I'm interested in both single coder and team competitions.
I distrust any "competition" that tricks hundreds of developers into working for free so some company can get a cheap labor source. Graphical designers are wise to these schemes. Devs should be too.
Chris S
2010-05-19 20:44:28
I only found out recently that TopCoder seems to exist as a pure competition (which is what I referred to) and as a means of outsourcing work. I spoke to some Indian colleagues and they said that the money on the latter can be very good (relative to what we in the west would expect).
Fortyrunner
2010-05-20 05:56:41
+8
A:
ACM has a big competition, brings in a lot of colleges and the like. Interestingly enough the format there is a set of problems to solve, as opposed to just one.
Dillie-O
2009-02-02 23:26:03
I compete in ACM programming competitions for my university and they are a blast.
Simucal
2009-02-03 00:36:48
I'm actually doing Imagine Cup this year although the deadline to enter has already passed. You can start working on your project for next years competition now though.
Paul Mendoza
2009-02-03 00:37:15
+4
A:
The International Obfuscated C Code Contest. The goals of the competition are as follows (from their website):
To write the most Obscure/Obfuscated C program under the rules below. To show the importance of programming style, in an ironic way. To stress C compilers with unusual code. To illustrate some of the subtleties of the C language. To provide a safe forum for poor C code. :-)
QAZ
2009-02-02 23:31:09
A:
If you're into MATLAB, the MathWorks has a bi-annual competition. No big prizes, just bragging rights. It has a unique structure where, at certain points in the week-long competition, everyone can see (and thus use and modify) the code submitted by everyone else.
gnovice
2009-02-02 23:36:20
+8
A:
ACM is a fantastic competition. The limited resources (teams of three, with one computer) force a premium on teamwork and working efficiently.
Many universities approach the ACM competition thinking that individual brilliance matters most. They spend months drilling their competitors with problem-solving skills, only to have it all fall apart on the day. Teamwork and discipline is what distinguishes the top teams and that's great experience when working in the "real world" too.
(disclaimer: my team won the ACM a long, long time ago. We were good coders, but so was everyone else in the finals. Our teamwork was shit-hot, though, and that made all the difference.)
ACM is completely brilliant in this sense. It's not just about the monkeys, it's about the team of monkeys. :)
glasnt
2009-07-01 03:07:28
Still, without problem-solving skills all the teamwork doesn't really matter anymore when you can't get an angle at the problems. Just yesterday in training I encountered a problem I never even heard of an algorithm to solve it (though new students here get taught one, maybe I'm just too old :))
Joey
2009-07-02 13:57:21
+4
A:
Not a classic competition, but if you like programming games: Robot Battle or AT-Robots (both have competitions, too).
(Wikipedia has a nice list of programming games...)
ISW
2009-02-03 00:21:17
+3
A:
All of the sites I list below are ongoing and have computer judging. That is, your entries are compiled, run, and scored automatically, then compared to all the previous submissions.
The Sphere Online Judge has a wide variety of problems and supports a ridiculously large set of programming languages (dozens, from C to Whitespace).
Code Golf is an all-golf site that supports some popular golf languages (Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby).
The Online Judge at Universidad de Valladolid hosts a lot of ACM problems, with support for the ACM languages (C, Java, C++, Pascal)
Sparr
2009-02-03 00:35:50
A:
If you like Mathematics and programming, have a good look at MCM. It is about mathematical modeling, where you need to program.
Masi
2009-02-03 01:02:18
+1
A:
Checkout http://www.bitwise.iitkgp.ernet.in/register
This is one of the top ranking engineering schools in India. Sponsors include Google and others.
Sesh
2009-02-03 03:15:08
A:
Data mining competitions at TunedIT. A bioinformatics contest is organized right now.
Marcin
2010-02-08 13:45:14
+1
A:
The Algorithmist has a list of Online Judges with Problemsets and Programming Contests. It also has a calendar of upcoming and current contests.
Larry
2010-02-24 16:29:53
A:
TopCoder is nothing more than a way for companies to pay a fraction of development costs by getting a bunch of devs to work on a project in guise as a contest were only one or two will get anything. The rest are screwed since they worked for nothing and the innovation created by some will be outright stolen with no compensation. At best, a 'topcoder' winner will get a fraction of what he or she should be making for the work. eg 5k job, bunch of devs working, all the ideas used by the company and the 'winner' gets 1k. It's nothing more than a way for companies to exploit hard working and talented developers.
man
2010-08-19 06:33:51
+1
A:
CodeChef is a global programming community. We host contests, trainings and events for programmers around the world. Our goal is to provide a platform for programmers everywhere to meet, compete, and have fun. CodeChef is a noncommercial organization operated by Directi, an Indian software company based in Mumbai, India.
Cornelius
2010-08-19 10:21:49