• code.sprint is open for secondary and post-secondary students coming from State, Church and Independent schools/institutions, as well as undergraduate students following a Bachelors degree and software developers situated in the Maltese islands.
• Eligible participants must have:
  • Computing as an optional subject at MATSEC level, OR
  • Computing / IT at Intermediate or Advanced level, OR
  • Bachelors degree in the field of Computing OR
  • Employed as software-developer on a full or part-time basis.
• Students who register for the Secondary category (Years 9, 10 and 11) must be confirmed by their school teacher. Teachers can confirm only three students per school. Selection of the students is left in the discretion of the school.
• There is no registration quota for post-secondary, undergraduate students, and developers categories..
• Registration is done through this website.
• Registration deadline is Friday, 30th June 2022.

Secondary & Post-Secondary categories:

• Being mainly a challenge for students sitting for the Sec, Intermediate or Advanced examination, participants are to use JAVA programming language only.
• BlueJ is the only IDE software editor that will be used for all the tasks provided. Non-BlueJ packages will NOT be accepted.
• The Qualifiers round will be held online via Zoom. A session link will be provided to all participants prior to the contest.
• Participants are expected to:
  • switch on their webcam at all times, and
  • immediately accept an invite from the invigilator to share their screen when prompted.
• The Final round will be at held at ICE Malta (NOT ONLINE). Exemptions to participate online are catered for on a case by case basis.

Undergraduate & Developers categories:

• For the Undergraduate category, participants following a Bachelor Degree in CS / IT are eligible.
• For the Developers category, participants must be currently engaged in a software development career (either employed or self-employed)
• Participants are to use any programming language/s of preference.
• Contest sessions will be held online via Zoom. A session link will be provided to all participants prior to the contest.
• Strict security procedures will be in place and the whole session will be recorded as per Terms and Conditions. During the session, it is mandatory that participants:
  • switch on their webcam from 9:00am till 5:00pm on both days,
  • are encouraged to maintain healthy habits and take short breaks. However, participants’ webcam should always be on,
  • immediately accept an invite from the invigilator to share their screen when prompted,
  • undergo a 10-minute viva session and expected to answer the judges’ queries/concerns.
• There are no rules on whether working on the task after the end of the first day of contest continues or not.

Generic R&R:

• Being an open-book competition; participants can reference any online/offline resources they deem fit.
• Only one solution per task must be submitted to the judges.
• A judging panel will give points to the work presented to them according to established criteria.
• The task specifics and an assessment rubric will be given during the contest. Therefore, participants will be aware of what the judges are expecting from them.
• Any case of code copying / plagiarism will result in the disqualification of the concerned participant/s from the contest.
• Any code taken from online sources must be referenced by including the URL as a comment in the source code.
• Any decision by judges will be final.

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Check How to install Zoom app.
Note: there is no need to sign up on Zoom. From the Zoom app, you can click on the ‘Join a Meeting’ option and insert the meeting link that we will provide.

Secondary & Post-Secondary categories:

• Participants are presented with a series of tasks ordered according to level of difficulty.
• Every task is timed according to the level of difficulty.
• Participants are to carry out the tasks on an individual basis.
• Participants must submit their solution to the judges at the end of every task.
• The challenge includes a qualifications round and the top 10 participants will pass to the final round.

Undergraduate & Developers category:

• Individual participants are given a two-day time frame to solve the given task.
  Download the undergrad or developers guidebook to you better prepare for this competition.

The tasks provided during the contest comply with the content covered in the respective syllabus as follows:

Secondary Category:

• Input Statements  (participants can use either the Scanner or Keyboard class but not a mix of both)
• Output statements
• Assignment expressions
• Sequential execution
• Conditional execution and branching (If-Else & Switch Constructs)
• Looping constructs (For, Do & While Loops, including Nested Loops)
• 1D Arrays
• Simple objects (not including Abstraction, Encapsulation, Inheritance & Polymorphism)

Post-Secondary Category:

• Content covered in the Secondary Category
• Object-Oriented Programming (Encapsulation, Message passing, Inheritance, Information Hiding, & Polymorphism)
• The use of Static, Abstract Classes & Recursion
• Exception Handling (Use of “throws” and the “try-catch” block)
• Stacks (LIFO structure, static and dynamic structure, Push and Pop algorithms and traversing of stack)
• Lists (Linear, Circular, Double Linked & Queues)
• Binary Trees
• Hash Tables
• Multidimensional Arrays and Vector lists
• Sorting (Insertion, Selection, Bubble, Quick, Merge algorithms)
• Searching (Linear & Binary Algorithms)
• Files (Text, Random and Object Files)
• Serialization (Interface, single instances, & vector/array lists)

Undergraduate & Software Developers Category:

For the undergraduate and developers category there is no set level of programming. Participants are expected to rise to the challenge!
Download the undergrad or developers guidebook to you better prepare for this competition.

Participants are encouraged to enjoy this challenge for the sake of the experience, learning and fun. However:

Secondary & Post-Secondary category:

• Winners will be presented with the code.sprint trophy.
• Winners and two runners-up will be awarded:
  • a place in code.sprint hall of fame,
  • an awarding digital certificate,
  • a sponsorship for further studies in programming at ICE Malta,
  • other prizes as follows:
    • €250 cash prize for the winner,
    • €150 cash prize for the runner up,
    • €100 cash prize for the second runner up,
    • top 10 code sprinters will be given a €50 voucher from a local tech store.
• All finalists will be given a digital finalist certificate.
• All other participants will be given a digital certificate of participation.

Undergraduate category:

• The winner and two runners-up will be presented with:
  • a place in code.sprint hall of fame
  • an awarding digital certificate,
  • €1500 cash prize for the winner,
  • €1000 cash prize for the runner up,
  • €500 cash prize for the second runner up.
• All other participants will be given a digital certificate of participation.

Software Developers category:

• The winner and two runners-up will be presented with:
  • a place in code.sprint hall of fame
  • an awarding digital certificate,
  • €3000 cash prize for the winner,
  • €1500 cash prize for the runner up,
  • €500 cash prize for the second runner up.
• All other participants will be given a digital certificate of participation.

• Right to cancel or modify: code.sprint reserves the right to cancel, suspend or modify the challenge if any problem prevents the challenge from running as planned.
• Release: All participants agree to release and hold code.sprint harmless from and against any claim associated with the challenge/event.
• Limitation of liability: code.sprint is not responsible and cannot be held liable for technical errors or other things that may prevent the challenge from running as planned.
• Right to substitute: code.sprint reserves the right to substitute the awarding prizes with another prize if the advertised prize is not available.
• Permission to take screenshots of online sessions: code.sprint reserves the right to take screenshots during online contest session/s which will be used as evidence for accreditation purposes only. 
• Permission to record sessions: For the undergraduate and software developers category, the two-day online sessions will be recorded. These recordings will not be used for any purpose, except to monitor the teams during the contest, and will be deleted after the award ceremony.
• Permission to store participants’ work: code.sprint reserves the right to store the work submitted by the participants for up to 10 years for accreditation purposes.
• Disqualification: You may be disqualified from code.sprint contest and forfeit any prizes you may be eligible to receive if the organizer reasonably believes that you have attempted to undermine the legitimate operation of the contest according to the Contest Rules & Regulations. You may report violation of these terms by another contestant by contacting us.