Prizes, Swag, and Food

Thanks to our contributors, we have a lot of cool prizes, swag, and food worth around $15,000 to recognize your ingenuity and dedication!

(Last Updated: October 12th at 12.30 PM ET)

Just for Participating

Boba. The first 110012 complete teams to register and attend our Introductory Session on November 6th at 11:30 AM will get free boba per teammate. Your team’s registration is only complete when all team members fill out the registration. The exception to this rule is for any team members that you’ve requested a random match for. Boba will be available outside Lewis Library after the introductory session!
Pizza. Thinking burns a lot of calories! We’ll have enough pizza to keep you going for the entire duration of the competition.
Swag. All participants will receive a COSCON-branded tumbler and sticker (while supplies last), in addition to a swag package courtesy of Susquehanna International Group (SIG)!

Placement Prizes

We will be giving prizes to the teams with the top five scores (see the rules page for how scoring works). The prize values are as follows (all numbers are per team, not per team member):
  • UG First Place: $3000
  • UG Second Place: $2000
  • UG Third Place: $1500
  • UG Fourth Place: $1000
  • Graduate First Place: $1500
  • Graduate Second Place: $750 if more than 10 grad teams sign up and participate!
Unfortunately, ODUS rules prevent us from giving you the money straight. But we’ll do the next best thing: we’ll buy anything for you, up to that value! If you are a winner, just let us know what you want and we’ll get it for you. Can’t think of anything? Here are some ideas:
  • Complete your Princeton clout with Apple products: Airpods ($200), Beats Headphones ($150-$400 depending on the model), iPad Mini ($400), Apple Watch ($400)
  • If you’re a gamer: Nintendo Switch ($300), Nintendo Switch Lite ($200), Xbox One S ($500), Sony Playstation 5 ($500), Steam Points, or that game you’ve been wanting to get
  • Anything for your hobbies: Polaroid cameras, sports equipment, recording/music equipment, books, art supplies, yarn, etc.
  • Room decor: LED lights, houseplants, cute pillows, fire-safety approved appliances, or whatever else you need to complete your dorm aesthetic
Our sponsors are also eager to reward your brilliance and hard work! You could also win
  • Internship/Job Interview Priority: Our contributors are interested in your talents! They will be paying particular attention to winners in their Fall 2021/Fall 2022 recruitment cycle. They are eager to meet the winners and participants and see if their companies could be a good fit!
  • Books: Princeton University Press, one of the world’s biggest publishers, will be giving free books on revolutionary COS/mathematical ideas to every member of winning teams! Stay tuned for the particular titles they’ll be offering.

Other Prizes

We want to reward more than just five teams for their hard work and dedication! Unlike last year, these prizes are for both undergrads and grads (unless other specified)! Here are some other ways you can walk away with something cool:
  • Be the first team to submit a correct answer to any problem. For your blazingly fast solution, each member of your team will receive a low latency mouse and keyboard. Mind-bogglingly quick, just like you!
  • Score the highest of the freshman/sophomore teams. Yes, we know that the upperclassmen have an upper hand here. But we haven’t forgotten you, underclassmen! For your perseverance and effort, each team member will get a pair of Airpods — small and immensely powerful, like you!
  • Score the highest of the non-COS/MAT teams. Last semester, COS and MAT majors dominated the competition, so this year we’ll be rewarding the non-COS/MAT team that scores the highest with an infinity orb! (It’s levitating speaker. Google it; it’s pretty cool!)
  • Have the best solution for specific problems. We will update this on the day of the competition (so we don’t give away details of problems early), but for now, suffice it to say that if you have the best solution to some specific problems that we have in mind, every member of your team will get a cool prize!
  • Be interested. Of the teams who have not won a prize, we will give out a prize to a team that demonstrates an exceptional eagerness to learn.
  • Send us a selfie and get lucky. Of the teams who have not won a prize, we will draw one at random to receive an Amazon Echo Dot for all of the members on the team! To be entered into the drawing, you must send us a picture of your team hard at work during the competition period (email pictures to ptonacm@princeton.edu).