How to Compete in Testing Competitions

Even after thorough unit testing and QA at every production level, user acceptance testing can help flush out problems in an application. With Topcoder Bug Hunt competitions, you can get paid for testing completed applications! The more issues you find, the more you earn, and the best Bug Hunt competitors earn great bonuses!
​

Choose a Challenge to Work on

On the page https://www.topcoder.com/challenges you will see a list of challenges available. Testing challenges are often tagged with “QA”, and/or “Bug Hunt”. Click on a particular challenge and read the challenge details. In addition to reading the challenge details, you should also become familiar with the components and technologies that may be involved in it.
​

Register for the Challenge

Now that you have found a challenge you would like to work on you must register for the challenge. On the challenge details page, there is a “Register” link. Click to register after filling in the required information and agree to the terms if necessary. Once registered successfully, an email will be sent to you with the successful registration info and other challenge details (i.e. the challenge forum link and submission deadlines, etc.)
​

Visit Challenge Forum

• Clicking the Challenge Forum link will take you to the private challenge forum where you can ask your questions to the copilot or to generally talk about that specific challenge.

• The challenge forum link becomes available once you’re registered for a challenge. The challenge forum is VERY important.

• The challenge forum is where members of the challenge and the copilot (the Topcoder member who manages the challenge) post messages to each other. Currently, the challenge forum is automatically watched once you’re registered for a challenge, i.e. you will receive email notifications whenever a new thread is posted.

• Typically there are two sections: Code Questions and Code Documents. Most of the time the copilot will post relevant material to the challenge in the thread “Code Documents” so make sure to view or download those files first.

• If a contestant (including you) has a question, needs clarification on something, or finds an issue while working on the challenge, then during the challenge they may post in the “Code Questions” section. Be aware that clarifications and updates posted by the copilot in the forum will override the original specs in case of conflicts!
  ​

Do What it Asks For

To figure out what you have to do for a challenge, read the description to determine what the challenge is asking you for. Specifically, look at the “Final Submission Guidelines” section to determine exactly what you need to provide in your submission.
​

Prepare & Make Your Submission

• Prepare your submission according to the challenge requirements. Typically, you should create a folder where you’ll put all your deliverables.

• For structured testing challenges, it often only requires a text file including your handle and GitLab/GitHub/JIRA ID. So it’s safe to submit early after you register for a structured testing challenge. After that, you can focus on testing and recording videos.

• For a bug hunt challenge, most of the time it also requires a text file including your handle and GitLab/GitHub/JIRA ID. You need to explore defects of the product and create new bug report in GitLab/GitHub/JIRA based on a template once a new bug is identified.

• To formally submit your submission, go to the challenge details page and press the “Submit” button. A new page will show up. It should be pretty straight forward from here: simply upload your submission, check the box to agree to the terms, and press the Submit button.

• There will be an email received if the submission is successful.