Are you a skilled programmer in high school? Do you want a fun, but elite, competition to showcase your skills? Welcome to the HPE CodeWars, an annual in-person and virtual coding competition for individuals around the world to compete against each other in a fun, gamified environment. Sponsored by HP, one of the world’s leading tech giants, CodeWars is a perfect competition for any beginner or advanced coder, with the opportunity to win prestige and HPE products!

What is HPE CodeWars?

HPE CodeWars is an international coding competition run by Hewlett Packard Enterprise that encourages students of all ages to explore software development and technology careers, while having fun and developing their programming skills. HPE CodeWars ran its first competition back in 1999 at the HP Campus in Houston, Texas, but has now expanded internationally, and is one of the biggest coding competitions in India. The goal is to provide an inclusive environment for students to gain hands-on coding experience, collaborate with peers, and get exposure to potential career paths in the tech industry through talks with HPE mentors.

The HPE CodeWars coding challenges are known for their range of difficulty, accessibility for all, and fun style of questions asked, which address some real-life scenarios that can be represented through code. The competition emphasizes the development of technical skills like collaborative coding, fast and efficient development, UI/UX design, and communication.

HPE CodeWars is a top-tier tech competition, and one indicator of the quality of competition is the fact that it is backed by HP, a leading global tech company Strong performances demonstrate a student’s ability to design systems efficiently, iterate through different technical approaches, create intuitive user experiences, and communicate ideas effectively. In the United States, there are approximately 1000 participants with a total of 24 winners, with 12 across each division. It may not be the biggest coding competition in the United States, thus may hold less prestige compared to competitions such as AMSCO, but still can show future employers and admissions counselors a student’s skills and talents in computer science, by competing against thousands of other international and national programmers and succeeding. Winners will be given a trophy, media recognition by HP, and an opportunity for fun projects – such as getting the chance to visit the International Space Station. Everyone has the chance to win items from a list of products worth $15,000!

Who is Eligible to Participate in the HPE Codewars?

The exciting part about HPE CodeWars is that people of all ages and backgrounds can participate! It is open to students aged 13 to 18 globally. Many countries, such as the US, Spain, China, and India, host local HPE CodeWars events, making it accessible for coders from diverse locations. Check out this link here for an annual article by HPE that details a bit on CodeWars, including the countries where it is held. The competition is separated into Novice and Advanced, thus there are no age divisions, only by skill. Students are encouraged to participate in teams of 2-3, but one may participate individually if the situation requires it. This competition is perfect for anyone interested in computer science, whether they are a novice or advanced, and want a fun way to get exposure to competitive programming in a less stressful environment than other competitions out there. They will have the opportunity to develop their own programming skill set, critical and agile thinking ability, and the ability to work under time constraints and pressure.

Timeline and Structure of HPE CodeWars

HPE CodeWar events run year-round, but depending on where the student lives, there may not be an available competition. For a list of events occurring in the near future, and to see ones that have happened in the past, check out this link. For the national US CodeWars, the competition is typically held in early March of every year, across four locations – Ft. Collins, Houston, Roseville, and virtually.

The competition structure can often vary between all of the different international iterations, but the typical structure is that teams of up to 3 students compete to answer 30 questions in under 3 hours, with the difficulty of the questions increasing as the competition progresses. Students can provide answers in either of these four languages: C, C++, Java, and Python 3+. Here are some sample questions for each difficulty level.

Easy: “Write a program to kindly respond to someone on social media, using their first name. Take a single word input, and output a kind sentence with their name.”

Medium: “Write a program to generate numbers in a fibonacci sequence. Take three inputs, F(0), F(1), and then how many numbers the user wants to generate, and output the resulting fibonacci sequence.”

Hard: Refer to this document! The hard questions are often very complex, and not easy to summarize through text.

After the competition has concluded, all code files are run and checked for completion, and teams are awarded points based on how many successful and failed tests they have, with more points awarded for correct questions that are closer to the end of the test. Depending on the competition, there may be prizes and raffles, which includes laptops, headphones, chairs, and more. 

Tips for Winning HPE Codewars

1. Practice Programming Exercises Regularly To Prepare 
   
   Spend time solving practice problems and honing your coding skills in the languages and frameworks used in the competition. The more prepared you are, the better you'll perform under pressure. CodeWars provides some practice problems from previous years, but they are very limited, thus after you finish up some of these problems, check out platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, and CodeForces.

2. Analyze and Understand Problem Statements Completely
   
   Make sure you understand what each coding challenge is asking before you start solving it. Clarify any ambiguities in the problem statement by asking your team, or underlining parts of the question. The further you go on the test, the more complex and long the problems become, thus there are greater chances for confusion and incorrect interpretations which leads to your team wasting time solving the wrong question. We recommend this website to understand how to approach a programming question.

3. Follow Established Code Styles and Organization Standards 
   
   Code that is clear, modular and easy to follow will get you points just because you and your team will better be able to follow the process, debug the code, and then check it later on. Messy code is difficult to follow, thus when you inevitably run into issues with your “finished” solution, you will run into difficulty correcting it. Additionally, if your team has different styles of coding, naming variables, or structuring overall, you will not be able to help each other in an efficient manner. Thus while practicing for the competition, be sure to decide on a common coding convention. An easy resource to reference is https://google.github.io/styleguide/. 

4. Verify Solutions Carefully Before Submission
   
   The question will provide you with a sample input and a sample output, thus verify that your solution matches that sample output accurately. Review your code before submitting each solution by testing various edge cases and extremes, while rotating members to check the code in order to catch silly mistakes. We suggest that a teammate check the code that you wrote, rather than you checking your own code, as we, ourselves, can easily look over something and forget some mistake or edge case we should have considered for the program to be fully functional.

5. Switch Problems When Stuck To Maximize Points
   
   There are a total of 30 questions on this test. If you're stuck on a problem, move on and come back later. Getting points elsewhere is better than no points. Coming back later also provides the opportunity for another question’s answer to inspire this one, or for a “eureka!” moment to occur. Wasting time staring at a question when you have the chance to move onto another question, which may be easier for your skillset, is surely going to lead to less points.

6. Communicate and Collaborate Effectively With Your Team 
   
   It is absolutely essential for any team contest for the team to work together, especially for a competition with 30 whole questions to answer. CodeWars is made for teams to work together, especially because you may only work on one screen. While one person types up the code for one program, the other two can brainstorm solutions for another, while generating some pseudocode to provide a strong structure to the solution. Rotate members that are typing or checking answers, allowing for multiple perspectives on all problems. If you run into any issues, communicate clearly and early.

7. Maintain a Positive Attitude and Enjoy the Competition 
   
   HPE CodeWars is supposed to be a fun competition at heart, encouraging people who love programming and computer science to come together and solve challenging questions. While winning is, no doubt, exciting, maintaining a positive attitude and having fun as you go through the competition is the key to finishing out a long three hour test, and for your future passion in computer science. Stay positive, do your best, and have fun coding!

If you’re looking to build unique projects in the field of AI/ML, consider applying to Veritas AI! 

Veritas AI was founded by Harvard graduate students, and through the programs, you get a chance to learn the fundamentals of AI and computer science while collaborating on real-world projects. You can also work 1-1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more to create unique, personalized projects. In the past year, we had over 1000 students learn data science and AI with us. You can apply here!