April 29, 2019 Jessie’s Design Month Dash: Top Prize is a Trip to the TCO19 Finals!

Our annual Design Month is just a couple days away but as we wait for the awesome content that is to follow, we are excited to announce our first-ever, all new absolutely crazy, fun challenge!

What is Design Month?

Well more on that on May 1st (we promise!). But for now, Design Month is our annual celebration of our designers at Topcoder. We run this to help you learn and grow as designers but also to have fun. Just wait to see what we have in store for you this year!

To really help with the fun piece, we’re bringing you, this challenge!

If you are a designer at Topcoder or even an aspiring one, you have to take part in this. It will challenge you in every way but also be really fun – I promise. Read on, you definitely want to see what this is all about. Or you can just take our word for it and register now!

What is the Design Month Dash?

This is a three round fun challenge. Designers will have to pre-register to compete. Once the registration phase is over, designers will be automatically assigned (randomly) to a heat or group of designers to compete against for round 1. Each heat of round 1 will be designing the same thing but the design spec will be a little different for each. Round 1 (all heats) will be May 7-10, 2019. Just 72 hours!

Maybe some wacky inputs or odd characters will be required but all in the spirit of pushing yourself as a designer and to have some fun.

After round 1, your designs will be judged and the top designers will move on to round 2.

Round 2 designers will be assigned to a heat and will again all take part in designing something with different specs from other heats. Round 2 will only be 48 hours long and take place May 19 – 21, 2019.

The top designers will then move on to the final round (round 3). After this round, the final winner will earn a trip to the TCO19 Finals! Round 3 is May 24-25, 2019. Only 24 hours!

Wait, Three Rounds with Concurrent Heats? Did You Write that Correctly?

Yup! All our design copilots are in on this and one of them even created this handy image to help visualize how these rounds work, what the dates are, and all the amazing prizes to be had including a trip to the 2019 Topcoder Open Finals!

So Who Are the Judges?

We will have guest judges from all aspects of Topcoder as part of this challenge. It is a great opportunity to showcase to all our staff how amazing it is to be a part of the Topcoder design community in action. This is so exciting to me and I hope you as well.

How Can I Participate?

I’m so glad you’re interested because to make this a huge success, we want as many designers to compete as possible!

If you want to get in on this – and trust me, you do… register here.

FAQ

Q: Am I eligible? What if I already won a TCO trip?

A: Yes, everyone can participate and if you already won a trip you will get a cash prize and the trip goes to next in line.

Q: Am I allowed to switch from heats?

A: No. Once you are assigned the heat you’re in, that is it!

Q: How large will the challenge scope be with the short time frame?

A: Only one thing will be designed for each round so not a large challenge.

Q: Will the challenges have checkpoint prizes?

A: No.

Q: If I am a winner in Round 1, will I work on same application to design in Round 2 as well?

A: No, they are all different challenges.

Have other questions, go here.