MDCCXXIX's blog

By MDCCXXIX, history, 8 years ago, In English

Hi guys,

We are really happy to introduce to you HackerEarth's first partnership with european Hackathon, NextHacker. NextHacker is conducting a programming contest in Berlin. The scale is really big — they're giving away prizes worth 500,000 USD. Read more about the contest here — http://nexthacker.com/.

NextHacker is conducting preliminary rounds on HackerEarth. There will be 3 debugging problem and 2 algorithmic problems.You have 18 hours to solve all the problems. The top 500 candidates from the online qualifiers will get a direct invitation to the final event.

If you live in Europe, this is a great chance for you to participate in an awesome hackathon! Here's the link to the qualifiers — https://www.hackerearth.com/nexthacker-online-qualifier/

Hope to see you all there!

Cheers!

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8 years ago, # |
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  1. Find and fix the problems from Java programms
  2. Play Pacman

Is this a joke or a real contest?

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8 years ago, # |
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Does the direct invitation for the top500 means that these 500 don't pay the $680 participation fee?

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    They claim that 3000 can take part in the final

    If they get 736 finalists who pay $680 then it would account for advertised $500000 worth of prizes. There seems to be some marketing for this competition over various groups, but getting 736 people to pay seems like a big challenge.

    They are also running a contest on https://www.codechef.com/NXHR2015, with Top 3 places winning participation in the final. I guess Top 500 on HackerEarth is a trick to attract a bunch of coders to make them think it's an exclusive entry and try to charge $680 participation fee.

    Also, just think about the infrastructure required to account for 3000 coders! I wonder how that's going to look?

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Some wording on http://nexthacker.com/ does look quite weird...

    "analytical finishing times of each problem solving and the way of thinking will be available"

    I wonder how does one measure the "way of thinking" with coding challenges...

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    I got a clarification from the organizers that the top 500 also needs to pay the $680. This makes the contest way less appealing.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      That makes it more like a poker tournament where you pay you Buy-In and the winner takes it all.

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8 years ago, # |
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It's really looks kind of strange. A company with no brand got sponsoring of all of the major tech players and gives an enormous price money?

On the other hand: They are on the offical calender of "Messe Berlin", where the event will take place:http://www.messe-berlin.de/Veranstalter/Veranstaltungskalender/KongresseEvents/Event_14912.html?yvYear=2015&mvDateText=26.02.2016&mvYear=&mvMonth=#fair14912.

I'm confused...

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Having all the big players also made me wonder if this was legit. One of the reasons is that they mention both Google and Youtube as sponsors, but the biggest "shady" tell is that the logos are black&white. I highly doubt all those companies allow the display of their corporate logo in different colours.

    Other things like being in Berlin where there are a ton of start-ups, associations with CodeChef and HackerEarth give more credibility to the event.

    I'm also confused.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      I doubt that all the logos on ther website are sponsors. For me, it just seems as a random collection of tech companies.

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8 years ago, # |
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Hi guys,

We are a team of programmers, scientists, artists..., and our main goal is to bring together programmers from all over the world through the organization of Next Hacker. We believe in the power of friendship and teamwork and we do what we have written in our webpage. All the information for the cost of this event is not secret. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bh5xytiEds3h1uR_YD3k0rUJg0d2hfQDlxkP2Cmw8WU/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=0)

More of companies are interested in fast, good and flexible programmers, so we added the pacman game.

The competition is a big one and of course is not for all, but for 3000.

:Please do not write what you imagine. If you need any clarifications you can ask us.

NextHacker Team Alex Tsak

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Hi NextHacker, i'm glad you enter the conversation!

    On thing I would like to have some clarification: All the tech companies on your web page (Apple, Facebook, Paypal, Oracle, Nintendo,...), how are the affiliated with you? Are they sponsoring the event?

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      We support all these companies and the companies which will help in this competition will be announced in the event.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    I would love it if you would clarify the following points:

    1. You calculated a VAT of 20% to be $408,000. I can see how you got to this number, 3000*680*.20. As far as I know that's not how VAT is calculated. If the VAT is 20%, and you sell something for $120, it means the value of the object sold was $100, and we added 20% to it. Therefore, the VAT consists of 16.6% of the price, which reduces the amount you reported to $340,000. Please let me know if I'm wrong.

    2. The only people who commented on your Facebook page are new users with less than 20 friends each, and they have repeated the same comments on most of your posts. How come?

    3. Your webpage says "At Distinc 18, the first day of the event 3000 contestants will enjoy an amazing Hacker & Code Show and the second day they will compete for showing their programming speed." The hall 18 in Messe Berlin has an area of 3,821m². How do you intend to fit 3000 contestants in that area?

    4. Your webpage also says something about an event in Hall 19. However it seems that this hall is not rented by you on the event's day: http://www.messe-berlin.de/en/Organizers/EventCalendar/Event_14912.html?yvYear=2015&mvDateText=02%2F26%2F2016&mvYear=&mvMonth=#fair14912 Also, judging on the map, hall 19 seems to be even much smaller than hall 18. Same question as above?

    5. How come you've choosen pacman and not something else? Why do you think pacman can be a good measure of speed and flexibility of a programmer?

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      Of course, I will answer to all. It would be better to ask and not tell lies which harms this time the name of Next Hacker.

      VAT is 20% at headquarters of our company in Bulgaria. $340,000 is little for you?

      This is the plan(seats and tables) for hall 18. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7kCh7tHoH5rdWxocGk2Q0hROVE/view?usp=sharing)

      Here is the contract in which you can see that we have booked the hall 19. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7kCh7tHoH5rbWRyNmpXcXk2cmM/view?usp=sharing)

      As for the pacman game we answered to a previous post..

      We are a new group that is growing day by day.

      Like us on our social media and come with us, despite being against us, and ask forgiveness for the lies you told and seriously damage our name.

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        8 years ago, # ^ |
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        Social/marketing skills tip (never thought I'd be making those :D) — don't automatically assume a defensive stance, not everyone is out to destroy you. It's okay to accuse someone of lying on an anonymous imageboard or some online forum, but such behaviour is unfitting for a company.

        Second tip: do not demand apologies. Generally, do not demand anything from people unless they really have a lot to lose otherwise. Really, why should anyone apologise to you for anything?

        Smh tbqh fam.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Hi NextHacker, do you have some news? Are there still open spots?