[TYPES/announce] Call for Problems: VerifyThis 2025

[Thomas Wies]

[Apologies in case of multiple posting]

# Call for Problems: VerifyThis 2025 at ETAPS 2025 in Hamilton, Canada

Submit your ingenious program verification problems for VerifyThis 2025!

Deadline: February 7th, 2025

## Aims and Scope of VerifyThis

VerifyThis is a series of program verification competitions, which has 
taken place annually since 2011 (with the exception of 2020).

The aims of the competition are:

-   to bring together those interested in formal verification, and to 
provide an engaging, hands-on, and fun opportunity for discussion.
-   to evaluate the usability of program verification techniques and tools.

The competition will offer a number of challenges presented in natural 
language and pseudo code. Participants have to formalize the 
requirements, implement a solution, and formally verify the 
implementation for adherence to the specification.

There are no restrictions on the programming language and verification 
technology used. The correctness properties posed in problems will have 
the input-output behavior of programs in focus. Solutions will be judged 
for correctness, completeness, and elegance.

More information about the competition can be found at:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.pm.inf.ethz.ch/research/verifythis.html__;!!IBzWLUs!UDfMkr5Fl8sMQhydrS39viJaqHTqQyXyhg2UOLa11x6rNKJCxsp_36uGToTv9Sy5gRdFD2GAJsmicb6Mwwbj1CWJUBnZpw$ 

## Problem Submission

To be able to offer a broad and diverse set of verification challenges, 
we are collecting submissions of ideas for verification challenges and 
problems. We welcome both problems of academic interest as well as 
challenges based on themes that are relevant in industry.

The competition proceeds in three rounds. In each round, participants 
are given 60 - 120 minutes to implement and prove specified properties 
of a given algorithm and/or data structure. They are free to use any 
verification tools they choose. Challenges are typically concerned with 
proving functional properties of the code in question (at least some 
part of a challenge involves expressing and proving properties specific 
to the algorithm/data structure in question). It is common for problems 
to have multiple parts, e.g. to prove some basic properties first, 
perhaps for a simplified case, and to progress to more-advanced goals.

We are currently looking for problem submissions! If you have recently 
encountered an interesting challenge in your work where formal 
techniques could be applied, please don't hesitate to submit it. Typical 
challenges have clear input-output specifications and often incorporate 
one or more of the following: heap allocation, concurrency, arithmetic 
reasoning. A challenge usually describes a problem using natural 
language together with some pseudocode, and then provides a list of 
properties or "verification tasks" of varied levels of difficulty. 
Contributors are encouraged to look at the Archive of previous problems.

An award will be given for any submission used in the competition. To 
avoid spoiling the competition for others, we ask that you keep the 
subject of your submission private. However, note that problem authors 
are allowed to participate in the competition!

More information about the competition can be found at:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.pm.inf.ethz.ch/research/verifythis.html__;!!IBzWLUs!UDfMkr5Fl8sMQhydrS39viJaqHTqQyXyhg2UOLa11x6rNKJCxsp_36uGToTv9Sy5gRdFD2GAJsmicb6Mwwbj1CWJUBnZpw$ 

## Submission instructions

A submission should consist of:

- A brief yet precise problem description, specifically identifying 
verification sub-tasks.
- A solution to the challenge is strongly encouraged, otherwise please 
provide a sketch of correctness.
- The description document can use any reasonable format, including 
plain text or PDF.

Contributors are encouraged to look at the archive of previous problems:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.pm.inf.ethz.ch/research/verifythis/Archive.html__;!!IBzWLUs!UDfMkr5Fl8sMQhydrS39viJaqHTqQyXyhg2UOLa11x6rNKJCxsp_36uGToTv9Sy5gRdFD2GAJsmicb6Mwwbj1CWKnm1E7g$ 

Submissions should be sent by email to jennad at purdue.edu and 
wies at cs.nyu.edu. The submission deadline is February 7th, 2025. We look 
forward to receiving your ideas!

VerifyThis 2025 Organizers:
Jenna DiVincenzo, Purdue <jennad at purdue.edu>
Thomas Wies, NYU <wies at cs.nyu.edu>