Participants & registrations

Forming a team

Communications

Training

[NEW] Train & Win Programme

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 (10th March 2022).

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 9th March, 23:59 CET.

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, what can I do?

No problem. You have until 9th 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.

Alternatively, you can join our Find Your Teammate group on Telegram in order to find participants to play with. 

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 before the challenge. You can train by trying the past training problems. That way, you can better understand the type of challenge you might get and how to submit solutions. Another way to train is to take part in the Train&Win Programme, read here how it works.

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.

Train & Win Programme

1. What is it and how does it work?

This is training programme meant to prepare you for the Code Challenge 2022 Teen Edition on March 10th and it offers free training over three weeks. 

2. How to take part?

Ask your professors to enrol your school in the programme. Once your school is enrolled make sure to select your school in the dedicated dropdown menu once you start the training, so your points are allocated to your school correctly. Only enrolled schools can take part in the programme. If your teacher does not enrol on your school, you can still train, but you will not have the chance to make your school win 2000 euros.

2. From which date can I practice on the Train&Win Programme?

From 14th February, you can access the platform and train on ‘practice problems’ to prepare for real Reply Code Challenge ones. Training happens over three weeks:

• Week one: 14 - 18 February
• Week two: 21 - 25 February
• Week three: 28 February - 4 March

3. Whats the prize?

Your school can win a €2000 donation and a coding course designed by Reply experts.

Each Friday, we’ll total the points of all students from your school and award the school with the most points.

So the more students you encourage from your school take part, the more chance your school has of winning.

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 web call 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 times 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.