👥 Team setup
- 3-Score Team: team score is the sum of the top 3 individual scores.
- 3-Score limit: up to 6 participants per team.
- 5-Score Team: team score is the sum of the top 5 individual scores.
- 5-Score limit: up to 10 participants per team.
International Computing
2026 Season
ACSL: American Computer Science League.
The American Computer Science League (ACSL) competition is one of the most important and long-running computer science competitions in the world, active since 1978. ACSL is an institutional member of the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and is generously supported by Google and HackerRank.
4
Season rounds
5
Divisions
72h
Programming window
1978
Founded
✦ Overview
How the ACSL Competition Works
Complete explanations and key details for both the regular season and finals.
🚀 Divisions and structure
- Each team must register in a division based on age and experience level.
- The season has 4 online contests completed individually.
- Depending on division, students complete short problems and a programming challenge in HackerRank.
- All dates follow the official ACSL calendar converted to Brazil Time (BRT).
⚠️ Important: the competition is entirely in English with no official translation during tests.
✦ Divisions
ACSL Participation Tracks
Each division has a specific format and challenge level aligned with students' academic stage.
✏️ Elementary Division
Who it is for: students in grades 3 to 6.
💻 Junior Division
Who it is for: students in grades 7 to 9 who already code or are learning to code.
- Format: 30-minute theory test (6 questions) + 1 programming problem solved online within up to 72 hours.
- Round 1: Number Systems, Recursive Functions, What Does This Program Do? (Branching).
- Short Problems | Programming Problem
- Round 2: Prefix/Infix/Postfix, Bit-String Manipulation, LISP.
- Short Problems | Programming Problem
- Round 3: Boolean Algebra, Finite Automata and Regular Expressions, Data Structures.
- Short Problems | Programming Problem
- Round 4: Graph Theory, Digital Electronics, Assembly Language.
- Short Problems | Programming Problem
📈 Intermediate Division
Who it is for: high school students with limited coding experience or advanced middle school students.
- Format: 30-minute theory test (6 questions) + 1 programming problem solved online within up to 72 hours.
- Short-problem topics are the same as in the Senior Division.
- Intermediate Sample: Short Problems | Programming Problem
🥇 Senior Division
Who it is for: high school students with programming experience (especially AP Computer Science students).
- Format: 30-minute theory test (6 questions) + 1 programming problem solved online within up to 72 hours.
- Same topic families as Intermediate, but with harder problems.
- Round 1: Number Systems, Recursive Functions, What Does This Program Do?
- Round 2: Prefix/Infix/Postfix, Bit-String Manipulation, LISP.
- Round 3: Boolean Algebra, Data Structures, Finite Automata and Regular Expressions.
- Round 4: Graph Theory, Digital Electronics, Assembly Language.
- Senior Sample: Short Problems | Programming Problem
📘 Note on AP (Advanced Placement)
- A common program in the US and Canada offering college-level courses to high school students.
- Advanced level: deeper and more challenging than regular school classes.
- Final exam: at the end of the course, students may take a standardized exam.
- College credits: high AP scores may grant introductory course credit in college.
📌 Technical summary for programming divisions
- Junior, Intermediate and Senior include theory + programming.
- Programming problems are completed online in HackerRank.
- Typical programming window: up to 72 hours after release.
- Each Intermediate/Senior contest has 6 short problems (2 per topic group).
✦ Academic Integrity
Conduct and Honesty Rules
ACSL requires fair individual performance throughout every stage.
✅ Allowed (and Not Allowed) Materials
- Allowed: paper, pencil and pen.
- Not allowed: calculators.
- During tests: no internet search and no external help from any person.
🤝 Collaboration: Before, During and After
- During tests: collaboration is prohibited. All solutions must be individual.
- After tests: team review is encouraged to learn from mistakes and compare approaches.
- Post-test collaboration helps students build stronger problem-solving strategies.
✍️ HackerRank Honesty Statement
"I will not consult/copy code from any source, including websites, books, or friends/colleagues, to complete these tests. However, I may consult official programming language documentation or use an IDE with autocomplete features."
⚠️ Plagiarism Consequences
- HackerRank uses sophisticated plagiarism-detection algorithms for submitted code.
- First violation: score 0 (zero) on the flagged problem.
- Second violation: immediate disqualification from finals participation.
✦ Deadlines and Season
ACSL 2026 timeline (BRT)
Enrollment deadline, season dates and national awards criteria.
Jan 10, 2026
2:00 PM BRT
Feb 14, 2026
2:00 PM BRT
Mar 7, 2026
2:00 PM BRT
Apr 11, 2026
2:00 PM BRT
🗓️ Deadlines and notes
- Brazil enrollment deadline: December 5, 2025.
- These dates may change, but participants will be informed in advance.
- Students actively enrolled in Clube Amplexo receive discounts.
🏅 National Awards (Brazil) - Individual
- Individual placement is based on overall ranking percentile.
- Gold: from 95% to 100% percentile range.
- Silver: from 85% to 95% percentile range.
- Bronze: from 70% to 80% percentile range.
- Honorable Mention: from 50% to 70% percentile range.
🥇 Team Awards (Brazil)
- Gold: 1st team in the Brazilian ranking.
- Silver: 2nd team.
- Bronze: 3rd team.
- Certificates are free, but medals (gold/silver/bronze/honorable mention) are purchased by families.
🎟️ Finals invites and registration
- Invite thresholds: 28 points (Junior/Intermediate/Senior), 24 points (Classroom), 14 points (Elementary).
- Invites: emails are sent starting May 1 until the end of Contest #4.
- Finals fee: US$ 35 per invited student.
- The invite email includes payment link and, after payment, access to HackerRank tests and discussion-room form.
✦ Global Finals
ACSL Finals - Saturday, May 23, 2026 (Global Finals)
The final stage includes livestream, programming test, short-problem test and official winner announcements.
📺 Livestream schedule
- Senior, Intermediate and Junior: starts at 10:00 EDT (11:00 BRT).
- Elementary and Classroom: join at 14:00 EDT (15:00 BRT).
- Livestream link: coming soon.
📜 General format and rules
- Platform: fully online in HackerRank.
- Final awards: individual only (no team awards in finals).
- Individual fair-play competition: improper collaboration may lead to disqualification.
🗓️ Finals day schedule (EDT x BRT)
Note: BRT = EDT + 1 hour.
- 11:00 BRT (10:00 EDT): livestream begins for Senior, Intermediate and Junior.
- 11:15 BRT: programming test access opens in HackerRank.
- By 11:30 BRT (10:30 EDT): students must start the programming test.
- Programming format: 2 problems, 20 total points, 3-hour duration from start time.
- 12:00-13:00 BRT (11:00-12:00 EDT): coaches meeting (Zoom).
- 15:00 BRT (14:00 EDT): livestream continues for all divisions.
- 15:15 BRT: short-problem test access opens in HackerRank.
- By 15:30 BRT (14:30 EDT): students must start the short-problem test.
- Short-problem format: 20 questions covering all categories from the season, 1-hour duration.
- 16:45 BRT (15:45 EDT): discussion rooms (Zoom) moderated by former participants.
- 18:00 BRT (17:00 EDT): final results and winners announced live.
🏆 Who receives awards
- Regular season (4 rounds): top students and teams by division, US state and country receive certificates.
- Finals: top individual scores by division receive prize and certificate.
- Delivery: certificates go to coaches for distribution; physical prizes are mailed directly to winners.