Practice makes perfect. The same idea applies to coding. To become a better developer, you need to practice coding your programming language because apart from coding, the programmer's job is to align logic. Many online programming courses offer free tutorials with videos. However, Coding Challenges will give you a better experience as you apply your knowledge to the real thing.
A great way to improve your skills while learning to code is to solve coding challenges. Solving different types of challenges and puzzles can help you become a better problem solver, learn the intricacies of programming languages, prepare for job interviews, learn new algorithms, and much more. Below is a list of some popular coding challenge websites with a brief description of what each site has to offer.
1. TopCoder
TopCoder is one of the most popular platforms for online programming competitions. Anyone can join the Topcoder Community to participate and compete in challenges. The TopCoder community has four main segments - Design, Development, Data Science, and Competitive Programming. The design community deals with Information Architecture and UI/UX/CX Design, while the Development segment looks into Bug Bash, Code, First-to-Finish (F2F), Quality Assurance, and UI Prototype Challenges.
There are various data science challenges known as Marathon Match (MM), Data Science First to Finish, Data Science Sprint & Ideation, and Data Visualization. The Topcoder community's Competitive Programming Domain revolves around Single Round Matches (SRM) offered every week at a given time where all participants compete against each other to solve problems as quickly as possible.
2. HackerRank
HackerRank is the leading platform for competitive programming challenges where you have to solve problems as per given specifications. HackerRank offers you to solve these programming challenges in various programming languages like C, Java, Python, Ruby, etc. In addition, participants can solve problems in different computers science domains such as algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. You can also earn badges by completing challenges on the HackerRank website and what will add these badges to your profile.
3. International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC)
The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is one of the most famous competitive programming competitions. However, from 1977 to 2017, the ICPC was organized under the authority of the ACM and referred to as the ACM-ICPC. The ICPC contest is a team competition, and according to the rules, each team must consist of 3 students representing their university. The ICPC features various levels of competition - Local Contest, Regional Contest, Regional Championship, and The World Finals.
The regional ICPC starts with a local competition between classmates to find out who can represent their university every year. The final regional contest determines which team will advance to the World Finals. The leading group in each regional level contest from 6 different continents is eligible to compete in the World Finals. During each match, teams of 3 people are given 5 hours to solve around 10+ programming problems. What must submit solutions in C, C ++, Java, Python, or Kotlin?
4. CodeChef
CodeChef is a competitive programming website that offers several challenges for aspiring programmers to practice and sharpen their programming skills through various online contests. CodeChef holds a programming competition at the beginning of each month and contains two smaller programming contests at the middle and end of the month. You can submit your solution in any programming language as the contest accepts solutions in over 55+ programming languages , including C, C++, Java, and Python. In addition to these contests, CodeChef also offers a variety of algorithm tutorials and forum discussions to make the computer programming journey easier.
You can receive points and move up through the CodeChef rankings that you deserve. There are various coding competitions where you can show your programming skills, like - Monthly Programming Contest, Cook-off Contest, and Coding Lunch.
5. Geeks Coding Challenge (GCC)
Geeks Coding Challenge (GCC) is a 3-day coding contest organized by GeeksforGeeks (one of the leading websites in the Computer Science domain!). Competitions are conducted online where you can solve various coding problems and compete with other programmers online.
You can solve the problem from one of the following programming languages - C ++, Java, or Python. In addition, the total number of had
Keep in mind that the number of seats for the Geeks Coding Challenge (GCC) is limited, so you should make sure to register before seats fill and registration will close. Also, there is no participation fee for this contest.
6. LeetCode
LeetCode is a leading platform that offers various coding challenges to improve your coding skills. It provides multiple weekly and bi-weekly programming competitions for the participants. Contests are usually 90 minutes long. You can complete challenges in their online editor (named Playground) in one of the supported programming languages. In addition to Coding Contest, various additional features such as preparation for job interviews, discussions, etc., are also provided in LeetCode.
7. Codeforces
Codeforces is a Russian website that hosts competitive programming competitions where several competitive coders worldwide compete against each other. Contests run by Codeforces allow you to write solutions to problems that are tested during the match. Those who pass a series of solution tests receive the opportunity to check other contestants' sources, look for errors there and suggest tests where these solutions did not work. Hence, you can hack or challenge other people's answers and can earn points through those solutions.
Then after the contest, all solutions that passed the initial test and haven't been hacked or challenged are tested in the final set of tests.
The best thing about Codeforces is that contests are held regularly here because they host almost six tournaments every month.
8. Exercise io
Practice is a coding challenge website that offers 3100+ challenges covering 52 different programming languages. After choosing the language you want to master, you tackle the coding challenge right on your engine
It is slightly different from other challenge websites in that you work with a mentor after completing each challenge. Mentors review your answers online and help you improve them if needed. Once your solution is approved and submitted, you unlock more challenges.
9. Codewars
Codewars provides an extensive collection of coding challenges submitted and edited by their community. You can complete live challenges online in their editor in one of several languages—view discussions for each challenge as well as valuable solutions.
10. CodinGame
CodinGame is a little different from other websites. Instead of just completing coding challenges in the editor, you write the code for the games you play live online. You can see a list of games currently on offer here and examples here. The game comes with problem descriptions, test cases, and an editor to write your code in any of the 20+ programming languages.
Although this website is different from the usual competitive programming websites mentioned above, it is still popular among programmers who enjoy solving challenges and participating in contests.
Conclusion
Of course, there are many paid programs and courses available as well. But the free resources are more than enough to help you get started and develop the basic knowledge to succeed as a programmer. You don't have to go through every course or program on the list above but choose the most interesting. Have questions, tips, or tricks about learning to code? Could you share with us in the comments below?
