Previous Contests

Probably the best way to prepare yourself for this contest is by examining and reviewing the contest problems from previous years. Links to the archived sites of more than a decade's worth of past Stanford contests can be found in the "History" section. Most of the previous contest problems are posted along with judge test data and sample solutions.

Other Resources

Looking for more practice? Here are a few other resources that may prove useful during your pilgrimmage:

The UVa Online Judge hosts a collection of thousands and thousands of programming problems similar to those used in the Stanford local contest and the ACM regional and international contests. You can register with the site to submit your solutions for judging, and their online judge will tell you within seconds whether you've succeeded or not. You can easily spend a lifetime here and not be done.

TopCoder runs periodic programming contests that are slightly different from the ACM programming contests, but problems and skills used in this setting tend to be very similar. It also provides contest die-hards with another avenue for strutting their skills, and occassionally even offers opportunities to win some prize money.

Skiena & Revilla's text is by no means the best book on data structures and algorithms out there, but nonetheless provides a good introduction to the "tricks of the trade" for this type of programming contest. It was written as a training manual for these contests, and serves its purpose reasonably well.

And, of course, you cannot forget the official site of the ACM ICPC, the ancestor from which all our little contests have sprung. Here, you can find information and links to past and current World Finals and regional contests around the world.