In 1996, the Hong Kong Association for Computer Education, the Hong Kong Computer Society and the Education Department of Hong Kong (now the Education Bureau) jointly organized the Joint Selection Contest to replace all the selection tests. 39 students were selected as seeds for the Hong Kong teams. They received intensive training on topics like data structures and algorithms. After that, a Team Formation Test was conducted to select the Hong Kong representatives in IOI and NOI among the seeds. Another Team Formation Test was conducted for the SEARCC-ISSC and SCY.