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Computer Science Challenge
Flex your writing skills!
In celebration of Pride Month, we are excited to introduce our first Computer Science Challenge in honor of Alan Turing, the brilliant gay English mathematician and crypto-analyst who is widely considered to be the “Father of Computer Science.” His birthday would have been on June 22, right in the middle of our challenge! So let’s celebrate.
For this challenge, there is only one simple writing prompt and one winner. Our winner will receive an exclusive DEV badge of honor and a gift from the DEV Shop. Participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge.
Key Dates
- Contest start: June 12, 2024
- Submissions due: June 23, 2024
- Winners announced: June 25, 2024
Badge Rewards
Winners
Congratulations to our Computer Science Challenge winners! Read the full announcement post here.
One Byte Explainer
Challenge Prompt
One Byte Explainer
Your challenge is to explain a computer science concept in 256 characters or less.
You can pick any concept (i.e. “Big O Notation, “Recursion” “P vs NP Problem”) and explain concisely what it is and why it’s relevant. You have 256 characters — less than a tweet — to get your point across, so the challenge is keeping it simple.
256 characters is ludicrously few for some of these concepts, that’s what makes it a challenge!
Would you rather be coding, with a chance to win cash prizes? Then check out the Twilio Challenge with a $5,000 prize pool!
Judging Criteria:
- Accuracy of explainer
- Effectiveness of communication
- Creativity
Computer Science Challenge FAQ
Participation
Can I submit to a prompt more than once?
Yes, you can submit multiple submissions per prompt but you’ll need to publish a separate post for each submission.
Can I work on a team?
Yes, you can work on teams of up to four people.
- If you collaborate with anyone, you’ll need to list their DEV handles in your submission post so we can award a badge to your entire team! Please only publish one submission per team.
- DEV does not handle prize-splitting, so in the event that your submission wins the shop gift, you will need to split that amongst yourselves. Thank you for understanding!
How old do I have to be to participate?
Participants need to be 18+ in order to participate.
If I live in X, am I eligible to participate?
For eligibility rules, see our official challenge rules.
Submission
What happens if my submission is considered plagiarized or invalid?
Anything deemed to be plagiarism will not be eligible for prizes. Incidental plagiarism may simply result in your disqualification from the challenge (regardless of the number of other valid submissions you have published). Egregious plagiarism will result in your suspension from DEV entirely. Any non-generic, non-trivial usage of prior work, including open source code must be credited in your submission.
Do submissions have to be in English?
Non-english submissions are eligible for a completion badge but not eligible for prizes due to the current limitations of our judges. We will not be judging on mastery of the English language, so please don’t let this deter you from submitting if you are not a native English speaker! We hope to evolve this in the future to be more accommodating.
Can I use AI?
Use of AI is allowed as long as all other rules are followed. We want to give you a chance to show off your skills in realistic scenarios. If you use AI tools to help you achieve your submission, all the power to you.
Judging and Prizing
Can there be ties?
In the event of a tie in scoring between judges, the judges will select the entry that received the highest number of positive reactions on their DEV post to determine the winner.
How will I know if I won?
Winners will be announced in a DEV post on the winner announcement date noted in our key dates section.
When will winners receive their Forem Shop gift?
The DEV Team will contact you via the email associated with your DEV profile within, at most, 10 business days of the announcement date to share the details of the shop gift.
When will I receive my DEV badge?
Both participation and winner badges will be awarded, in most cases, the same day as the winner announcement.
When will I receive my prizes? The DEV Team will contact you via the email associated with your DEV profile within, at most, 10 business days of the announcement date to share the details of claiming your prizes.
Computer Science Challenge Rules
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends June 23, 2024 at 11:59 PM PDT. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entires must be submitted during the content period. For Official Rules, see Contest Rules and General Contest Official Rules.
