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[[Image:TopCoder logo.gif|right]]
'''TopCoder''' is a company which administers contests in [[computer programming]]. TopCoder hosts weekly online algorithm competitions — known as SRMs or "single round matches" — as well as weekly competitions in design and development. The work in design and development produces useful software which is licensed for profit by TopCoder. Competitors involved in the creation of these components are paid royalties based on these sales. The software resulting from algorithm competitions — and the less-frequent marathon matches — is not usually directly useful, but sponsor companies sometimes provide money to pay the victors. Statistics (including an overall "rating" for each developer) are tracked over time for competitors in each category.
==Types of Competitions==
*'''Algorithms''' (competition length 2 hours): Competitors are given a set (usually three) of algorithmic problems and have 75 minutes to correctly solve as many as they can.
*'''Design''' (competition length 1 week): Competitors are given a set of user requirements and attempt to convert them into a usable software design specification. Their efforts are judged on a variety of "real-world" criteria on how correct and practical their design is.
*'''Development''' (competition length 1 week): Competitors are given a set of design specification and attempt to write software components that match those specification. These components are judged on their functionality and coding style.
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==Algorithm Competitions==
TopCoder has been hosting algorithm competitions since [[2001]]. Each contest consists of four phases:
* '''Coding phase''' (75 minutes): Coders write programs to solve three short problems using [[C++]], [[Java_programming_language|Java]], [[C_Sharp|C#]], or [[Visual Basic]]. Each problem set consists of an easy, medium, and hard question, the difficulty of which is reflected in each problem's point value. The problems' point values vary from match to match; a common point value distribution is 250-500-1000. Also, the quicker a coder writes a given problem, the more points that coder gets.
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