Rules

Eligibility and registration

The competition is only open to persons who are in full-time education (including home schoolers) in the United Kingdom up to and including Year 13 (in England and Wales), S6 (Scotland), and Year 14 (Northern Ireland).
Entrants must be part of a team. Each team will contain no more than 4 people.
Entrants may be part of only one team.
Members of the competition organisers' families are not eligible to take part in the competition.
Each team and each person within each team (`team members') must register on the website. Each team must choose a name. Offensive or inappropriate team names will not be allowed and we reserve the right to disqualify any team which seeks to use a name that we deem to be offensive and/or inappropriate.
Each team must give their school's or college's address and provide the contact details of a teacher. Entrants who are home-schooled should provide the name and contact details of a parent or carer.
The name of each team and their school or college will be published on the website. The nicknames of team members who post on the competition forum will be visible on the website. Team members' real names will not be published on the website.
We may contact teams, team members, nominated teachers (or parents/carers for home-schoolers) by email. Each team and each team member will be asked to provide a valid email address at registration.

The competition

The competition comprises of eight mathematical puzzles organised into four puzzle sets. Each puzzle set comprises two puzzles. The puzzle sets are released simultaneously on the following dates.

Puzzle sets	Date released
Puzzles 1 & 2	Wednesday 29th January at 4:00 pm
Puzzles 3 & 4	Wednesday 12th February at 4:00 pm
Puzzles 5 & 6	Wednesday 26th February at 4:00 pm
Puzzles 7 & 8	Wednesday 11th March at 4:00 pm
Solutions	Wednesday 25th March at 4:00 pm

Each puzzle set is normally released at 4pm on the day of release. This is done using the clock of the server on which the site is hosted, so there may be a slight difference with your clock. We reserve the right to release the puzzles at a later time and/or day in case of an unforeseen event or technical problems.
Each puzzle set of the competition contains two mathematical puzzles to be solved. Teams will be asked to submit their answer to each puzzle on the competition website.
For each puzzle for which a team submits an entry, the entry will be deemed to be correct if it agrees with our solution.
An entry will only be deemed valid if it is submitted via the website and it is recorded by our server.
A team has three attempts to submit the correct solution for each puzzle. If three incorrect entries have been submitted then no further entries can be submitted for that puzzle and no points can be scored.
In submitting an entry to the website, team members acknowledge that their solution is solely the collective work of the team. Any collaboration between teams will be deemed a breach of the rules and is subject to a penalty, see rule 35. Any team who receives substantial assistance from someone (including but not limited to teachers, parents, siblings) not in that team will be deemed to be in breach of the rules and will be subject to a penalty.
The competition closes at Wednesday 25th March at 3:59 pm. Entries made after this will not be counted. The solutions will be released immediately thereafter.

Points and the Leaderboard

Points are available for each of the 8 puzzles. Teams will be awarded a number of points for each puzzle that they solve correctly. The first team to solve each puzzle will be awarded fifteen points. The other teams will be awarded points based on how much longer it takes them to solve the puzzle compared to the first team, according to the following table:

Points awarded:	If the correct solution is received by our server:
15	within one hour of the first team to submit the correct solution
14	within two hours of the first team to submit the correct solution
12	within four hours of the first team to submit the correct solution
11	within one day of the first team to submit the correct solution
10	within two days of the first team to submit the correct solution
9	within three days of the first team to submit the correct solution
8	within four days of the first team to submit the correct solution
7	within five days of the first team to submit the correct solution
6	within six days of the first team to submit the correct solution
5	within one week of the first team to submit the correct solution
3	within ten days of the first team to submit the correct solution
2	within two weeks of the first team to submit the correct solution
1	later than two weeks after the first team to submit the correct solution, but before the end of the competition

The leaderboard will display the name of each team, each team's school or college, the number of puzzles solved, and the points awarded for each puzzle.
Teams who have solved the most number of puzzles appear at the top of the leaderboard. Teams who have solved the same number of puzzles are ordered by the total number of points awarded.
If at the end of the competition winning teams tie on the number of puzzles solved and the number of points awarded, then the total time taken to solve the puzzles (between the puzzles being released and the correct solution being received by our server) will be used to determine the winners.

Prizes

The prizes will be awarded to the teams that are at the top of the leaderboard when the competition closes (with a maximum of one prize-winning team per school). Winners and their schools/colleges will be contacted by email. The prizes are:
- first place: each team member receives £30 in Amazon gift vouchers
- second place: each team member receives £25 in Amazon gift vouchers
- third place: each team member receives £20 in Amazon gift vouchers.
Each team member in the teams who come in first, second and third place at the end of the competition will receive a certificate. The school or college of these teams will also receive a trophy. Prizes and trophies will be awarded at the `Alan Turing Cryptography Day' hosted in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Manchester on Wednesday 29th April 2020. If teams, team members, or their representatives, do not attend the Alan Turing Cryptography Day then the prizes, certificates and trophies will normally be sent out on the following day to the team's nominated teacher at their school/college's address (or parent/carer at their address, for home-schooled teams) to be distributed.
A prize of £15 per team member will be awarded to the first team that correctly solves each puzzle. The prize will normally be announced on the day, or shortly afterwards, the next puzzle set (or, in the case of puzzles 7 and 8, the end of the competition) is released. The result will be announced on the competition website and forum and the team members of the winning team informed by email. The prizes will normally be sent out on the following day to the team's nominated teacher at their school/college's address (or parent/carer at their address, for home-schooled teams) to be distributed.
There will be at most three spot prizes awarded for each puzzle set. The spot prizes will be awarded as follows: three teams who have correctly solved a puzzle, other than the first team to have correctly solved that puzzle, within two weeks of the scheduled release date will be chosen at random (by our server, using a random number generator) and awarded a spot prize of £10 per team member. If 3 or fewer teams are eligible for a random prize, then a prize will be awarded to each eligible team. The winners of the spot prizes will be normally be announced on the competition website and forum and the team members of the winning teams informed by email on the day, or shortly afterwards, the next puzzle set (or, in the case of puzzles 7 and 8, the end of the competition) is released. Spot prizes will normally be sent out on the following day to the teams' nominated teachers at their school/college's address (or parent/carer at their address, for home-schooled teams) to be distributed.
Each team member of each team who successfully complete all eight puzzles will receive a certificate. Certificates will be posted to the teams' nominated teachers at their school/college's address (or parent/carer at their address, for home-schooled teams) in early April.
Prize winners agree to their team name and school or college name being used in publicity associated with the competition, including publication on the competition website and in University of Manchester promotional material. Team member names will only be published with the permission of the team member.
The competition organisers reserve the right to change any aspect of the competition at short notice. Such changes will be announced on the competition website as soon as is practical.
The awarding of prizes is at the sole discretion of the competition organisers and no correspondence will be entered into.

The Forum

A web-based forum will be provided where teams can discuss mathematics, the competition so far, etc. Teams are not allowed to discuss hints or solutions for the puzzles on the forum.
The forum is moderated by the competition organisers. Any misuse of the forum (including, but not limited to, messages that: contain offensive or objectionable material or language; contain personal details (including email addresses); break the law or encourage unlawful behaviour; contain advertising or promotional material; or impersonate other teams, team members or competition organisers) will leave the team member and their team subject to a penalty, as described in Rule 35.
Any team or team member who posts a solution or hint, or requests help in any public forum will be open to a penalty, as described in Rule 35.
The competition organisers reserve the right to publish hints on the website and forum as they see fit.

Penalties and misbehaviour

In registering a team or as a team member, participating in the competition and/or posting on the forum, team members agree to be bound by all the rules of the competition.
Any team or team member who attempts to disrupt or hack the competition website (including, but not limited to, behaviour that could be deemed a denial of service attack) will be disqualified from the competition.
Teams who do not abide by the rules of the competition will suffer a penalty, as decided by the competition organisers. Penalties will include, but are not limited to:
- a formal warning
- a deduction of points
- a temporary or permanent ban from the forum
- disqualification from the competition.
The level of penalty imposed will be decided solely by the competition organisers. In deciding the level of penalty, the organisers may consider any facts that they deem relevant, including the number of penalties already given to that team. No correspondence between team members or their representatives and the competition organisers regarding the imposition or level of penalties will be entered into.