The UQCS CodeJam, our semester 1 flagship event, is an individual competitive programming competition designed to put the programming and problem solving abilities of students of all years to the test. You'll be given a list of questions to solve, each varying in difficulty and style, with harder questions earning more points. The questions use knowledge from a wide range of disciplines but can all be solved with the help of code.
It's a fun challenge to work through the questions, and getting experience with these styles of questions is especially useful as they are often asked by employers in technical interviews. The highest scoring competitors will be taking home some sweet prizes, courtesy of our sponsor for the event, IMC Trading! IMC are one of the world's most active proprietary trading firms and a key market maker in various products listed on exchanges throughout the world. They'll help support your journey and also provide you with some amazing networking opportunities!
Keep reading to find out more about the competition and what to expect. If you have any more questions, you can reach out at any of our social media pages or via our lovely Discord community.
So, how does it all work?
The UQCS CodeJam is a programming competition hosted online through HackerRank. You can code in virtually any language (see competition environment). Once you’ve written your code, it’s executed online against a number of test cases.
Tests will cover basic scenarios as well as larger and more complex cases to ensure your algorithm is efficient and reliable. Points are awarded for the number of tests you pass and are also based on the difficulty of the question.
There will be a leaderboard of competitors throughout the event for you to track number of points scored. The top scorers by the end of the day, as mentioned, will earn prizes!
How can I prepare?
You'll need a HackerRank account to compete; you can sign up here. You don’t need to do special practice or preparation, just come well-rested and ready to problem solve! If you'd like, you can try some practice questions on HackerRank to get familiar with the interface and style of questions. If you've never used HackerRank before, not to worry! We will be going through a short demo of how it works at the start of CodeJam. You can also sign up to the competition on HackerRank in advance of the day:
If you are coming in person, make sure to get a ticket too!
What do I do on the day?
The CodeJam will run from 10am – 4pm on Saturday 1st April. The live event will be hosted from the Advanced Engineering Building, room 49-301, but you can participate from anywhere. However, you must be competing in-person to be eligible for prizes. You can join in at any time but the more time you spend, the better your chances are of winning prizes!
We'll also have free lunch on the day too, so be sure not to miss out!
We’ll post updates and reminders throughout the day on our Discord server. Both the event kickoff and presentation of prizes will be live streamed on our YouTube channel, at the start and end of the day, respectively. The actual coding competition will be hosted on HackerRank.
Prizes!
We have various prizes, all sponsored by IMC Trading! The exact prize amounts will be revealed very soon.
| First Place Overall | |
|---|---|
| Second Place Overall | |
| Third Place Overall | |
| Top First Year |
Rules & Conditions
- Competitors must work individually and submit only their own work. The use of AI assistance tools and technologies is prohibited, and committee reserve the right to disqualify any competitors using or suspected of using these tools.
- There is a limit of one prize per person.
- To be eligible for prizes, you must be:
- a current university student,
- a current UQCS student,
- competing in-person,
- and registered on the UQCS CodeJam 2023 HackerRank contest
- You are considered a first year student, and thus eligible for the Top First Year prize, if this is your first or second semester of university studies.