.
  6. 6All finalists consent to AlgoNation sharing their name, college, project title, and scores with hiring partner companies.
🤝
Section 07

Code of Conduct

  1. 1All participants are expected to treat fellow competitors, mentors, judges, and organisers with respect at all times.
  2. 2Harassment, discrimination, bullying, or any behaviour that creates a hostile environment will result in immediate disqualification and removal from the event.
  3. 3Any attempt to bribe, collude with, or improperly influence a judge or organiser will result in permanent disqualification and may be reported to the participant's institution.
  4. 4Participants must not tamper with, attempt to access, or interfere with other teams' systems, submissions, or contest infrastructure.
  5. 5Violation of any rule constitutes grounds for disqualification. The AlgoNation organising committee's decision is final in all rule interpretation matters.
  6. 6AlgoNation reserves the right to disqualify any participant at any stage for conduct deemed detrimental to the integrity of the competition.
💡
Section 08

Intellectual Property

  1. 1Participants retain full intellectual property rights over all projects built during AlgoNation.
  2. 2By participating, you grant AlgoNation a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to feature your project name, description, and demo in event marketing materials.
  3. 3AlgoNation does not claim ownership over any code, product, or concept developed by participants.
  4. 4Participants are responsible for ensuring their submission does not infringe on third-party intellectual property rights.
📄
Section 09

Terms & Conditions

  1. 1By registering for AlgoNation 2026, you agree to be bound by these Terms & Conditions in addition to all other rules on this page.
  2. 2AlgoNation is organised independently and is not affiliated with any college, university, or government body unless explicitly stated as a partner.
  3. 3AlgoNation reserves the right to modify the competition format, schedule, prizes, or these terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated to registered participants by email.
  4. 4Use of the AlgoNation website and contest platform is subject to fair use. Any attempt to disrupt, exploit, or gain unauthorised access to our systems will result in disqualification and may be reported to relevant authorities.
  5. 5All content submitted during the competition (code, presentations, project materials) remains subject to the Intellectual Property terms outlined above.
  6. 6These terms are governed by the laws of India. Any disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts where AlgoNation is registered.
🔒
Section 10

Privacy Policy

  1. 1We collect the information you provide during registration — name, email, phone number, college, city, and academic details — to administer the competition and communicate with you.
  2. 2Your data is used to process registration, verify eligibility, share results, issue certificates, and — for finalists who consent — share your profile with hiring partners as described in these rules.
  3. 3We do not sell your personal data to third parties. Data is shared only with hiring partners (for consenting finalists) and service providers who help us run the event, such as payment processing and email delivery.
  4. 4Payment information is processed securely by Razorpay. AlgoNation does not store your card, UPI, or bank details on its own servers.
  5. 5You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data by writing to contact@algonation.org, subject to our obligation to retain records required for the competition.
  6. 6We use cookies and standard analytics tools to understand site usage and improve the AlgoNation experience. No sensitive personal data is collected through these tools.
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Section 11

Refund Policy

  1. 1The ₹99 registration fee is non-refundable once payment is successfully completed, except in the case of event cancellation by AlgoNation.
  2. 2If AlgoNation cancels the event in its entirety, all registered participants will receive a full refund to the original payment method within 14 business days.
  3. 3Refunds are not provided for participant withdrawal, disqualification, failure to attend any round, or inability to attend in-person rounds due to travel, health, or personal reasons.
  4. 4In case of a duplicate or failed payment where money was debited but registration was not confirmed, contact contact@algonation.org with your payment reference for resolution within 7 business days.
  5. 5All payments are processed via Razorpay. Any payment gateway-level issues (failed transactions, delayed confirmations) are subject to Razorpay's own dispute resolution timelines.
  6. 6For any refund-related query, reach out to contact@algonation.org with your registered email and payment reference number.

Judging Framework

How Projects Are Scored

Applied during Rounds 3 & 4 by the judge panel

Technical Complexity
30%
Innovation & Originality
20%
Scalability & Architecture
20%
UI/UX & Product Polish
15%
Teamwork & Process
10%
Final Presentation
5%

Questions about the rules?

If anything is unclear, check our FAQ or reach out before registering.

Read the FAQContact Us