My First ECPC Experience — Honorable Mention at ECPC 2026

My First ECPC Experience

On August 19, 2026, I participated in the 2026 ICPC ECPC Qualifications – Day 7 as a first-year Computer Science student at New Mansoura University, representing the ICPC NMU Community with my team, Run-time Terror 14.

This was my first time participating in ECPC.

I started preparing for competitive programming back in March because I wanted to give myself a chance to experience a real contest during my first year. I knew I was not fully prepared, but I wanted to take the step, learn from the experience, and see where I actually stood.

A Different Kind of Preparation

Before the contest, I would say I was around 70% prepared.

There were still several topics we had not studied yet, so we knew there were gaps in our knowledge. Still, I decided that this year was about getting the experience rather than expecting a huge result.

My expectation was simple: enter the contest, look at the problems, try to solve at least one, and most importantly, learn.

That mindset made the experience much more valuable.

The Contest

Our team was supposed to have three members, but one of our teammates, Ziad Abdullah, could not attend due to personal circumstances. So, Mohamed Rady and I competed as a two-person team.

During the contest, our roles were naturally divided between us. Sometimes I would think about a problem while Mohamed was working on the same one, and we would review our ideas together before submitting code.

One of the most interesting parts was that we sometimes encountered problems involving algorithms or topics that we had not studied yet.

Instead of simply giving up, we tried to build our own approaches from scratch based on our understanding of the problem.

We ended up solving three problems.

We also made two very small mistakes during the contest. They were the kind of mistakes that we already knew how to avoid, but simply did not notice at the time. Those mistakes were frustrating, but they were also part of what made the experience useful. We learned from them, and we understood exactly what we needed to pay more attention to in future contests.

The hardest part for me was probably sitting for such a long time and maintaining focus throughout the contest.

What I Took From the Experience

For me, the biggest value of this contest was not the number of problems we solved.

It was the experience of actually sitting in a real competitive programming contest, dealing with time pressure, discussing solutions with a teammate, making mistakes, debugging, and trying to solve problems even when we did not know the exact algorithm beforehand.

I entered the contest mainly to experience it.

I left it knowing that I want much more next time.

Honorable Mention

After the contest, I received an Honorable Mention for the 2026 ICPC ECPC Qualifications – Day 7.

I am proud of the achievement, especially because this was my first ECPC experience and I participated as a first-year student.

But I see this result more as a starting point than a final destination.

Looking Forward

The biggest thing I am taking from this experience is motivation.

I know there are still many topics I need to study, many problems I need to solve, and many mistakes I need to learn from.

Next year, I want to come back much stronger.

This year was about taking the first step, experiencing the contest, understanding where I stand, and learning from the process.

Next year, the goal is much bigger: to compete at a higher level and aim for qualification.

This was my first ECPC.

It definitely will not be my last.