The Teen Edition was created in 2019 with two goals: propose a challenge entirely dedicated to teenagers and let them have fun and learn by coding. 

It is a coding team-competition for students from 14 to 19 years old:

in 4 hours each team has to solve five logical - mathematical problems by writing a good algorithm in any programming language.

If you are curious about the problems proposed or you are a teacher and want to train with your students, have a look at the training section. 

Reply believes and invests in talent scouting and lifelong

learning. The Reply Code Challenge initiative is part of Replys ongoing efforts to promote coding among the youngest generations. 

Next edition will be held online on March 12th at 16.30 CET. Register and form your team of 2 up to 4 member no later then March 11th at 23.59 CET. Only participants in team (of 2 up to 4 members) can compete. 

Are you up for the next challenge?

Practice makes you perfect. Try your hand at past Code Challenges Teen Edition problems to prepare for the next round. You can access below the past problem and see how well you can score. That way, you can better understand the type of challenge you might get and how to submit solutions. 

Participants & registrations

Forming a team

Communications

Training

Reply Challenges

During the Challenge

Technical requirements, submission and scoring

Winners and prizes

Code Masters and fair play

Participants & registrations

1. Who can take part?

All participants aged from 14 to 19 years on the day of the challenge (12th March 2020).

2. Does the school or class have to register?

No, the challenge is open to individual students. They will need to register as an individual, and then form a team made of 2 - 4 members.

3. When does registration close?

You can register until 11th March, 23:59.

4. I’m aged  between 16 and 19 years. Which challenge can I take part in?

You can choose the challenge you prefer based on your coding skills. To see if the level of the challenge is right for you, take a look at the Training problems.

Forming a team

1. How can I form my team?

You can create your team during the registration process.

2. How many people can be in a team?

Your team can have from 2 - 4 people.

3. I havent formed a team yet, what can I do?

No problem. You have until 11th 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 an email with the name of your team before the challenge.

4. Can I change who’s in my team before the challenge day?

Yes, but not once the challenge has started.

5. Do team members have to be together during the challenge?

No, teams can be in different towns, cities or countries during the challenge.

6. Does the school have to provide a space for the challenge?

No, but it could be done if a teacher or school wants to.

Communication

1. How will we get updates about the Reply Code Challenge?

You’ll receive emails before and after the challenge, so check your mailbox regularly. During the challenge, you can message the Reply Code Masters 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! ☺

Training

1. Can we train for the Reply Code Challenge Teen Edition?

We strongly recommend you practice on 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. 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.

3. Will I see a score when I submit a solution?

Yes. You’ll see a list of scores for all your submissions.

4. Will there be a leader board in the training area?

No, but you’ll see your submission scores.

6. What if we have a question about the problem statement?

You can message the Reply Code Master via chat.

Reply Challenges

1. How does the challenge work?

The challenge consists of five algorithm-based problems. Each problem requires solving five different input files of increasing difficulty. The platform will automatically generate input files for each problem as soon as a player clicks on the button to generate the input.

To help teams better understand each problem, we’ll publish the statement (detailing the problem to solve), some helpful assumptions, the input/output format, and some examples of correct input/output combinations.

2. How much time do teams have to solve the problems?

Teams have four hours to solve all 25 inputs, from 16.30 CET to 20.30 CET.

3. How can I communicate with my team members?

You can communicate between yourselves in any way you choose (face-to-face if you’re physically together) or via webcall if you’re in separate locations.

During the Challenge

1. How do we submit a solution?

Your team submits solutions through Reply’s challenge platform.

2. What if we have a question about the problem statement?

You can ask for clarification from the Reply Code Masters during the challenge via chat.

3. When is the leader board updated?

The challenge platform has a regularly updated leader board, showing how teams are performing. It will freeze 30 minutes before the challenge ends.

Technical requirements, submissions and scoring

1. Where can I run the code to test my solution?

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).

2. How do we upload a solution?

Your team submits solutions for each input by uploading a text file to the challenge platform. A solution is made up of one output file for each input and source file.

The uploaded source code is not executed during the challenge, but the Code Masters may inspect it at any time. The platform provides confirmation of output validation and the related score. Once you upload a submission, the input file will expire.

3. How many solutions can we upload?

Teams can request an input as many time as needed, until they provide the correct solution. Each new input is different from the previous one. Teams can only solve the final input if they’ve solved all the previous ones.

For the last input of each problem, the platform won’t show the validation result in real time. Instead, it will provide feedback only on how correct the format of your output file is. We’ll reveal these input scores at the end of the game, and update the leader board accordingly. In this case, the platform will consider only your latest submission, even if it does not solve the problem, though you can request/submit as many inputs as you want.

4. What should our source code look like?

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 an ASCII plain text file, or an archive of ASCII files. Each output file must be an ASCII plain text file. All input files will be an ASCII plain text.

5. Can we use any development and execution environment?

Yes, there are no restrictions on the type of development environment or programming language you can use.

6. Can I consult online material?

You can use publicly released libraries and tools, but your team must develop original code to generate your solution. There are no restrictions on the type of development environment or programming language you can use.

7. How much time do we have to solve each problem?

Once an input is generated, teams have limited time to solve it and upload their submission. We’ll tell you how much time you have to solve each input, which will be no more than a few minutes.

Winners and prizes

1. Who wins?

At the end of the challenge, the Reply Code Masters review and validate the scoring submission from top-ranked teams on the leader board. The Reply Code Masters’ decisions regarding the rules of the coding competition are final and indisputable.

2. What do we win?

The winning team will receive 5,000 euros. The second-ranked team will receive 2,000 euros, the third-ranked team will receive 1,000 euros.

3. What happens if two teams are tied for first place?

If there’s a tie-break, we’ll consider the total resolution time for each input. In other words, the sum of completion times of all the solved input files. If two or more teams have the same score, the team with the shortest time wins.

4. 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 one week after the day of the challenge.

Code Masters and fair play

1. Who are the Reply Code Masters?

The Reply Code Masters have organised the challenge. They’re responsible for enforcing all rules, reviewing submissions from teams, and awarding prizes.

2. What do we do if someone’s cheating or behaving badly?

We may exclude any participants or teams at any time, for failing to follow the contest rules.

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, interfering with other participants’ devices, or by disturbing or distracting other teams. Failing to play fairly will lead to disqualification.

3. Can I ask for someone else’s help?

You’re not allowed any external help or support.

Participants & teams

Challenge platform

Problem statement

Submission & scoring

Source code

Development and execution environment

Clarification and communication

Winners and prizes

Fair play

Reply Code Master

Terms&Conditions

Participants & teams

Your team can have 2 - 4 people, but this can’t change once the challenge has started.

All participants must be aged from 14 to 19 years the day of the challenge.

During the registration process you can:

• create a new team
• ask to join an existing one
• register and wait for a random team assignment once registration closes.

Challenge platform

Your team submits solutions through Reply’s challenge platform. The challenge platform features a regularly updated leader board, showing how teams are performing. The leader board will freeze 30 minutes before the challenge ends (but we’ll continue to update scores).

Problem statement

The challenge consists of five algorithm-based problems. Each problem requires solving five different input files of increasing difficulty. Teams have four hours to solve all 25 of them.

To help teams better understand each problem, we’ll publish the statement (specifying the problem to solve), some helpful assumptions, the input/output format, and some examples of correct input/output combinations.

The platform will generate input files for each problem automatically, as soon as a player clicks on the button to generate the input.

Submission and Scoring

Once an input is generated, teams have a limited amount of time to solve it and upload their submission. We’ll tell you how much time you have to solve each input, which will be no more than a few minutes.

Your team submits solutions for each input by uploading a text file to the challenge platform. A solution is made up of one output file for each input and source file. Code Masters may inspect submissions at any time. The platform provides confirmation of output validation and the related score. Once you upload a submission, the input file will expire.

Teams can request an input as many time as needed, until they provide a correct solution. Each new input will be different from the previous one. Teams can only solve the final input if they’ve solved all the previous ones.

For the last input of each problem, the platform will not show the validation result in real time. Instead, it will provide feedback only on the correctness of the format of your output file. We’ll reveal these input scores at the end of the game, and update the leader board accordingly. In this case, the platform will consider only your latest submission, even if it does not solve the problem. In this case, you can request as many inputs as you want.

Each output file must be an ASCII plain text file.

If there’s a tie-break, we’ll consider the total resolution time for each input. In other words, the sum of completion times of all the solved input files. If two or more teams have the same score, the team with the shortest time wins.

Source code

You can use publicly released libraries and tools, but your team must develop original code to generate your solution. Every submission must include a file containing the source code of the program you developed to generate the output. Each output file must be an ASCII plain text file.

Development and execution environment

You can use any development environment or programming language you want. 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).

Clarifications and communication

You can ask for clarification from the Reply Code Masters during the challenge via chat. Team members can chat between themselves via chat.

Winners and prizes

At the end of the challenge, the Reply Code Masters will review and validate the scoring submission from top-ranked teams on the 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.

The winning team will receive 5,000 euros. The second-ranked team will receive 2,000 euros, the third-ranked team will receive 1,000 euros. The Reply Code Masters decisions for enforcing contest rules and awarding prizes are final and indisputable. We’ll publish the full results and notify the winners no later than one week after the day the challenge ends.

Fair play

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 Wi-Fi, interfering with other participants’ devices, or by disturbing or distracting other teams. Failing to play fairly will lead to automatic disqualification. 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

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.