Universities have long had national athletic championships. Now there's Code Wars, an academic competition that demonstrates the programming skill of some of the most brilliant young programmers in the world.

What is a Code War?

A Code War, or hackathon, is when teams of students from top universities work together to analyze a programming problem, create a solution, and then pit their skills against other programming experts. And it all takes place under a deadline of a mere 8 hours.
Past Code Wars contests have been fights to the death – literally. Teams have written artificial Intelligence players for a RoboRally-type combat game, AI robots that moved through factories filled with deadly obstacles, and AI commanders that blew up ships in a computer version of the board game Broadside.

Why You Should Care

The future of technology is primarily software. Hackathon participants are the ones who will create that future. And showing up to spend a Saturday writing code for no reason other than the challenge shows that these students are the ones with the curiosity and initiative required to create the brilliant new products no one has thought of yet. (Perspective from the student's view.)

The next Code Wars

The next Code War will take place on January 26, 2013. (It is held the last Saturday in January every year.) To sign up, please visit our Code War signup page. For details on the 2013 competition, please visit 2013 Code War.

Do Computer Science departments have trophy cases?

Those who have won Hackathons do. They use them to display this beautiful glass sailboat trophy guaranteed to make the football team jealous.