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"We do not consider code elegance or code length for the score. Though your program must fit within language-specific memory and runtime limits in order for us to grade it, we do not consider memory footprint or runtime in the score."

That seems like a mistake. How could there not be a penalty for unreadable, slow, or bloated code?

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Based on the IRC chat, most of the battle is tackling our biggest test cases and finding an algorithm that fits into our memory and runtime limits.

If the code produces an answer sooner, including coding time, it's the best code.

The real world rewards timeliness not comeliness.

Contests can, and should, require maintainable code by giving you one goal and then at acceptance throw some new requirements at you. But still, if you win you're showing your code was more maintainable even if it's ugly to others.

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