Barclays India Hiring Hackathon - Full Stack

PROGRAMMING CHALLENGE FAQs

Can I participate in a sample challenge?

Yes, we recommend that you participate in our sample challenge.

This challenge enables you to understand how to participate in programming challenges on HackerEarth. It comprises detailed information about how programming questions should be attempted and details about the HackerEarth judge.

Programming Challenge

1. Where will the challenge take place?

• Registration, Team Challenge & Individual Challenge – Will be online hosted on HackerEarth

• Top performing teams will be competing in the offline round (Grand Finale) at Pune on 26 and 27 June 2019

• Additionally, top performers from the individual challenge will also get an exclusive invite to the Grand Finale.

2. Will I receive a reminder notification before the online challenges begin?

You will receive a reminder e-mail 3 hours before the challenge begins, only if you have registered as a team.

3. How do I participate in this challenge?

To participate in this challenge, do the following:

a. Register as a team for the challenge

b. Click on “Participate in Challenge” on the http://www.hck.re/barclaysIndiahack19

4. Can we take up the challenges from mobile platforms?

No. We do not support mobile platform for taking up the challenges. We suggest participants to take the challenge from a laptop/desktop.

5. What type of questions will I have to solve in the online challenges?

The questions in this challenge are of the following types:

• Programming problems

  • Write code in the online code editor that is provided with each problem and submit it.

  • You can make multiple submissions. The platform automatically considers the best submission.

6. Are the programming questions restricted to specific languages?

The languages that you can write code have been mentioned in the guidelines section

7. What will happen in case there is an issue with my computer or internet connection?

In that scenario, you will not lose your previously submitted answers. They will be saved on HackerEarth's servers. You can log in again and continue coding from where you stopped.

However, the timer will continue running, which is why it is advised that you ensure that your computer / internet connection is working properly before you begin the challenge.

8. My code works in my local IDE, however, it throws compilation errors when I run it on the platform interface. Why does this happen?

Every problem has the following two buttons:

a. Compile & Run

• When you click Compile & Run, the is tested against the sample input and output.

• This ensures that you are able to test your code against predefined sample test cases before you submit your code.

b. Submit

When you click Submit, the code is checked extensively against internal test cases. The following parameters are considered while checking the code:

• Time limit: The code should run within the stipulated time otherwise it will throw a Time Limit Exceeded (TLE) error.

• Memory limit: The code should run within the give memory size otherwise it will throw a Memory Limit Exceeded (MLE) error.

• Errors during runtime: Specific test cases check for Runtime Errors (RE) only.

• Correct answer: If your answer is incorrect, then you will see the message Wrong Answer (WA) on the screen. This means that your program is not printing he correct answer. Ensure that your program conforms with the output format that is required.

9. Is it possible to change my submission after I have submitted a task?

Yes, you can edit and submit the solution to a question (that you can view and edit) any number of times before the challenge-completion time window closes.

Note: Some tests have timed sections. After the time limit is reached, you will not be able to revisit questions in that section.

10. How does the online judge determine whether a solution is correct?

An online judge is a code checker and not a human being. The code checker or "judge" tests your code automatically. Therefore, you must write your code accordingly.

For each problem, based on the specifications mentioned in the problem statement, there will be one or more input files and corresponding (correct) output files. The program that you create is run on each of the input files and the corresponding output must match the (correct) output files in order.

Your program will be marked incorrect in the following cases:

• Output files (generated by running your code) do not match the pre-generated output files

• Output files (generated by running your code) matches all the pre-generated output files, however, it is not in the order in which the pre-generated output files are arranged

11. How does the time limit work?

Your program must read, process, and output the result for all input files within the specified time limit.

The input file will be of the format that is specified in the problem. This means that if each input file contains multiple test cases, then your code must pass all the test cases within the specified time limit.

12. How does the total execution time work?

Your code is tested multiple times against different input files. The displayed execution time is the total time spent executing each input file. Hence, Total execution time <= (Time Limit * Number of input files)

Your program is terminated in the following scenarios:

• If the time that is required to execute each input file exceeds the time limit execution that is set for any input file.

• If the total time that is required to execute all the input files exceeds the total time limit allowed.

13. How does the total memory consumed work?

The total memory consumed by a program is the sum of the memory that is consumed by the program in stack, data, heap, and BSS. To understand more about the address space of a program and the memory consumed, refer to this image or this explanation.

14. My program doesn't compile. Why?

• C/C++

  • Ensure that you are using a compiler that complies with the standards.

  • For example, do not use Turbo C++. Code that compiles in Turbo C++ will often not compile on the online judge.

  • Also, remove 'conio.h includes' in your code.

• Java

  • We support multiple classes and inner static classes.

  • Your code may throw errors if the inner classes are not static.

  • Please note that we will remove this constraint very soon. We will update you when this happens.

• Other languages

  • The compilation errors that you see on the screen are self-explanatory.

  • However, if you require any more information, please contact us at support@hackerearth.com.

15. Does TLE error mean that my code is correct but slow?

No, Time Limit Exceeded or TLE means that your solution has exceeded the amount of time that is allowed for problem execution or for a specific test case. Your solution never finished running in time and it was stopped in between. There is no definite way to know whether the code was correct.

16. What does Wrong Answer (WA) mean?

WA means that your program ran successfully but gave an incorrect answer. This could mean either of the following:

• Your program contains a bug

• You have not interpreted the problem text correctly

Apart from the sample input, your code will also be evaluated against multiple input and output cases. Therefore, even if your code passes the sample input correctly, it may not have passed one of the other input and output cases because of the answer is incorrect.

17. What happens if I indulge in plagiarism?

At HackerEarth, we take cheating/plagiarism very seriously. For more information about consequences of cheating, read our plagiarism policy.

18. Why is my submission queued?

Your submission is queued because of simultaneous submissions by multiple users. You will receive the result of your submission in real-time as soon as it is processed.

19. My submissions are not evaluated. What should I do?

There may be an issue with the online judge due to which your submissions are not being evaluated. Send an e-mail to support@hackerearth.com.

20. Will I receive the results of the challenge? If yes, when?

You will receive an email from Barclays in case your team qualifies for the grand finale.

21. Where can I view the solutions for the problems of this challenge?

Once the challenge is finished and the problem has been moved to a practice section, you can view the solutions (editorials) in the Practice section.

22. Why am I seeing a runtime error on the screen?

A runtime error means that the program was compiled successfully but it crashed or exited with an error. The most common error messages include the following:

Avoiding runtime errors

• Ensure that you are not using variables that haven't been initialized. These may be set to 0 on your computer, but aren't guaranteed to be on the judge.

• Check every single occurrence of accessing an array element and see if it could possibly be out of bounds.

• Ensure that you are not declaring too much memory. 64 MB is guaranteed, but having an array of size [100000][100000] will never work.

• Ensure that you are not declaring too much stack memory. Any large arrays should be declared globally, outside of any functions - putting an array of 100000 ints inside a function probably will not work.

FILE UPLOAD CHALLENGE FAQs

1. Is there a sample challenge that I can participate in?

Yes, there is a sample challenge that you can participate in to understand how to participate in programming challenges on HackerEarth. The challenge contains detailed information about how programming questions should be attempted and details about the HackerEarth judge.

2. Where is the challenge happening?

This challenge is completely online. After the start date/time, you can visit this page and participate in the challenge.

3. Will I get a reminder notification before the challenge starts?

Every challenge has a Facebook event page. If you join the event, you will receive a notification through Facebook on the day of the event.

4. How do I participate in the challenge?

To participate in the challenge, after the start date/time, visit this page and click the 'Participate in Challenge' button.

5. How does the time limit work?

Every challenge has a start and end time that is mentioned on the challenge page. Most challenges are of a duration of 12 hours. You can join the challenge any time before the end time. However, irrespective of when you joined, the code will have to be submitted within 12 hours of joining the challenge.

6. How are task-based problems evaluated?

The submissions will be evaluated manually by an expert based on the following parameters:

a. Functionality of the app

b. Design aesthetics

c. Code quality

7. When will I get the result?

The evaluation of submissions can take up to a week's time as they are evaluated manually.

8. What will happen in case of Internet disconnections/re-logins?

If something goes wrong with your computer or your Internet connection is disconnected, then your earlier submissions will not be lost. All the answers are stored on our servers. You can log in again on our website and continue coding from where you left.

However, the timer will continue running. Thus, ensure that you use a computer or a browser that you know works properly.

9. Where can I host my application?

There are many free cloud providers such as AWS, OpenShift, or Hiroku that you can use to host your application.

10. What happens if I indulge in plagiarism?

At HackerEarth, we take cheating/plagiarism very seriously. For more information about consequences of cheating, read our plagiarism policy.

11. After I have submitted the task, can I come back and change my submission?

You will not be able to modify the submission in the following cases:

a. When you press the 'Finish' button (that's when you finish the test)

b. When you run out of time (timer ends)

However, you can navigate freely across the questions, and submit your solution again for any question that can be accessed by clicking on the "Submit Answer & Continue" button. This can be done multiple times. Remeber that by doing this, your earlier submissions will be replaced.

While there is no limit on the number of times you can submit an answer to a question (which you can view/edit), some sections of your test may timed sections. After the time limit has been exceeded, you will not be able change your answers for the questions in that section.

12. Who should I approach if I face an issue during a live challenge?

For queries/issues/support, contact us via:

a. E-mail support@hackerearth.com

b. IRC (Freenote network) at #hackerearth where we are live during the challenge duration

13. Will I get the result of the challenge?

The result of shortlisted candidates is based on the eligibility criteria. This will be announced on the Hiring Challenge page>Announcement section. There will be a further evaluation of the skills of the shortlisted candidates skills by the company based on company's requirements.

14. Will I be informed if I am shortlisted for the job?

The result of shortlisted candidates is based on the eligibility criteria. This will be announced on the Hiring Challenge page>Announcement section within a week after the challenge is closed. Your total score and breakup, along with the evaluator's review comments, will be published. Being shortlisted does not guarantee a job. Whether you are sent an offer or not is subject to company's criteria and requirements.