Wikipedia

Topcoder Open

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Topcoder Open (TCO) is a prestigious annual design, software development, data science and competitive programming championship, organized by Topcoder, and hosted in different venues around US.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] In the first two years, 2001 and 2002, the tournament was titled TopCoder Invitational.

Topcoder Open (TCO)
File:Tco18-logo.png
Topcoder Open 2018 logo
Frequencyannually
CountryUSA
Years active2001 - nowadays
InauguratedNov 2 - 3, 2001
Most recentOctober 21–24, 2017
ActivityCompetitive Programming, Data Science, Design, and Software Development Championship
Organized byTopcoder
Websitehttp://tco18.topcoder.com

In addition to the main championship, from 2001 to 2007 Topcoder was organizing an annual TopCoder Collegiate Challenge tournament, for college students only.[10][11] Also from 2007 to 2010 TopCoder High School competition was held.

From 2015, Topcoder Regional events are held through the year in different countries.[12]

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 Competition (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:[13]
    • 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.

Notes

References

  1. ^ Brandel, Mary (January 22, 2008). "Rock star coders". Computerworld. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  2. ^ Lai, Eric (July 9, 2007). "Jiazhi Wu: Programming's Crack Competitor". Computerworld. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  3. ^ Consilvio, Jean (December 9, 2002). "And the Winner Is..." Computerworld. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  4. ^ "Two Filipinos win in 2008 International Software Component Design Competition". Philippine Information Agency. June 3, 2008. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  5. ^ Grover, Sahil (December 2, 2017). "Programming as a sport". Medium. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  6. ^ "Poland has the world's best programmers - and here's proof". Medium. August 27, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  7. ^ Havenstein, Heather (May 9, 2006). "Programming contest garners enterprise interest". Computerworld. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  8. ^ Weinberger, Matt (November 18, 2014). "Microsoft: "Nobody loves developers more than us"". Computerworld. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  9. ^ Krazit, Tom (May 3, 2006). "Coding for fame, and dollars". C|Net. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  10. ^ Meloan, Steve (April 2003). "TopCoders Vie For Colelge Crown". Oracle Technology Network. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  11. ^ Kanaracus, Chris (October 1, 2007). "College coders vie for cash in enterprise-sponsored contest". Computerworld. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  12. ^ "TopCoder Open 2016". ITMO Tech. September 5, 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  13. ^ Sial, Rashid (April 25, 2017). "SRM Overview". Topcoder Help Center. Retrieved April 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
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