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{{Short description|Crowdsourcing company in Indiana, US}}
{{Self-published|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Topcoder, Inc.
| logo =
| vector_logo =
| type =
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| owner =
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| homepage = {{
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'''Topcoder''' (formerly TopCoder) is a [[crowdsourcing]] company with an [[Commons-based peer production|open global community]] of designers, [[Software development|developers]], [[Data science|data scientists]], and [[Competitive programming|competitive programmers]]. Topcoder pays community members for their work on the projects and sells community services to corporate, mid-size, and small-business clients.<ref
==History==
Topcoder was founded in 2001 by Jack Hughes,
As the community of designers, developers, data scientists, and competitive programmers involved in Topcoder grew, the company started to offer software development services to 3rd party clients, contracting individual community members to work on specific tasks. Most of the revenue, though, still came from consulting services provided to clients by Topcoder employees.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sramanamitra.com/2018/01/02/genesis-to-acquisition-mike-morris-ceo-of-topcoder-part-1/|title=Genesis to Acquisition: Mike Morris, CEO of Topcoder|last=Mitra|first=Sramana|date=January 2, 2018|website=One Million by One Million Blog|access-date=March 30, 2018}}</ref> From 2006 onwards, Topcoder held design competitions, thus offering design services to their clients.<ref name=":0" /> In 2006 Topcoder also started to organize Marathon Matches (MM) – one week long algorithmic contests.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.topcoder.com/blog/marathon-match-how-it-all-began/|title=Marathon Matches: How They All Began|date=April 10, 2018|website=Topcoder Blog|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:
In an attempt to optimize expenses, Topcoder introduced new competition tracks in 2007-2008 and delegated more work from its employees to the community. By 2009, the size of Topcoder's staff had been reduced to 16 project managers servicing 35 clients, while the community did most of the actual work via crowdsourcing. Topcoder representatives claim that at this point their community had about 170k registered members, and the company's annual revenue was approximately $19 million.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite news|url=https://www.infoworld.com/article/2653445/applications/topcoder-eyeing-smb-market.html|title=TopCoder eyeing SMB market|last=Kanaracus|first=Chris|date=October 15, 2008|work=InfoWorld|access-date=April 4, 2018}}</ref>
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In 2016, Topcoder, along with Appirio, was acquired by [[Wipro]] as a part of a $500 million deal and continued to operate as a separate company under its brand.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/deals/-ma/Appirios-TopCoder-too-is-a-big-catch-for-Wipro/articleshow/54970568.cms|title=Appirio's TopCoder too is a big catch for Wipro|last=Phadnisi|first=Shilpa|date=October 21, 2016|work=The Times of India|access-date=April 4, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/3133413/wipro-is-buying-cloud-consultant-appirio-for-500m.html|title=Wipro is buying cloud consultant Appirio for $500M|last=Sayer|first=Peter|date=October 20, 2016|work=PCWorld|access-date=April 4, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www2.staffingindustry.com/row/Editorial/Daily-News/India-Wipro-to-acquire-cloud-services-company-Appirio-39788|title=India - Wipro to Acquire Cloud Services Company, Appirio|date=October 24, 2016|work=Staffing Industry Analysts|access-date=April 8, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.horsesforsources.com/abid-HfS-interview_301116|title=Wipro bids for As-a-Service... with Abid|last=Fersht|first=Phil|date=November 29, 2016|work=Horses for Sources|access-date=April 14, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/with-the-acquisition-of-appirio-wipro-expects-to-stay-ahead-of-the-game/articleshow/55020652.cms|title=With the acquisition of Appirio, Wipro expects to stay ahead of the game|last=Mendonca|first=Jochelle|date=October 24, 2016|work=The Economic Times|access-date=April 14, 2018}}</ref>
Since the end of 2017, Topcoder has continued to offer its enterprise clients the Hybrid Crowd platform, as a way to protect intellectual property in crowdsourcing projects. In addition to the public Topcoder community, the Hybrid Crowd platform allows for the creation of certified and private crowdsourcing communities. Its certified communities include members of public Topcoder communities who are vetted for a customer's specific requirements, such as signing an additional [[Non-disclosure agreement|NDA]], completing a background check, or meeting any other particular certifications. The private communities may include an enterprise's employees and contractors. As the first user of Hybrid Crowd, Wipro integrated its internal (employee-only) crowdsourcing platform TopGear with Topcoder.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://smartinvestor.business-standard.com/market/interviews-438102-interviewsdet-We_have_put_in_the_basic_ingredients_to_execute_well_Wipro_COO.htm#.WtJt6nVuYUE|title=We have put in the basic ingredients to execute well: Wipro COO|
== Topcoder community ==
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|-
|2018
|~1 200 000<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.deccanherald.com/business/we-are-banking-digital-drive-our-growth-668438.html|title=We are banking on digital to drive our growth|
|-
|2024
|~1 900 000<ref>[https://www.topcoder.com Home | Topcoder]</ref>
|}
Topcoder community is the primary source of the workforce behind all Topcoder projects. It is open and global: anybody, with a few legal restrictions dictated by US laws, and listed in Community Terms, can join and compete, without any financial commitment to Topcoder. Also, participation in challenges organized in the interests of commercial clients generally requires the community member to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Intellectual property for the winning submissions to commercial challenges is passed to the client, in exchange for monetary prizes paid to the winners.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://help.topcoder.com/hc/en-us|title=Topcoder Help Center|website=Topcoder Help Center|access-date=April 10, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.topcoder.com/community/how-it-works/terms/|title=Terms & Conditions of Use at Topcoder|website=Topcoder|access-date=April 10, 2018}}</ref>
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There are several types of data science challenges at Topcoder; typically, they are longer than software development challenges and focused on data science and algorithms, rather than on end-user software products:<ref name=":8">{{Cite web|url=https://help.topcoder.com/hc/en-us/articles/230881408-Data-Science-Challenge-Types|title=Data Science Challenge Types|date=March 3, 2017|website=Topcoder Help Center|access-date=April 10, 2018}}</ref>
* '''Marathon Match''' '''(MM)'''<ref name=":8" /> – A week-long algorithmic contest, in which submissions are judged objectively by an automated scoring function that feeds a live leaderboard, and multiple submission from the same competitor is encouraged during the match with no penalty. Programming languages allowed in MMs are [[C++]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#.NET]], [[Visual Basic .NET|VB.NET]]. Topcoder has organized Marathon Matches since 2006,<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":0" group="note" /> and 100th MM was held in April 2018.<ref name=":19">{{Cite news|url=https://www.topcoder.com/blog/marathon-match-100-prizes-t-shirts/|title=Marathon Match 100 with Prizes & T-Shirts|date=April 11, 2018|work=Topcoder Blog
* '''Data Science First to Finish''' – Algorithmic contests scored by an automated scoring function, where the first competitor that reaches the specified score thresholds wins.
* '''Data Science Sprint''' – A series of rapid data-science challenges, scored by a manual scoring function, and with no leaderboard.
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=== Harvard Medical School ===
In 2013, it was reported that researchers from [[Harvard Medical School]], [[Harvard Business School]], and [[London Business School]] successfully used Topcoder Community to solve complex biological problems.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130207141448.htm|title=Solving big-data bottleneck: Scientists team with business innovators to tackle research hurdles|date=February 7, 2013|work=Science News|access-date=April 30, 2018}}</ref> Researchers say that Topcoder competitors approached the biology-related [[Big data|big-data]] challenge, and managed to create a more accurate and 1000 times faster alternative of [[BLAST (biotechnology)|BLAST algorithm]].<ref>{{Cite journal|vauthors=Lakhani KR, Boudreau KJ, Loh PR, Backstrom L, Baldwin C, Lonstein E, Lydon M, McCormack A, Arnaout RA, Guinan EC|date=February 7, 2013|title=Prize-based contests can provide solutions to computational biology problems|journal=Nature Biotechnology|volume=31|issue=2|pages=108–111|doi=10.1038/nbt.2495|pmid=23392504|pmc=4527172}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Eisenstein|first=Michael|date=July 9, 2013|title=Crowdsourced contest identifies best-in-class breast cancer prognostic|journal=Nature Biotechnology|volume=31|issue=7|pages=578–580|doi=10.1038/nbt0713-578b|pmid=23839130|s2cid=885686 }}</ref>
=== IARPA ===
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In 2010, [[NASA]] asked the Topcoder community to optimize the contents of medical kits for future human space exploration missions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.solardaily.com/reports/TopCoder_Community_Refines_Medical_Kits_For_Future_NASA_Space_Missions_999.html|title=TopCoder Community Refines Medical Kits For Future NASA Space Missions|date=July 28, 2010|work=Solar Daily|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref>
In 2013, NASA Tournament Lab cooperated with Topcoder to run data-science challenges targeting to improve computer vision algorithms for their [[Robonaut|Robonaut 2]] humanoid robot;<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/nasa-and-topcoder-to-issue-robonaut-2-sight-challenge/2013/03/29/5e513c16-989a-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_blog.html|title=NASA and TopCoder to issue Robonaut 2 "sight" challenge|last=Kolawole|first=Emi|date=March 29, 2013|
In another challenge, Topcoder community helped NASA and [[National Geographic]]'s explorer [https://www.nationalgeographic.org/find-explorers/explorers/4642934E/albert-lin Albert Lin] to develop an algorithm to identify human-built structures in [[Genghis Khan]]'s homeland.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/topcoder-teams-with-nasa-and-national-geographic-emerging-explorer-albert-lin-to-create-a-powerful-algorithm-that-identifies-human-built-structures-in-genghis-khans-homeland-223508431.html|title=TopCoder Teams with NASA and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Albert Lin to Create a Powerful Algorithm that Identifies Human-Built Structures in Genghis Khan's Homeland|date=September 12, 2013|work=CISION. PR NewsWire|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://chei.ucsd.edu/2013/09/13/calit2-research-scientist-albert-lin-teams-with-topcoder-nasa/|title=Calit2 Research Scientist Albert Lin Teams with TopCoder, NASA|last=Ramsey|first=Doug|date=September 13, 2013|work=CHEI|access-date=April 10, 2018}}</ref>
In 2014, Asteroid Data Hunter, Asteroid Tracker, and many other challenges were carried on to develop better algorithms for asteroids detection in space images.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-data-hunter-challenge-0|title=Asteroid Data Hunter Challenge|date=March 17, 2014|work=NASA|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/asteroid-data-hunter-app/|title=Asteroid Data Hunter App|work=Solar System Exploration Research. Virtual Institute.|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.space.com/25029-nasa-dangerous-asteroid-contest-prizes.html|title=NASA Offers Cash Prizes for Help Hunting Dangerous Asteroids|last=Wall|first=Mike|date=March 11, 2014|work=Space.com|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/10/nasa-asteroids-data-hunter-dinosaurs-sxsw|title=Nasa Asteroid Data Hunter contest hopes humans will outsmart dinosaurs|last=Dredge|first=Stuart|work=The Guardian|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.fedscoop.com/nasa-topcoder-challenge/|title=NASA taps massive coding community for deep space solutions|last=Otto|first=Greg|date=August 12, 2014|work=FedScoop|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://
In 2015, the Topcoder Data Science community was challenged by NASA, [[QuakeFinder|Quakefinder]], [[Harvard innovation lab|Harvard Crowd Innovation Lab]], and [[Amazon Web Services]], to come up with an algorithm that finds correlations between ultra-low frequency electromagnetic signals emanating from the earth, and subsequent moderate and large earthquakes.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://phys.org/news/2015-07-nasa-hosts-quest-quakes.html|title=NASA hosts "Quest for Quakes" data challenge|date=July 27, 2015|work=Phys.org|access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref>
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