Facebook has opened registration for the social network’s annual Hacker Cup competition, which includes Africa, and has US$10,000 prize money up for grabs.
The Facebook Hacker Cup is an opportunity for programmers in Africa to showcase their skills and also presents them, if they make it to the final round of 25 programmers, with the chance to visit Facebook’s Headquarters in Menlo Park in the United States.
The competition is held in a round robin format with the first round starting online and then culminating in a final onsite round at Facebook’s HQ.
Preliminary rounds will be held between January 25 and February 16.
The final on site round takes place from March 22-23 and will see the top 25 programmers flown to the social network’s HQ.
There are no limits to the number of people entering the competition, but terms and conditions include being a registered Facebook user, being 18 years old or above and not a resident in a country that prohibits the competition.
The competition will feature contestants being given programming problems to solve. Answers need to be provided in the form of source code and an output file illustrating how it works.
Not a single African country was represented in last year’s final 25 of the Hacker Cup which saw approximately 8,000 programmers from 150 countries.
Facebook Hacker Cup 2013 dates
Jan 7-27 — Registration
Jan 25-27 — Online Qualification Round
Feb 2 — Online Elimination Round 1
Feb 9 — Online Elimination Round 2
Feb 16 — Online Elimination Round 3
March 22-23 — Onsite Finals at Facebook
To register click here.
