Join a team. Improve your skills. Compete against teams from LASA, CTX, Texas, USA, or world.
2024-25 CS Calendar | ||
Sept 6-8 | CTF | CSAW CTF occurs over two rounds: a Qualifying Round in September and a Final Round November. |
Oct 1 -31 | CodeBot Haunted Code competition | |
Oct 25 | Friday | Cyberpatriot Round 1 |
Nov 15 | Friday | Cyberpatriot Round 2 |
Nov 16-22 | CTF | HICTF |
Dec 9-15 | Hour of Code Interested in having UTCS host an Hour of Code at Your School |
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Dec 1-25 | Advent of Code | |
Dec 13 | Friday | Cyberpatriot State Round |
Jan 11 | Sat UIL | Indeed UIL (hosted by LASA @ Indeed) |
Jan 24 | Friday | Cyberpatriot Semifinals |
Jan 23 | Thurs | NACLO @ LASA 8:30am-noon (hosted by LASA) |
Jan ?? | Sat UIL | Round Rock UIL |
Feb ?? | Sat UIL | Westwood UIL |
Sat Mar 2 | Sat UIL | Liberty Hill UIL |
Mar 13 | Thurs | NACLO Invitational Round |
Mar ??-?? | CTF | picoCTF |
Mar ?? | Cyberpatriot National Finals | |
Apr 5? | Sat UIL | official UIL District Meet (team of 4 students) @ Eastside HS 11:30am Written 1:30 Hands-on |
Apr 25? | Fri UIL | official UIL Regional Meet (team of 4 students) |
May ?? | CTF | TJCTF |
May ?? | UIL | official UIL State Meet (team of 4 students) |
A+ CS list of upcoming contests A+ Contest Order Form
UIL Academics Computer Science competition
LASA{CS} competes in UIL 5A Academics Computer Science. In the 2024-25 UIL academic alignment LASA competes in District 24 of Region 3. District winners advance to the Regional contest and Regional winners (and the highest scoring 2nd place team) advance to the UIL state competition (past LASA results, current results) . Each contest consists of a 45-minute individual written test and a 2-hour team programming competition. The official UIL competitions are limited to a single 3 or 4 student team per school. See the UIL Resources section below for more information. TILF scholarship (for UIL state participants).
UIL Practice competitions
There are many local practice UIL competitions open to anyone that signs up (though space may be limited) with many teams and schools from the Central Texas area competing.
Capture the Flag (CTF)
CTF competitions are a lot of fun and pit teams of 3-5 students against student teams from across the US and the world. Competitions generally focus on the following skills: reverse engineering, cryptography, ACM style programming, web vulnerabilities, binary exercises, networking, and forensics – CTF 101. Getting started gives you some ideas on what to expect. Python Challenge is a CTF like challenge that you can try anytime. Many students compete in teams throughout the year. Students generally form their own teams and register themselves on the CTF’s website.
See US High School Cybersecurity Competitions (LASA is listed on pg 14 as a top performing high school).
NACLO
The North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad is a contest in the last week of January in which high-school students solve linguistic puzzles. In solving these puzzles, students learn about the diversity and consistency of language, while exercising logic skills. No prior knowledge of linguistics or second languages is necessary. example 1 example 2 NACLO@LASA
UIL Resources
- UIL Contests – Things to Know non-JAVA Questions Java Questions
- UIL Computer Science Archive (available in a folder in Room 506 and Room 505)
- Download a Computer Science Sample Written Test
- Download sample Programming materials (from spring 2010 contests)
- Access sample Programming materials from 2013 contests
- A great resource is Mike Scott’s UIL page at www.cs.utexas.edu/~
scottm/uil/index.htm
Other Resources
- Competitive Programming 4: Book 1 & Book 2 are available in Room 506.
- See lasacs.com/online for various online resources & competitions
UIL Rules – handbook
- 4 students per team
- 4 students can take written test (top 3 scores count), but only 3 students can compete in the hands-on programming part of the contest
- Each team member takes a 45 minute written test which has 40 questions
- Sample test
- 6 points for correct answer, -2 points for incorrect answer
- Programming questions are written using the JAVA programming language
- Some questions are about JAVA syntax and JAVA language features
- Many questions are expressed in JAVA but are about more general/broader programming concepts ( e.g. algorithm, abstraction, computation)
- Some questions do not involve JAVA (e.g. number conversion)
- 2016-17 Topic list
- The 2 hour programming session consists of 12 problems of varying degrees of difficulty.
- Sample test
- Each problem is worth 60 points
- An incorrect solution results in a deduction of 5 points. A team that gets a problem right on the second try would receive 55 points (60 minus one five-point deduction). Point deductions for incorrect solutions will only be counted in the team score IF the team ultimately gets that problem correct.
- In an official UIL contests the program solutions must be submitted in JAVA. Some of the practice competitions allow other languages to be used.
- Java Platform Standard Edition Version 8 will be used in 2016-2017
- Each team of 3 programmers will also need a computer to work on.
- A team may use ONLY ONE computer during the contest – this means one system, one monitor and one keyboard/mouse. Teams using a laptop computer may use an external display and keyboard/mouse, but these may only be used INSTEAD OF, not in addition to, the laptop’s built-in devices. A team may also bring a backup computer to use in case of equipment failure. Only compiler and necessary system software should be installed on the team’s computer. A compiler’s built-in libraries and help functions may be used during the contest, but previously written programs MAY NOT be used and must be removed from the computer prior to competition.
- No internet access during the contest.
- Each team may bring two program language reference books or textbooks. Books must be published works that are widely available. Books must also be reasonably free of handwritten notes. Several reference books are available in Room 222.
- Printers are allowed but not necessary.
- UIL Computer Science web page
- UIL Contests – Things to Know for more information
Previous years
2023-24 | ||
Jun 3 – 8 | HSCTF 10 | |
Sept 15-17 | CSAW CTF occurs over two rounds: a Qualifying Round in September and a Final Round November. 8-11. | |
Oct 1 -31 | CodeBot Haunted Code competition | |
Oct 20 | Friday | Cyberpatriot Round 1 |
Nov 3 | Friday | Cyberpatriot Round 2 |
Dec 1-25 | Advent of Code | |
Dec 8 | Friday | Cyberpatriot State Round |
Jan 19 | Friday | Cyberpatriot Semifinals |
Thur Jan 25 | Thurs | NACLO @ LASA 8:30am-noon (hosted by LASA) |
Sat Jan 27 | UIL | Round Rock UIL |
Sat Feb 24 | UIL | Westwood UIL |
Sat Mar 2 | UIL | Indeed UIL |
Sat Mar 2 | UIL | Liberty Hill UIL |
Mar 14 | NACLO Invitational Round | |
Mar 12-26 | 2024 picoCTF | |
Mar 15-19 | Cyberpatriot National Finals | |
Sat Apr 6 | UIL | official UIL District Meet (team of 4 students) @ Eastside HS 11:30am Written 1:30 Hands-on |
Fri Apr 26 | UIL |
official UIL Regional Meet (team of 4 students) @ Fulshear HS (setup 4pm, Written 5pm, Programming 6pm)Sat Apr 27 Prom |
Tue May 14 Wed May 15 |
UIL |
official UIL State Meet (team of 4 students) written Tue 1pm WEL 1.316 hands-on Wed WEL 2.306 11am |