The IOCCC was started by [[Landon Curt Noll]] and Larry Bassel in 1984 while employed at National Semiconductor's Genix porting group. The idea for the contest came after they compared notes with each other about some poorly written code that they had to fix, notably the [[Bourne shell]], which used macros to emulate [[ALGOL 68]] syntax, and a buggy version of [[finger (Unix)|finger]] for BSD.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ioccc.org/faq.html#ioccc_start |title=TheHow FAQit started|publisher= International Obfuscated C Code Contest | website= IOCCC.org| date= |access-date=20232025-0508-0127}}</ref> The contest itself was the topic of a quiz question in the 1993 Computer Bowl.<ref>{{cite news| url= http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB71B1E74EA9019&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |title= Top Execs Fail To Compute Correctly| first= | last= | work= [[San Jose Mercury News]]| place= California| date= May 15, 1993| page= 1A| via= [[Newsbank]]| url-access= subscription| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20140808041942/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB71B1E74EA9019&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM| archivedate= 2014-08-08| access-date= 2025-08-08}}</ref> After a hiatus of five years starting in 2006, the contest returned in 2011.<ref name=SJMerc11>{{cite web| url= https://www.pcworld.com/article/478306/obfuscated_code_contest_returns.html |title=Obfuscated Code Contest Returns |magazine=[[PC World]]|date=November 15, 2011|last=Jackson|first=Joab| publisher= |access-date=2023-05-01}}</ref>
Compared with other programming contests, the IOCCC is described as "not all that serious" by [[Michael Swaine (technical author)|Michael Swaine]], editor of ''[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/there-must-be-contest/207404123 |title=There Must be Contest |first=Michael |last=Swaine |author-link=Michael Swaine (technical author) |journal=[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]|date=May 1, 2008 |access-date=2023-05-01}}</ref>
