Google Code Jam

Code Jam is Google’s global coding competition, It started back in 2003 as a competition limited to the topcoder area. It got its global face in 2007. Now programmers of all levels from across the globe put their coding skills to test through a series of online algorithmic puzzles and challenges designed by google engineers to grab a spot in the world finals and a chance to win the championship title and USD 15,000.

How to enter the competition:

• To enter the Contest, you must first create a profile at g.co/coding competitions (“Contest Profile”). Once your Contest Profile has been created, you will be able to register for google Contests.
• To participate in Google Code Jam, you need to sign up for each contest separately. You cannot register for just code jam and participate in hash code as well.

Only one contest profile is required to register for the competition.

• Make sure all the information you provide during registration is accurate, complete, and in English.
• Registration times are listed on the applicable Contest websites. You must determine the corresponding time in your time zone and frequently review Contest details on the Contest website.

Eligibility:

• Contestant must be at least sixteen (16) years of age at the time of registration for a Contest however, to participate in a final round of Code Jam the contestant must be at least eighteen (18) years old or the age of majority in their country of residence.
• Contestants must have a valid Google account to enter the contest.
• Contestants who are residents of Crimea, North Korea, Quebec, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, and Luhansk People’s Republic, and where prohibited by law are not eligible.
• Contestant is not eligible if he/she is a current employee, intern, contractor, officer, or director of Google or Alphabet or their affiliates.

Rounds: Code jam consists of a few rounds followed by the world finals. One must clear the algorithmic challenges in each round to reach the next levels and ultimately reach amongst the top 25 coding wizards who will compete for the championship title.

• Qualification Round: This round has basic/easy difficulty level questions to test basic knowledge and problem-solving skills. Those who score minimum qualifying pts within 27 hrs. progress to the next level.
• Round 1: The real competition begins here. There will be 3 sub-rounds in Round 1- 1a, 1b, and 1c. You will only get 2:30 hours and there will be 3 problems that will be more difficult than those in the qualification round. In each round, the top 1500 competitors will enter the next round. You can participate in as many rounds as possible until you rank in the top 1500 in any of the sub-rounds.
• Round 2: If you are in the top 1500 of any of the sub-rounds of round 1 you will enter round 2. Since round 1 is an elimination round only 4500 participants are left in this round after filtering. The difficulty level is high. The Questions in this round require expert-level programming skills to survive this round.
• Round 3: If you have managed to get into the top 1000 in round 2 you have entered round 3 of this competition and earned yourself an exclusive limited-edition Google Code Jam T-shirt. The 1000 participants compete to grab a spot in the top 25 and compete in the world finals.
• World Finals: It is not hard to guess that it is the toughest round of all. In this round, the top 25 participants compete with each other and the previous year’s code jam winner to win the tournament title along with a whopping amount of USD 15000.

Rewards:

• Winner of the tournament will get USD 1500 as prize money.
• The top 1,000 contestants who proceed to the third round of the competition will get a limited-edition Code Jam t-shirt.

You can prepare yourself by following How to Prepare for Google Code Jam?