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Contest rules

Preamble

The CodinGame Contests are online programming competitions where programmers / software developers from around the world come to challenge themselves for fun, or to showcase their skills.
CodinGame Contests involve the development of computer programs using one of the offered programming languages to solve complex problems within a limited time frame. These contests are anonymous, and no personal data is shared with CodinGame's potential partners.

Article 1: Organization of the CodinGame Contests

CodinGame, a simplified joint stock company with a capital of 15 400 Euros, registered with the Trade and Companies Register of Montpellier (France) under the number 75053861300019, whose headquarters are located at 396 rue du Mas de Verchant, Immeuble Archimède - 34000 Montpellier, France, organizes the CodinGame programming Contests.

CodinGame Contests take place online on the Internet (or, in some cases, online and onsite) at dates (and locations) specified on the Site www.codingame.com.

CodinGame Contests are anonymous for all Participants. No personnal data are shared with any partner.

Article 2: Conditions for participating in the CodinGame Contests

Detailed information on the CodinGame Contests and how to participate can be found on the Site: www.codingame.com.

CodinGame Contests are open to any individual over 18 years old, with an internet connection and a valid email address, regardless of their nationality, and without any specific educational or professional requirements.

Access to the CodinGame Contests is prohibited for the following people:

  • Officers and employees of CodinGame or any affiliate (it controls, which controls it or under common control with it), as well as their family members (ascendants and descendants);
  • Anyone who has worked or is working on developing the CodinGame Contests, as well as their family members (direct ascendants and descendants).

CodinGame reserves the right to ask any Participant to justify these conditions. Any Participant who doesn't meet these conditions or who refuses to provide proof shall be excluded from the CodinGame Contest and shall not benefit from the advantages if successful in the CodinGame Contest.

By participating in a CodinGame Contest, all Participants shall refrain from cheating, faking, thieving identity or any other technique to change the result of the Contest. They shall be required to participate and perform tests alone without the help of a third party or any technical assistance.

Participation in the CodinGame Contests is free of charge for Participants and doesn't imply any purchase obligation.

Participation is strictly personal ; each Participant may only register once for a particular CodinGame Contest and may not participate in any way on behalf of third parties.
The Participants irrevocably agree that all solutions that they submit to the CodinGame platform during the Contest may be published under GPL v3 license, and they may be made ​​publicly available to anyone through CodinGame at the end of the Contest. However Participants retain ownership of all intellectual and industrial property rights (including moral rights) in and to code they submit to the CodinGame platform during the Contest.

Participation in the CodinGame Contests implies acceptance of these in their entirety. Failure to comply with these shall result in the participation being considered null and void.

Participants also state that they submit to the decisions of CodinGame for any case not provided for in these or any contentious situation.

Article 3: Registering for the CodinGame Contests

To participate in a CodinGame Contest, Participants simply need to connect to the Site, click on the button "Join in" corresponding to the selected CodinGame Contest, and register by filling in the following fields:

  • email
  • password
  • nickname

To become familiar with the development platform used for the CodinGame Contests, Participants can access a training page on the Site by clicking on the following link: GAMES.

Article 4: Practical programming test

At the date and time the CodinGame Contest starts, registered Participants will receive a link at the email address indicated when registering to the Contest, through which they will be able to connect to the Contest platform.

The platform provides an online development environment that allows Participants to solve the Contest's programming problems and submit their program directly online, without having to resort to external programs.

Participants may choose to use their own development environment but they then must submit their response within the online development environment for the answer to be taken into account by the rating system (an illustrative example of this is on the Site).

Once on the platform, and after having clicked on the "Start" button, Participants shall have access to the first problem statement.

Participants have an overall time to finish the Contest. This time is noted at the top of the IDE, it counts down and ends at the same time for everyone. Within that timeframe, Participants can manage the time they spend on each problem as they wish.

In order to facilitate time management, an indicative duration to solve each problem is displayed on top of each exercise statement. Participants can navigate through the questions, choose to spend more time on a problem, or go back to a previous question to refine their solution until the overall time is elapsed.

However, on the last question, once the "Submit" button has been clicked, the total work is considered validated and Participants cannot go back to modify their programs anymore. If Participants have not submitted their solutions on the platform within the overall time limit, their work will be submitted automatically as is.

Article 5: Determination of result

The evaluation of Participants is objective and is done on the platform through an automated system configured in order to evaluate the solutions submitted by Participants.

Code submitted by Participants for each question will be compiled and evaluated according to the following criteria:

  • Scores for the test cases

Points are awarded when the solution is sent to the platform: the code is tested with test cases that reflect the specifications associated with the problem statement. In order to avoid cheating, these test cases are different from those given in the problem statement.

Participants whose code passes all test cases on the platform servers shall obtain the maximum score.

Applicants whose code does not compile or fails all the test cases will be assigned a score of zero.
Participants' codes are evaluated on a set of test cases directly related to the statement of each problem.
On the basis of this automatic evaluation, each Participant will receive a score calculated using the following formula: sum of points for each test passed / total sum of all the test cases.
This ratio is expressed in the form of a percentage.

  • Submission time

In the case of tied scores, Participants may be ranked taking into account the time taken to submit solutions to problems.

The time spent to solve a problem shall be considered when deciding between two equal scores: if the number of points awarded to two people is equal then the person who has spent the least time to answer all the problems shall be classified above the other, although the scores remain equal.

  • Participants results

The day following the Contest, all Participants will receive by email their detailed results, including the following:
  • Their score
  • The source code of their solutions
  • Time spent solving each problem
  • Success or failure of the test cases defined for each problem
  • The number of points associated with each test case

The results are obtained by applying objective criteria, on validation of an automated performance measurement process and the scores and ranking cannot be disputed nor appealed.

Article 6: Rewards - Prizes

Without any obligation for CodinGame, certain CodinGame Contests may propose rewards in the form of prizes, which may be given to Participant(s) with the highest rank.

In that case, the description of the CodinGame Contest on the Site will expressly state the awarding (or not) of prizes for the considered CodinGame Contest, which is neither an essential element, nor the primary purpose of the CodinGame Contests.

In the event that the CodinGame Contest provides prizes, the description of the CodinGame Contest concerned on the Site will mention the nature of the prizes to be awarded.

The Participant who has won an award shall be contacted within 2 weeks after the end of the CodinGame Contest and the prize will be sent to the address indicated in the application form.

Prizes offered may not give rise to any dispute, nor delivery of their exchange value in any form whatsoever, or their replacement or exchange for any causes whatsoever, since this Contest does not constitute a promotional game.

CodinGame however, reserves the right to replace prizes with a prize of equal or greater value including, but without limitation, in the event of force majeure, if prizes originally planned are out of stock or in case of any other unforeseen, irresistible and external event which makes it impossible to issue the planned prizes in a timely manner.

Article 7: Data Protection

The information required on the Site, such as email, name, address, etc... is collected and used in order to manage the Contest, to run a service in accordance with the Participant's expectations, to contact the Participants, to manage the platform, and to keep a record of exchanges and transactions.

This information, as well as the information entered in the detailed profile will also be used to generate internal statistics.
The technical service providers who may be in charge of the management of the Contest are required to respect the confidentiality of the information and to use it only for the specific operation for which they are required to intervene.

Participants have the right to access, rectify or delete their personal information which may be exercised by a simple written request addressed to CodinGame's registered office.

For more information concerning your rights, the purposes and legal bases of the processing and the duration of storage of your Data, you may consult our Privacy Policy.

Article 8: Exclusion

Non-compliance with the provisions of one of the items listed above shall lead to disqualification from the CodinGame Contest. The decision shall be made by CodinGame.

Cheating is forbidden, under penalty of disqualification from the CodinGame Contest. Cheating means:
  • Public release of a solution
  • Exploitation of a flaw in the computing system
  • The use or misuse of a solution
  • An attempt to attack CodinGame servers
  • Obfuscating your code as well as creating obstacles to its reading and understanding.
  • Cheating or wrongdoing observed, such as in particular being assisted by a person or a machine, participating collectively, replacing on behalf of a registered Participant

CodinGame reserves the right to make all the necessary checks regarding the Participants' identity and address.
Any indication of false identity or address shall cause the Participant to be eliminated.
CodinGame may cancel the participation of any Participant who has not complied with these.
This cancellation may be made at any time without notice.

Article 9: Industrial and Intellectual Property

The reproduction, representation or use of all or part of the components proposed in the CodinGame Contests is strictly prohibited.

All data of any kind, and in particular logos, text, graphics, video or audio clips, trademarks, software, etc., appearing on the Site are necessarily protected by copyright, trademarks and all other intellectual property rights belonging to the organizer.

The latter consents a private, non-collective and non-exclusive right on such content to the Participants.

The Participants commit under these not to reproduce, summarize, modify, alter or redistribute without the organizer's prior permission, all or any part of the contents referred to in this article.

Article 10: Liability and Force Majeure

CodinGame may in no way be held responsible for the failure of the internet network and the successful sending and receipt of mail, and the lack of postal services.

CodinGame reserves the right to shorten, extend, suspend or cancel the CodinGame Contests if so required. It shall not be held liable if an unforeseen circumstance or a case of force majeure imposed any changes whatsoever to the CodinGame Contests.

CodinGame also reserves this right in case of computer viruses, external attack, fraud, technical failure, and Participants shall be unable to seek its responsibility for this.
Thus CodinGame reserves the right to sue in court those responsible for these facts.

In addition, CodinGame shall not be held liable for damages of any nature whatsoever, originating from a case of force majeure or any other external element, such as loss of revenue, data, customers, or any financial or commercial loss, any disturbance to business, lost profits or immaterial damages

Also, the responsibility would not be sought if the contract execution is delayed prevented due to a case of force majeure or unforeseeable circumstances, due to the other party or a third party or an external cause such as social conflicts, the intervention of civil or military authorities, natural disasters, fires, water damage, malfunction or interruption of the telecommunications network or power supply.

Force majeure means any event outside the affected area, of an unforeseeable, unavoidable and insurmountable nature, that prevents either party from fulfilling all or part of their obligations as stipulated by this contract.

Insofar as is permitted by law, in no event will the sponsor and/or collaboration partner of the CodinGame Content or CoderPad France SA and all their respective officers, directors, employees and representatives be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, arising out of (i) participant’s participation in the CodinGame Contest; and (ii) the nature or quality of any prizes awarded; (iii) the operation of the CodinGame Contest. Without limiting the foregoing, everything offered under this CodinGame Contest is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Article 11: Refund of participation costs

It is recalled that any connection made on an unlimited flat-rate basis (Cable, DSL ..) will not give rise to any refund.

Article 12: Access and Availability

CodinGame is subject to an obligation of means to the Participant for the Site maintenance and is therefore committed to take all necessary measures to ensure that CodinGame Contests take place in the best conditions of transit time, useful debit and permanence.

However, CodinGame cannot guarantee the operation of services twenty-four hours per day and seven days a week in particular due to nature of Internet and computer and network infrastructures required to conduct the CodinGame Contest.

In all the cases mentioned, no compensation will be paid to the Participants whatever the damage suffered.

Indeed, malfunction or unavailability of the Site does not constitute a period during which the organizer does not fulfill its contractual obligations.

Article 13: Guarantees

By entering the CodinGame Contest, the Participant claims to have the real skills that are sought.

They declare that during the CodinGame Contests they will make every effort to behave in a fair and loyal manner, and in particular to inform CodinGame within three calendar days of the signature of a work contract, a promise of employment or a written commitment that they may conclude with a selected company.

Article 14: Dispute

If one or more provisions of these are declared invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

All cases not covered by the Contest shall be settled by CodinGame whose decisions are final.

The law applicable to this contract is the French law.

Any dispute arising in connection with a CodinGame Contest shall be the subject of an attempt for amicable settlement.

In the absence of agreement, the dispute shall be submitted to the competent courts in the jurisdiction of the organizing company, unless contrary to public order.

Any dispute or claim relating to a CodinGame Contest shall be made ​​in writing and sent to the registered head office.

No dispute shall be admissible later than two months after the CodinGame Contest is closed.

Article 15: Obtaining the Rules

The Rules can be consulted on the Site at the following address: www.codingame.com/rules