X5 Retail Hero: Shelf Space Allocation

Description

In any store, there are a lot of groceries and there are a lot of shelves to put those groceries on. Products come in different brands and categories and each product has its own earning power. The shelves can be of different heights and different widths. You are required to develop a placement algorithm that helps place products in an optimal fashion given the list of products and the sizes of shelves.

Evaluation

The solution is evaluated according to the following factors:

• Cumulative earning of placed products;
• Variety of categories of placed products;
• Brand integrity — bonus points for products of the same brand placed in a big group of products, regardless of their categories.

All solutions must comply with technical limitations, resource-wise, and time-wise.

Prizes

Prize fund is 400’000 RUR. The winning team will receive 150’000 RUR, second place gets 100’000 RUR, third place receives 50’000 RUR, fourth and fifth places both get 25’000 RUR. Thre is also one nomination for the best-open-sourced solution with a prize of 50’000 RUR. Teams of up to 4 people from all over the world are allowed, regardless of actual physical location. You are allowed to participate in different teams in any of the Retail Hero’s competitions.