Facebook seems to be interested in the ‘hacker’ term and is trying to involve them in a number of contests and events, by giving them rewards for what they deserve. Today’s announcement from the social networking giant, is about the ‘2012 Hacker Cup’. Registrations for the same are open now, as the contest begins this month and would end two months later. There would a number of rounds, wherein eliminations would take place and accordingly, prices would be given even.
This is not the first time Facebook has opted for a Hacker Cup. But there are not regulars into it. This is their second annual Hacker Cup. A brief about Hacker Cup, it is an annual algorithmic programming contest open to engineers from around the world. The judging of the programmers in this case will be on the basis of accuracy and speed as they race to solve algorithmic problems to advance through up to five rounds of programming challenges. The ultimate winner will hold the title World Champion for Facebook’s 2012 Hacker Cup.
The proceedings for the programmers is staged in a way to let only knowledgeable hackers jump in. the competition would start on January 20 at 4:00 PM PST and would comprise of a 72-hour Qualification Round. The same ends on January 23 at the same time. Here, the participants, who have been registered, will be given three problems and the criteria to qualify would be to at least solve one problem correctly. All those who pass this stage, will advance to Online Round 1.
The next round, that is Online Round 1, has a shortened time period for users to finish the task. It starts on January 28 at 10:00 AM PT and ends on January 29 at 10:00 AM PT. With three problems yet again, the criteria again is to solve at least one problem correctly in 24 hours. Here, it is possible that Facebook might get more than 500 participants qualifying with the mentioned criteria. In this case, the top 500 would advance to the Online Round 2. So, the masses would be cleared at this stage basically.
For the next level, the wait would not be for more than a week even, but things only get tough. Online Round 2 lasts for just three hours, which will be on February 4. It will start at 1:00 PM PT and end at 4:00 PM PT. The solving process would have participants presented with a problem sets and the top 100 scorers would only qualify for the next round. Moreover, these 100 would receive an official Hacker Cup t-shirt and will be notified via an e-mail, noting their advancement to the next round.
The shortlisting would continue in this Online Round 3, with the participants getting three hours yet again. It starts from February 11 at 1:00 PM PT to February 11 at 4:00 PM PT. In these three hours, the 100 competitors will have to solve the presented problem sets. Here, only the top 25 would have reach the final round at Facebook. These 25 hackers will be lucky to fly down to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
Talking about the unnoticed restrictions, the company makes it clear that if a Online Round 3 participant does not reside in the U.S., finalists will be responsible for obtaining their own entry visa before arrival in the country. For the reimbursement, the finalist will get only up to $100 USD, which will be for any visa application fee in travel expenses incurred in obtaining the visa.
Finally, these 25 finalists will have to note that the final round will be help on March 17 and the prices include cash and “other awesome goodies.” Specifically, the first prize is $5,000 USD, title as world champion, and the honor of being immortalized on the Hacker Cup trophy. The remaining prizes are as follows: $2,000 for second place, $1,000 for third, $100 for fourth through 25th, and “awesome t-shirts” for the top 100 hackers coming out of the second online round.
One can check out the FAQ as well as the Terms & Conditions for further details.