Topcoder Open

Topcoder Open (TCO) was an annual design, software development, data science and competitive programming championship organized by Topcoder, and hosted in different venues around the United States. In the first two years, 2001 and 2002, the tournament was titled TopCoder Invitational.

In addition to the main championship, from 2001 to 2007, Topcoder organized an annual TopCoder Collegiate Challenge tournament, for college students only. The TopCoder High School competition was held from 2007 to 2010.

From 2015, Topcoder Regional events were held through the year in different countries.

In 2020–2023, in-person Topcoder Open finals were cancelled and replaced by virtual events due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic slowdown. The 2023 Topcoder Open was the final edition of the contest.

Competition tracks

Competition tracks included in the Topcoder Open tournament changed through its history. Many of them resemble the types of challenges offered to Topcoder Community through the year, but there is no 1:1 match. Here is the alphabetical list of all competition tracks ever present at TCO:

Algorithm Competition (SRM)

Timeline: 2001 – 2022

Champions: BelarusGennady Korotkevich tourist (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2014); Russia Petr Mitrichev Petr (2018, 2015, 2013, 2006); China Yuhao Du xudyh (2017); Japan Makoto Soejima rng_58 (2016, 2011, 2010); Russia Egor Kulikov Egor (2012); China Bin Jin crazyb0y (2009); Poland Tomasz Czajka[pl] tomek (2008, 2004, 2003); Netherlands Jan Kuipers Jan_Kuipers (2007); Poland Eryk Kopczyński[pl] Eryx (2005); Australia John Dethridge John Dethridge (2002); United States jonmac (2001).

Details:

This was the only track that was present at all main TCO events and at most of the other Topcoder events. It followed the format of regular 1.5 hours Single Round Matches:

• The Coding Phase – 75 mins: All competitors were presented with the same three algorithmic problems of differing complexity. Each problem had its own maximal number of points. Problem descriptions were initially invisible. Competitors had 75 minutes to solve these problems. A competitor could open any problem description in any order; once they opened a problem, the number of points they could get for the correct solution of that problem started decreasing over time. When the competitor submitted the problem solution—code that successfully compiles—they were awarded with the current number of points they could get for that problem. They could re-submit a solution, getting the further decrease number of points, minus extra penalty for the resubmission. During this coding phase, competitors could see the current points awarded to each participant, but they could not see whether the solutions of those participants were correct or incorrect, including whether these scores would hold after The System Testing Phase or if they would be reset.
• The Challenge Phase – 15 mins: Each competitor could see all submissions completed by the other competitors. They could optionally challenge any of them by submitting test cases that would cause other competitor's submission to produce an incorrect result. Submission of a correct challenge test case gave the submitter a 50 points award, but submission of an incorrect test case (i.e. the challenged solution can solve it successfully) would lead to 25 points penalty for the test case submitter.
• The System Testing Phase – In the last phase, system tests were automatically executed for all of the submissions from all competitors. If a submission failed testing, the scores awarded for that submission during The Coding Phase were reset to zero. The final scores after the system testing determined the winner.

First to Finish (F2F)

Timeline: 2009 – 2014, 2016 – 2022

Champions: Turkey Fatih Tas neonray (2022); Greece Thomas Kranitsas thomaskranitsas (2021); Brazil Victor Roberto Gomes da Cunha cunhavictor (2020); Nepal Dilip Kumar Thapa veshu (2019); Russia Dmitry Kondakov kondakovdmitry (2018); Nigeria Akinwale Ariwodola akinwale (2017, 2014); China vvvpig (2016); India Pratap Koritala supercharger (2013); China Lan Luo hohosky (2012); China Yang Li Yeung (2011); Ukraine Margaryta Skrypachova Margarita (2010); China Ninghai Huang PE (2009).

Details:

This was officially called Mod Dash from 2009 to 2013, and First2Finish from then on. Competitors were provided with a set of small programming tasks, such as bug fixes or enhancements in an existing codebase, and they received scores based on who correctly solved each task first. The exact rules for on-site competition varied from year to year.

Information Architecture

Timeline: 2015 only.

Champions: Spain Silvana Vacchina f0rc0d3r (2015).

Details:

This provided competitors with client requirements for a software product, and they were asked to create a wireframe mockup of the future app or website.

Marathon Match (MM)

Timeline: 2007 – 2022

Champions: Poland Przemysław Dębiak[pl] Psyho (2022, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2008); Romania Catalin-Stefan Tiseanu CatalinT (2021);Japan Hironao Tsutsumida iehn (2020); Belarus Gennady Korotkevich tourist (2019, 2018); China Tiancheng Lou ACRush (2015); South Korea Won-Seok Yoo ainu7 (2012); Japan Yoichi Iwata wata (2010); Russia Andrey Lopatin KOTEHOK (2009); Poland Mateusz Zotkiewicz Mojito1 (2007).

Details:

This was officially called Marathon from 2007 to 2022. It followed the format of regular MM competitions: 1–2 weeks for online competitions or 1 day during on-site competitions. Competitors were provided with the same algorithmic or data science problem, which was judged objectively with a live leaderboard which was visible to everyone. Each competitor could submit multiple times with no penalties, with the goal to submit code that scores the maximal possible amount of scores on that problem. During the competition, the leaderboard was generated based on submissions testing against a limited number of test cases, and, after the contest, the final results were determined with testing against a larger test dataset.

Quality Assurance Competition (QA)

Timeline: 2019 – 2022

Champions: Sri Lanka Nuwan Gunarathne codejam (2022, 2021, 2020); Latvia Vladimir Timofejev v.t. (2019)

Details:

The QA competition included structured and unstructured testing, structured test case writing, and automated testing.

Software Design

Timeline: 2004–2014

Champions: China Meng Wang albertwang (2014, 2013); Canada Michael Paweska argolite (2012, 2010); China WuJian Ye BLE (2011); Ukraine Olexiy Sadovnikov saarixx (2009); United States Tim Roberts Pops (2008, 2006); United States Sergey Kalinchenko kyky (2007); Russia Nikolay Archak nicka81 (2005); Romania Adrian Carcu adic (2004).

Details:

This was officially called Component Design from 2004 to 2009, and Design from 2010 to 2014. Competitors were asked to take client requirements for a software component or product as input and produce development documentation or technical specifications. Solutions were evaluated by a panel of judges according to objective scorecards.

Software Development

Timeline: 2004 – 2022

Champions: China xxcxy (2022); ChinaJiang Liwu jiangliwu (2021, 2019); Spain Dr. Sergey Pogodin birdofpreyru (2020, 2017); Vietnam Ngoc Pham ngoctay (2018); Poland Łukasz Sentkiewicz Sky_ (2016, 2015, 2014); China Zhijie Liu morehappiness (2013); China Yang Li Yeung (2012, 2010); Philippines Franklin Guevarra j3_guile (2011); China GuanZhuo Jin Standlove (2009 – Architecture, 2004); Argentina Pablo Wolfus pulky (2009 – Assembly); China Yanbo Wu assistant (2009 – Component Development); Canada Piotr Paweska AleaActaEst (2009 – Specification); Brazil Romano Silva romanoTC (2008); China Feng He hefeng (2007); Indonesia Sindunata Sudarmagi sindu (2006); China Qi Liu visualage (2005).

Details:

This was officially called Component Development from 2004 to 2009, and Development from 2010 to 2022. The actual rules differed from year to year, but, typically, competitors were presented with technical specifications for development of a software component, application, or tool, or they were presented with more open, hackathon-style requirements, which they must implement in the best possible way in 4 hours. Submitted solutions were evaluated by a panel of judges according to objective scorecards.

UI Design

Timeline: 2007 – 2022

Champions: Thailand Teeraporn Sriponpak iamtong (2022, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2012); India L. O. I. (2019); Indonesia Panji Kharisma kharm (2017); Indonesia Junius Albertho abedavera (2016, 2015, 2013, 2011); Indonesia Faridah Amalia Mandaga fairy_ley (2014); Indonesia Tri Joko Rubiyanto djackmania (2010); Australia Dale Napier djnapier (2009); Philippines Nino Rey Ronda oninkxronda (2008); China Yiming Liao yiming (2007).

Details:

The event was officially called Studio from 2007 to 2014, and UI Design from 2015 onwards. Competitors, provided with client requirements, were asked to create the best user interface design for a software product.

UI Prototype

Timeline: 2015–2018

Champions: Sri Lanka Mouly Gunarathne moulyg (2018, 2017, 2016); Sri Lanka Dileepa Balasuriya dileepa (2015).

Details:

Competitors were provided with design specifications for a website or web-application, and they were required to create a working prototype of the frontend within approximately 4 hours. The resulting submissions were judged against objective scorecards.

List of Topcoder Open events

These are the main Topcoder Open events where champions were determined.

Topcoder Open victories by countries represented by champions

Notes