STANDARD EDITION
in collaboration with
A 4 hours online team-based programming competition open worldwide!
EVALUATION IN PROGRESS, WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED WITHIN ONE WEEK
Challenge phases
REGISTRATION & TRAINING
Form a team from 2-4 members in order to compete. To see if this challenge is right for you, take a look at the training problems. While forming a team, tell us your University and compete in the University Students League.
CHALLENGE DAY
We'll publish the problem statement online on your challenge page.
The challenge will last 4 hours.
WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT
We'll announce the winners within 10 days of the challenge ending. Each member of the winning teams will be notified via email and will get an amazing laptop!
Looking for practice?
Want more? Have a look at the Training section.
"It has been very challenging and rewarding experience. We would like to come back next year even better that before."
Riccardo g.
STANDARD EDITION PLAYER,
15th MARCH 2019
"Reply Challenges gave us a wonderful chance to compete in programming. We are grateful and I cant wait to participate next year as well."
Paul s.
STANDARD EDITION PLAYER,
12th MARCH 2020
"The best opportunity to test my programming knowledge and improve our team building skills. All while having fun!"
GASPARE f.
STANDARD EDITION PLAYER,
15th MARCH 2018
Gallery
Previous on Reply Challenges
On 14th October 2022 the Cyber Security Challenge in Capture the Flag (CTF) mode took place online reaching thousands of participants.
Each team had to face 5 levels for each of the 5 categories offered with Cyber Security as main theme: Coding, Web, Miscellaneous, Crypto and Binary. This all happens in a time span 24 hours total.
The challenge took place from May 27th to 29th; each team had 48 hours to develop a creative concept for one of eight creative areas.
Eight finalist teams, one for each category, were selected by an expert Jury panel and presented their projects during the online final event on July 6th 2022, prior to the announcement of the winning team.
These are the numbers we made:
+5.000 REGISTRATIONS
1000 registered TEAMS
82 different Countries
Re-watch the finals here!
The investment Challenge - in collaboration with Banca Generali, MIP Politecnico di Milano, CFA Society Italy, and Main Street Partners. took place between March 28th and April 8th.
Lets crunch some numbers:
For the external edition we had +13.750 new registered to the platform!
from 95 Countries!
On 10th March 2022 Reply launched the third edition of the Code Challenge - Teen Edition, together with the Standard Edition.
Teenagers from all over the world could use any programming language to face five algorithmic or logical problems in 4 hours.
During this edition we had:
15.000 REGISTRATIONS
1.150 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
2.820 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
+ 22.000 total SUBMISSIONS
This years problem was on videogames.
On 10th March 2022 Reply launched the fifth edition of the Code Challenge - Standard Edition.
Participants from all over the world could use any programming language to face one optimization problem during the 4 hours of the challenge.
During this edition we had:
15.000 REGISTRATIONS
1.150 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
2.820 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
+ 22.000 total SUBMISSIONS
This years problem was on videogames.
On 15th October 2021 the Cyber Security Challenge in Capture the Flag (CTF) mode took place online reaching thousands of participants.
Each team had to face 5 levels for each of the 5 categories offered with Cyber Security as main theme: Coding, Web, Miscellaneous, Crypto and Binary. This all happens in a time span 24 hours total.
Have a look at this edition's winners and download the best solutions.
The challenge took place from May 21st to 23rd; each team had 48 hours to develop a creative concept for one among nine creative areas.
Nine finalist teams, one for each category, were selected by an expert Jury panel and presented their projects during the online final event on July 1st 2021, prior to the announcement of the winning team.
These are the numbers we made:
+12.000 REGISTRATIONS
1900 registered TEAMS
80 different Countries
Re-watch the finals here!
The investment Challenge - in collaboration with Banca Generali, MIP Politecnico di Milano, CFA Society Italy, and Main Street Partners. took place between April 19th and May 18th with a first round of 2 weeks (April 19th - April 30th) from which a selection of 100 best traders compete on an online final round on May 14th - May 18th.
Lets crunch some numbers:
For the external edition we had +14.500 new registered to the platform!
from 91 Countries!
On 11th March 2021 Reply launched the third edition of the Code Challenge - Teen Edition, together with the Standard Edition. Teenagers from all over the world could use any programming language to face five algorithmic or logical problems in 4 hours.
During this edition we had:
22.000 REGISTRATIONS
3.124 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
1.923 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
+ 30.000 total SUBMISSIONS
On 11th March 2021 Reply launched the fourth edition of the Code Challenge - Standard Edition, in collaboration with INWIT.
Participants from all over the world could use any programming language to face one optimization problem during the 4 hours of the challenge.
During this edition we had:
22.000 REGISTRATIONS
3.124 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
1.923 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
+ 30.000 total SUBMISSIONS
This years problem was on the correct placement of 5G antennas in an urban environment, taking care of the constraints and expected results for a fully connected mesh into an urban “Manhattan grid"
On 9th October 2020 the Cyber Security Challenge in Capture the Flag (CTF) mode took place online reaching thousands of participants.
Each team had to face 5 levels for each of the 5 categories offered with Cyber Security as main theme: Coding, Web, Miscellaneous, Crypto and Binary. This all happens in a time span 24 hours total.
During this last edition we had:
+10.000 new REGISTRATIONS
160 different COUNTRIES
2380 registered TEAMS
9176 FLAGS submitted, of which 1283 scoring ones
The challenge took place from May 22nd to 24th; each team had 48 hours to develop a creative concept for social media: Instagram story-telling, branded content, brand activation, service design and employer branding areas.
Five finalist teams, one for each category, were selected by an expert panel and presented their projects during the online final event on July 1st 2020, prior to the announcement of the winning team.
These are the numbers we made:
6200 REGISTRATIONS
1093 registered TEAMS
522 Total PROJECTS SUBMITTED
The investment Challenge - in collaboration with Banca Generali and MIP (Politecnico di Milano School of Management) took place between March 30th and April24th with a first round of 2 weeks (March 30th - April 10th) from which a selection of 100 best traders compete on an online final round on April 24th.
We had 8488 registrations, 168.100 trades and 23,6 years as total time spent on BG SAXO. At the end of the challenge, 63% of players had more than 1M €!
These are the numbers we made:
8.500 Registrations
168.100 Trades
207.037 hours played
On 12th March 2020 Reply launched the second edition of the code challenge - teen together with the standard edition. Teenagers from all over the world could use any programming languages to face five algorithmic or logical problems.
This all happened in a time span 4 hours total.
Both editions made these numbers:
20.171 REGISTRATIONS
2.862 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
1.253 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
+ 21.000 total SUBMISSIONS
On 12th March 2020 Reply launched the fully digital challenge together with the teen edition. Participants from all over the world could use any programming languages to face one algorithmic or logical problem and send as many solutions they want. This all happened in a time span 4 hours total.
Both editions made these numbers:
20.171 REGISTRATIONS
2.862 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
1.253 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
+ 21.000 total SUBMISSIONS
On 11th October 2019 all registered teams took on the Cyber Security Challenge in Capture the Flag (CTF) mode.
Each team had to face 5 levels for each of the 5 categories offered with Cyber Security as main theme: Coding, Web, Miscellaneous, Crypto and Binary. This all happens in a time span 24 hours total.
During this last edition we had:
6699 new REGISTRATIONS
87 different COUNTRIES
1365 registered TEAMS
6466 FLAGS submitted, of which 1003 scoring ones
The challenge took place from May 10th to 12th; each team had 48 hours to develop a creative concept for social, video, branding, customer experience and employer branding areas.
Five finalist teams, one for each category, were selected by an expert panel and presented their projects during Reply Xchange 2019, prior to the announcement of the winning team.
These are the numbers we made:
3480 REGISTRATIONS
1581 PLAYERS
587 registered TEAMS
350 Total SUBMISSIONS
On 15th March 2019 Reply launched the challenge online together with the teen edition. Participants from all over the world could use any programming languages to face one algorithmic or logical problem and send as many solutions they want. This all happened in a time span 4 hours total.
Both editions made these numbers:
15000 REGISTRATIONS
1337 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
1522 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
21000 total SUBMISSIONS
On 15th March 2019 Reply launched the challenge online together with the standard edition. Teenagers from all over the world could use any programming languages to face five algorithmic or logical problems.
This all happened in a time span 4 hours total.
Both editions made these numbers:
15000 REGISTRATIONS
1337 TEAMS for the Standard Edition
1522 TEAMS for the Teen Edition
21000 total SUBMISSIONS
On 5th October 2018 all registered teams took on the Cyber Security Challenge in Capture the Flag (CTF) mode.
Each team had to face 5 levels for each of the 5 categories offered with Cyber Security as main theme: Coding, Web, Miscellaneous, Crypto and Binary. This all happened in a time span 24 hours total.
For this first edition, here is the participation response:
6260 new REGISTRATIONS
61 different COUNTRIES
697 registered TEAMS
7820 FLAGS submitted, of which 962 scoring ones
On 15th March 2018 a problem statement was released online and the teams, had to solve it. Each team could send more than one solution and use their favourite programming language.
This all happened in a time span 4 hours total.
These are the numbers we made:
7776 CODERS registered in the challenge
67 different COUNTRIES
1207 TEAMS
2328 SOLUTIONS submitted
About
The Reply Code challenge was created in 2019. A team of coding experts from Reply (the Reply Code Masters), entered a few competitions. Based on their experiences, they decided to design a challenge powered by Reply aimed at Replyers first and then to students and professionals.
Now, over four intense hours, participants from all over the world come together each year to solve algorithm-based problems, using any programming language.
The Standard Edition is for students and professionals aged 16 or older. It involves solving logical mathematical problems by writing an algorithm in any programming language. You can train with the past problems and see if the level of the challenge fits for you.
If youre a teen students aged between 14 and 19, you can play on the Teen Edition!
Re-live the last edition and stay tuned for 2022!
Meet the Code Masters
Number of people in codemaster:
7
Marco Cusinato
Reply
Stefano
Spike Digital IT
Maurizio
Live IT
Umberto
Blue IT
Thierry Massimiliano
Live IT
Giuseppe
Concept Engineering IT
Mirko
Cluster IT
Training
Practice makes you perfect. Try your hand at past Code Challenges problems to prepare for the next round.
That way, you can better understand the type of challenge you might get and how to submit solutions. The training problem submission works just like the real challenge, except you’ll play alone and not in a team.
Gallery
FAQ
During the Reply Code Challenge
[NEW] University Students League
Technical requirements, submission and scoring
1. Who can take part?
The Reply Code Challenge is an online coding competition open to coders aged 16 years and above on the day of the challenge (9th March 2023), from all over the world. There are two challenges: one for Replyers and one for professionals and students who don’t work for Reply. The challenge environment will be different, but the problem statement will be the same.
2. Can I arrange a mixed team of Replyers and externals for this coding game?
No. There are two challenges and two separate leader boards, so mixed teams are not possible.
3. If I register on the platform, am I registered for the competition?
No. To play on 9 March, you need to join a team, create your own, or join the random queue. By registering on the platform, you’ll get updates on upcoming online challenges.
4. Is there a registration fee?
No, this coding challenge is completely free!
5. When does registration close?
You can register until 8 March, 23:59pm, CET.
6. I’ve registered, but I have no teammates. What can I do?
Once you’ve registered, you can join a team, form one, or ask for the ‘random queue’ to assign you one. If you join the random queue, you’ll receive an email with the name of your team before the challenge.
Alternatively, you can join our Discord Server in order to find participants to play with.
7. How do I change my registration details?
To update your details at any time, log in to your profile and click “Edit profile”, or follow this link.
8. How do I cancel my registration?
Please send your cancellation request to challenges@reply.com.
9. Is it an online-only code game?
Yes, it’s an online-only coding competition.
1. How can I form my team?
To form your team, log in to the Reply Challenges platform, click the “Team up” button and select “Create new team”. Once you’ve formed a team, you’ll see it when you log in to the platform. You can also choose a team name and invite your friends. Just fill in their email addresses and send the invitation. Remember, Replyers play a challenge reserved for them. Mixed teams are not allowed.
2. How many people can be in a team?
Your team can have 2 - 4 people. A team cannot consist of one person, so remember to invite friends or colleagues to join your team or join the ‘random queue’.
3. I don’t want to form a team, what can I do?
No problem. You have until 8th March at 23.59 to join someone else’s team or ask for the ‘random queue’ team assignment. If you join the random queue, you’ll receive a mail with the name of your team before the challenge.
4. Can I change who’s on my team before the challenge day?
No, but you are free to leave your current team. They won’t receive any notification, so remember to tell them.
1. How will we get updates about the Reply Code Challenge?
You’ll get some emails before and after the challenge, so check your mailbox regularly. You can always message the Reply Code Masters during the challenge via chat if you have questions.
2. Which language(s) do I need to speak?
All communications will be in English. Though you and your teammates can speak whatever language(s) you like! ☺
1. What browsers are supported?
The platform supports the latest version of Chrome, Explorer, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari. If you’re not sure what version you have, check here.
2. Something’s wrong with the platform. What should we do?
Try reloading the page, then try clearing your cache and cookies. If you’re still having problems, message the Reply Code Masters on chat or email challenges@reply.com.
1. Can we train for the Reply Code Challenge?
We strongly recommend you practice the training problems before the competition starts. That way, you can better understand the type of challenge you might get and how to submit solutions.
2. Which programming language should I know and use?
You can use any programming language to solve the problem.
3. How do we access the training problems?
Just visit the Reply Challenges platform any time. You can upload as many solutions as you want, as many times as you want. The training problem submission works just like the real challenge, except you’ll play alone and not in a team.
4. How do we submit a solution?
Submit a solution by dragging and dropping it or uploading it from your computer. Each submission should contain at least one output file and at least one source code file. Note, you’ll always have to upload the source file, but it’s not mandatory in sandbox mode.
5. Will I see a score when I submit a solution?
Yes. You’ll see a list of scores for all your submissions.
6. Will there be a leader board in the training area?
No, but you’ll see your submission scores.
7. What if we have a question about the problem statement?
You can message the Reply Code Master via chat.
1. When will you publish the problem?
On 9 March, at 4.30pm CET, we’ll publish the problem statement on the challenge platform. It will include the input files you can download from the challenge platform, where you’ll also submit your team’s solution files.
2. When is the leaderboard updated?
We’ll update the leaderboard regularly to show how teams are performing. We’ll also freeze it 30 minutes before the challenge deadline (but we’ll continue to update scores).
1. Whats the University Students League?
You can win a prize for your university, too. The final score that your team will get during the Code Challenge will be added to the University Leaderboard.
2. Whats the prize?
A cool Reply Arcade Game cabinet for the communal areas in your university or a financial donation to support an educational or research project.
3. How can I participate?
You just need to tell us the name of your university right after creating a team or joining an existing one.
4. What about teams from different universities?
The final score of your team will count for every person on the team: if in your team there will be students from different universities the points will be added to each of those.
5. Im not a student anymore, can I still take part in the Univerisity Students League?
Yes, you can, the University Students League is open to Alumni too. Right after creating your team, insert the name of the university where you studied and make it win.
5. Im a Replyer, can I take part in the Univerisity Students League?
No, you cant, but stay tuned for next communications on TamTamy about how to get the official t-shirt and the hubs where to play in the offices.
1. What programming language and tools can we use?
Just like most coding challenges, you can use your favourites.
2. What are the other computer/technical requirements?
You’ll need your own computer with an internet connection.
3. How do we upload a solution?
Your team submits solutions by uploading a file to the challenge platform.
4. How many solutions can we upload?
Your team can submit as many solutions as you like, any time during the challenge. We encourage you submit solutions as soon as you can, to check if your solution is working.
5. How do you calculate the score?
We’ll calculate your team score by summing up the maximum score of each valid input file; the scoring system awards solutions that best optimise the problem. Reply Code Masters may, at any time, reject a solution and invalidate its score. To settle ties, we’ll take time into account.
6. What should our source code look like?
Your team can use publicly released libraries and tools, but your solution must use original code. To be valid, every submission must include a file containing the source code of the program you developed to generate the output. Each source code file must be a UTF-8 plain text file or an archive of UTF-8 files.
7. Can we use any development and execution environment?
Yes. There are no restrictions on the development environment or programming language you use during the contest. You simply write programs to solve a task and submit the results as a text file to the challenge platform. You’re responsible for compiling and running your code on your own computer(s).
1. Who wins?
At the end of the code game, the Reply Code Masters will review and validate the best scoring submission from top-ranked teams on the leaderboard. The Reply Code Masters’ decisions regarding the rules of the coding competition are final.
2. When will you announce the results of the Reply Code Challenge?
We’ll publish a full list of results and notify all finalists no later than 10 days after the day of the challenge.
3. What are the prizes?
At the end of the challenge, the Reply Code Masters will review and validate the best scoring submission from top-ranked teams on the leaderboard. Each member of the winning team will win a Mac Book Pro™ 16 (Chip M1 Pro - CPU 10-core, GPU 16-core, Neural Engine 16-core - 32GB unified memory and 1TB SSD storage). The second-placed team members each win an Oculus Quest 2™, the team members placed third in the ranking each win Apple Air-pods Pro™. The Reply Code Masters’ judgement is final when enforcing competition rules and awarding prizes. We’ll send the winners details of how to claim their prize.
1. Who are the Reply Code Masters?
Reply Code Masters write the problems and are responsible for enforcing all coding challenge rules. They’ll review submissions from teams and award prizes. They may exclude any participants or teams at any time, for breaching competition rules.
2. What do we do if someone’s cheating or behaving badly?
We want to make training sessions and the challenge fair for everyone. So never stop others from taking part – for instance, by overloading the challenge platform, or sending files containing malware, viruses or other code intended to interrupt, destroy or limit the operation of platform, software, hardware or telecoms equipment. This will result in instant disqualification. If you’ve spotted any cheating or unfair behaviour, email challenges@reply.com
RULES
Development and execution environment
Clarification and communication
[NEW] University Students League
Your team can have 2 - 4 people, but this can’t change once the challenge has started.
During the registration process you can:
Please note: there will be two standard code challenges, one dedicated to Replyers and one to students and professionals outside Reply. The problem statement will be the same, but there will be two different leader boards.
Your team submits solutions through Reply’s challenge platform. The challenge platform features a regularly updated leader board, showing how teams are performing.
There will be a separate leaderboard for Replyers.
The leaderboard will be freezed 30 minutes before the challenge deadline (but we’ll continue to update scores).
We’ll publish the problem statement detailing the problem to solve on the challenge platform. It includes the input file format and the scoring rules. You can download the input file(s) from the challenge platform, where you also submit your team’s solution files.
Your team submits solutions by uploading files to the challenge platform.
A submission is made up of at least one output file for any input and a source file or project used to generate the output files.
Code Masters may inspect submissions at any time. We score each valid output file you submit, otherwise, we mark the output file as invalid. You can see which output files were invalid, along with an error message explaining why.
Your team can send submissions any time during the challenge. We calculate your team score by totaling the maximum score of each valid output file.
Reply Code Masters may, at any time, reject a submission or output files and invalidate its score. To settle ties, we’ll take into account the time the score has been reached, whoever comes first wins.
Each output file must be a UTF-8 plain text file. Each source file should be a UTF-8 plain text file or UTF-8 files archive.
You can use publicly released libraries and tools, but your team must develop original code to generate your solution. To be valid, every submission must include a file containing the source code of the program you developed to generate the output. Each output file must be a UTF-8 plain text file.
There are no restrictions on the type of development environment or programming language you can use. During the competition, you write programs to solve a task and submit the results as a text file to the challenge platform. You’re responsible for compiling and running your code on your own computer(s).
You can ask for clarification from the Reply Code Masters during the challenge via chat. Each member can chat between themselves via chat.
At the end of the challenge, the Reply Code Masters review and validate the best scoring submission from top-ranked teams on the leaderboard. Replyers compete on a different leader board.
This leader board is considered ‘temporary’ as the Reply Code Masters review the output and source files. We’ll publish the final leader board and notify all finalists no later than one week after the day of the challenge.
Each member of the first-placed team wins a Mac Book Pro™ 16. The second-placed team members each win an Oculus Quest 2™, the team members placed third in the ranking each win Apple Air-pods Pro™. The Reply Code Masters’ judgement is final and indisputable when enforcing competition rules and awarding prizes. We’ll publish the full results and notify the winners no later than one week after the day the challenge ends.
By playing the Code Challenge, you can win a prize for your university, too. The final score that your team will get during the Code Challenge will be added to the University Leaderboard. To join the University Students League you must tell us the name of your university, right after the creation of your team. On the day of the challenge the points you earn will contribute towards your university’s final score.
At the end of the Challenge, the university with the most points wins a Reply Arcade Game for its communal area. Or it can choose to receive a financial donation to support an educational or research project.
The final score of your team will count for every person on the team: if in your team there will be students from different universities the points will be added to each of those.
The University Students League is open to Alumni too. Right after creating your team, insert the name of the university where you studied and make it win.
We expect every team to have a positive attitude during the contest. No team should prevent other teams from taking part – for instance, by trying to overload the challenge platform, saturating the local WiFi, or interfering with other participants devices. This will lead to automatic disqualification. Similarly, do not try to disturb or distract members from other teams. You’re not allowed to receive any external help or support.
It is strictly against the rules – and the spirit of the Reply Code Challenge – for Replyers involved in the competition to help any team members taking part in the external challenge.
Reply Code Masters are responsible for enforcing all rules. They will review submissions from teams and award prizes. They may exclude any participants or teams at any time, if they breach any of the contest rules.
