A Review To Meta Hacker Cup 2024

Overview: Meta Hacker Cup 2024

The Meta Hacker Cup is a premier global programming competition organized by Meta, offering software developers and computer science enthusiasts an opportunity to showcase their problem-solving skills and compete against the best in the world.

Introduction

The Meta Hacker Cup is not just a competition but a platform where programmers from various backgrounds come together to test their coding abilities, learn from peers, and push the boundaries of their knowledge. Whether you are a seasoned coder or just starting, the Hacker Cup presents challenges that will sharpen your skills and elevate your understanding of computer science.

Eligibility & Registration

To participate in the Meta Hacker Cup, you must meet the following criteria:

- Age: You must be at least 18 years old.

- Facebook Account: A valid Facebook account is required to register.

- Registration: Sign up at the official Hacker Cup 2024 page [here](https://www.facebook.com/codingcompetitions/hacker-cup/2024).

Competition Structure

The Meta Hacker Cup is structured across multiple rounds, each progressively more challenging:

- Practice Round: Friday, September 20, 2024, 22:00 (PKT). Duration: 72 hours

- Round 1: Saturday, October 5, 2024, 22:00 (PKT). Duration: 3 hours

- Round 2: Saturday, October 19, 2024, 22:00 (PKT). Duration: 3 hours

- Round 3: Saturday, November 2, 2024, 22:00 (PKT). Duration: 3 hours

- Final Round: Saturday, December 7, 2024, 19:00 (PKT). Duration: 3 hours

Tracks

The competition features three distinct tracks, each catering to different skill sets and approaches:

1. Human Track: Participants write code to solve challenging problems during the contest.

2. AI Open Track: Participants create an open-source code generation system with limited resources.

3. AI Closed Track: Participants create a closed-source code generation system with no resource limitations but stricter time constraints.

How Does Each Track and Round Work?

Human Track

Each round consists of 4 or more problems. Your task is to write a program that takes specified inputs and produces correct outputs as per the problem statement.

AI Open vs. Closed Track

- Open Model: Participants work with resource limitations (NVIDIA A100 GPU, 40GB VRAM, 128GB RAM, 1TB storage) and must create solutions that can be reproduced across training and inference within 24 hours.

- Closed Model: No resource limitations, but solutions must be generated and submitted within a significantly shorter timeframe (6 minutes).

Contest Structure

For the AI tracks, round times coincide with the human track. Closed track participants must upload their solutions within 6 minutes, while open track participants have 20 minutes.

Scoring Criteria

Each problem has a point value. Full points are awarded for completely correct solutions, while incorrect outputs result in zero points for that problem. Ties are broken based on penalty time, with lower times being preferable.

Elimination Criteria

- Practice Round: Open to all for 3 days.

- Round 1: Top 5,000 participants advance to Round 2.

- Round 2: Top 500 participants advance to Round 3.

- Round 3: Top 25 participants advance to the Final Round.

- Final Round: The winner is crowned the 2024 Hacker Cup champion.

Awards/Prizes

Participants can win a range of prizes, including:

- Round 2: Top 2,000 participants receive a shirt.

- Round 3: Top 200 receive a shirt with a special badge.

- Final Round: Cash prizes ranging from $20,000 for 1st place to $200 for 16th-25th place.

Why Should You Participate?

The Meta Hacker Cup is a golden opportunity for:

- Aspiring Programmers: Beginners eager to dive into competitive programming.

- Experienced Programmers: Coders looking to test and refine their skills.

- Students & Professionals: Individuals seeking a challenging and enriching experience.

Tips & Strategies

Problem-Solving Techniques:

- Master common paradigms like dynamic programming, greedy algorithms, and graph algorithms.

Coding Skills:

- Enhance proficiency in languages like C++, Python, and Java.

Competition Strategy:

- Focus on time management, code optimization, and thorough testing and debugging.

Q&A Session

For any queries or additional information, visit the [official Hacker Cup page](https://www.facebook.com/codingcompetitions/hacker-cup/2024) or join the [Discord server](https://discord.gg/wWeN9hTH32).

The Meta Hacker Cup 2024 promises to be an exciting and intellectually stimulating journey for programmers of all levels. Whether you're in it for the prizes, the glory, or the challenge, this competition is your stage to shine.