Check out the competition workshop notes if you have questions about competing. These notes are general guidelines for college competitions and should prove very helpful.  However, not all competitions we attend are college competitions. Non-college comps tend to be much stricter about what is and is not allowed; college comps are a little more relaxed and not as exacting. Every competition will have its own set of rules. Make sure you read all the rules for a given comp and follow them exactly, because those rules always take precedence over the workshop notes or any other general advice you may receive from other sources.