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10.04.2026
Registration is open!
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17.04.2026
🚀 UCUP 2026 is officially open!
The day has come! The biggest student IT tournament in Kharkiv has begun. The event brought together nearly 100 participants, including representatives from leading universities and the IT sector. It was a powerful start to the coding season!
19.04.2026
🧠 Prompt Evolution: AI has been conquered!
🧑💻🧑💻🧑💻 As part of the Universities Cup, we held the Prompt Evolution competition — and it wasn't exactly about programming. It was an experiment: what happens if you replace code with prompts? It turned out that not only the tool changes, but the mindset itself. Similar AI experiments are already appearing globally, but we can say our format is unique 😎
Nowadays, almost every student knows how to use AI: write code, submit a lab, get a result. It's the norm. But we wanted to show something else:
AI simplifies many things — but it does not replace thinking. On the contrary, it raises the bar: you need to think even more precisely and systematically.
🔗 Prompt Evolution Results
📺 Competition Replay
Nowadays, almost every student knows how to use AI: write code, submit a lab, get a result. It's the norm. But we wanted to show something else:
👉 AI is not a "magic button"
👉 and not even a "ready-made problem solver"
👉 it is a tool that you need to know how to control
Participants didn't write code directly. They wrote prompts, which the model used to generate C++ solutions that were then checked by the system. And here's where it got interesting:👉 and not even a "ready-made problem solver"
👉 it is a tool that you need to know how to control
👉 simple requests yielded weak results
👉 detailed, structured ones — significantly better
👉 and the strongest participants... started thinking strategically: how to restrict the model, how to avoid its mistakes, how to "nudge" it toward the correct solution
Some even tried to "reverse-engineer" the model itself. Ultimately, it turned out that the winner is not the one who simply "uses AI", but the one who understands exactly how it works. And that was the main idea of the competition.👉 detailed, structured ones — significantly better
👉 and the strongest participants... started thinking strategically: how to restrict the model, how to avoid its mistakes, how to "nudge" it toward the correct solution
AI simplifies many things — but it does not replace thinking. On the contrary, it raises the bar: you need to think even more precisely and systematically.
🔗 Prompt Evolution Results
📺 Competition Replay
19.04.2026
🏆 TOP PROMPTS AT PROMPT EVOLUTION
TOP PROMPTS AT PROMPT EVOLUTION
🥇 "I beg you, just work"
"Write correct C++ code. Please, I kindly ask that it works correctly and fast, without errors and without segmentation fault."
📌 Comment: Pure "ritual". Zero technical value, but very human 🥲
🥈 "Anti-stupid LLM"
"Don't do stupid things. Don't use slow algorithms. Don't make mistakes..."
📌 Comment: A classic: participants trying to "educate" the model instead of formalizing the task.
🥉 "Toxic prompt"
"If you write incorrect code — it will be very bad."
📌 Comment: LLM: 😐
🥉 "BlackBox: 42"
"If not sure — return 42."
