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Birdofpreyru (talk | contribs) Added information about competition tracks presented at Topcoder Open championiships in different years |
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==Topcoder Company==
Topcoder was founded in 2001 by Jack Hughes, Chairman and Founder of Tallan company.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="HuffPost-foudning" /><ref name=":1" /> The name was spelled as TopCoder prior to 2013. Originally, it was running regular competitive programming challenges, known as Single Round Matches (SRMs) – timed, 1.5 hours algorithm competitions, in which contestants compete against each other to solve the same set of problems. The target auditory were school and college students; and high prizes, $5k - $10k per match, from corporate sponsors, were offered for tournament winners to bolster the interest in the community.<ref name=":0" />
As the community grew, in 2003-05 Topcoder started to offer software development services to 3-rd party clients, contracting individual community members to work on specific tasks; though most of the revenue still came from consulting services provided to clients by Topcoder employees.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> From 2006 Topcoder also holds design competition, thus offering design services to the clients.<ref name=":0" /> Also from 2006 Topcoder organizes Marathon Matches – one week long algorithmic competitions.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.topcoder.com/blog/marathon-match-how-it-all-began/|title=Marathon Matches: How They All Began|last=|first=|date=April 10, 2018|website=Topcoder Blog|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=April 12, 2018}}</ref><ref group="note" name=":0">The first Marathon Match at Topcoder took place from May 10 to May 17, 2006: <nowiki>https://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=MatchDetails&rd=10015</nowiki></ref>
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=== Competitive Programming ===
Competitive programming track of Topcoder community rotates around Single Round Matches (SRMs) – timed 1.5 hours competitions in which all participants compete online trying to solve the same set of problems as fast as possible, which where the first type of challenges at Topcoder.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":22">{{Cite web|url=https://help.topcoder.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006162527-SRM-Overview|title=SRM Overview|last=|first=|date=April 25, 2017|website=Topcoder Help Center|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=April 10, 2018}}</ref>
=== Specialized Sub-Communities ===
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== Topcoder Open ==
Topcoder Open (TCO) is an annual design, software development, data science and competitive programming championship, organized by Topcoder, and hosted in different venues around US. Each year, the most successful participants of each competition track included into TCO are selected and invited for a free one-week trip to on-site finals, where they compete for prizes, and also socialize with each other, helping to build community sprit among the most active members. In the first two years, 2001 and 2002, the tournament was titled TopCoder Invitational.
In addition to the main chamionship, from 2001 to 2007 Topcoder was organizing an annual TopCoder Collegiate Challenge tournament, for college students only. Also from 2007 to 2010 TopCoder High School competition was held.
In recent years, smaller Topcoder Regional events are held through the year in different countries.▼
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=== Competition Tracks ===
Competition tracks included in Topcoder Open tournament changed through its history. Many of them resemble the types of challenges offered to Topcoder Community through the year, but there is no 1:1 match. Here is the alphabetical list of all competition tracks ever present at TCO:
* '''Algorithm Compeition (SRM)''' – 2001 - nowadays – The only track that was present at all main TCOs events, and at the most of other Topcoder events. Follows the format of regular 1.5 hours Single Round Matches:<ref name=":22" />
** ''The Coding Phase –'' 75 mins'':'' All competitors are presented with the same three algorithmic problems of different complexity, each problem has its own maximal number of points. Problem descriptions are initially invisible. Competitors have 75 minutes to solve these problems. Competitor can open any problem description in any order; once he opened a problem, the number of points he can get for the correct solution of that problem starts decreasing over time. When competitor submits problem solution (a code that successfully compiles), he is awarded with the current amount of points he can get for that problem. He can re-submit a solution, getting the further descrease amount of points, minus extra penalty for the resubmission. During the phase competitors can see the current points awarded to each participant, but they don't know whether solutions of those participants are correct or wrong, thus whether these scores will hold after ''The System Testing Phase'', or will be reset.
** ''The Challenge Phase'' – 15 mins: Each competitor can see all submission done by other competitors. He can (optionally) challenge any of them, submitting test cases that will cause other competitor's submission produce a wrong result. Submission of correct challenge test case gives sumitter 50 points award, submission of an incorrect test case (i.e. the challenged solution can solve it successfully) will lead to 25 points penalty for the test case submitter.
** ''The System Testing Phase'' – In the last phase system tests are automatically executed for all submissions from all competitors. If a submission fails testing, the scores awarded for that submission during ''The Coding Phase'' are reset to zero. The final scores after the system testing determine the winner.
* '''First to Finish (F2F)''' – 2009 - nowadays – Officially called as ''Mod Dash'' from 2009 to 2013, and ''First2Finish'' afterwards. Competitors are provided with set of small programming tasks (like bug fixes / enhancements in an existing codebase), and they get scores based on who correctly resolves each task first. The exact rules for on-site competition may vary from year to year.
* '''Information Architecture''' – 2015. Provided with client requirements for a software product, competitors are asked to create a wireframe mockup of the future app / website.
* '''Marathon Match (MM)''' – 2007 - nowadays – Officially called as just ''Marathon'' from 2007 to nowadays. Follows the format of regular MM competitions (a 1-2 weeks long online, and 1 day long during on-site competitions). Competitors are provided with the same algorithmic / data science problem, which is judged objectively with a live leaderboard, visible to everybody. Everybody can submit multiple times with no penalties, with the goal to come up with a code that scores the maximal possible amount of scores on that problem. During the competition the leaderboard is generated based on submissions testing against a limit number of test cases, and after the contest the final results are determined in a testing against a larger test dataset.
* '''Software Design''' – 2004 - 2014 – Officially called as Component Design from 2004 to 2009, and just ''Design'' from 2010 to 2014. Competitors were asked to take client requirements for a software component / product as input, and produce development documentation / technical specifications. Solutions were evaluated by a panel of judges according to objective scorecards.
* '''Software Development''' – 2004 - nowadays – Officially called as ''Component Development'' from 2004 to 2009, and just as ''Development'' from 2010 to nowadays. The actual rules differ from year to year, but, typically, competitors are present with technical specifications for development of a software component / application / tool, or with a more open, hackathon-style requirements, and they have about 4 hours to implement the component / product in the best possible way. Submitted solutions are evaluated by a panel of judges according to objective scorecards.
* '''UI Design''' – 2007 - nowadays – Officially called as ''Studio'' from 2007 to 2014, and ''UI Design'' from 2015 to nowadays. Competitors, provided with client requirements, are asked to create the best UI (visual) design for an software product / web portal, etc.
* '''UI Prototype''' – 2015 - nowadays. Competitors are provided with design specifications for a website / web-application, and they should create a working prototype of the frontend within a ~4 hours timeframe. The resulting submissions are judged against objective scorecards.
=== The List of Topcoder Open and Regional Events ===
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
! colspan="4" |The list of Topcoder Open and Regional events<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.topcoder.com/community/topcoder-opens/|title=The list of main Topcoder Open events|last=|first=|date=|website=Topcoder|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=April 19, 2018}}</ref><ref group="note">Golden background highlights main Topcoder Open events of each year, where that year's champions were determined for related competition tracks.</ref>
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