CUATS

Hackathon 2026

19 March 2026 – 20 March 2026

Welcome to the third annual Cambridge University Algorithmic Trading Society (CUATS) Hackathon, a 24-hour in-person challenge to build a working market order book.

We will kick-off the event with an intense 5-hour instruction session on Thursday, 19 March starting at 16:30 and lasting until 21:00, covering the below-listed topics. There will be a 45 minute break, 19:00-19:45, with food and drink provided. Then at 21:00 we will release the hackathon challenge (with guidelines) to be worked on for 24 hours until Friday, 20 March at 21:00.

The announcement of the winners will be in-person on Friday, 20 March at 22:00 in the Postdoc Centre at 16 Mill Lane Cambridge CB2 1SB.

This competition is a test of both skill and endurance, with limited time to successfully complete and test a functional market order book.

We encourage you to work in teams of upto three. If you do not already have teammates, you will have the opportunity to find some on the day of the hackathon.

Good luck!

To attend, please register at:

https://cuats_hackathon2026.eventbrite.co.uk

0. Introduction to time/space complexity, mathematical optimisation (upper/lower bounds), thinking of problems (brute force -> optimization)

1.Introduction to Arrays, Hashmaps, Dictionaries

a. Practice problems #1 (short)

b. Kadane’s algorithm

2. Introduction to Two Pointers & Binary Search, mentioning of Stack structure

a. Practice problems #2 (short)

b. Rain water

3. Linked Lists

a. Practice problems #3 (short)