Google India Code Jam Draws 14K Developers

Google India Code Jam 2006, a coding contest for developers, had more than 14,000 participants, Google announced Friday. It also named the contest’s winners.

This is the second year that Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., has organized this contest in India. A spin-off benefit from the contest is that it can help to identify top programmers who could be hired for the company’s research and development organization.

The contest was open to programmers from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand and Bangladesh.

Last year, Google India Code Jam also had about 14,000 participants. Both last year and this year, the top prize went to Ardian Kristanto Poernomo from Nanyang Technology University in Singapore.

India’s large number of developers are the target of multinational technology companies that use contests either to identify good coders or to build developer support around its products.

Microsoft of Redmond, Wash., for example, earlier this week announced a Security Shootout aimed at promoting secure code writing among Indian developers. The contest is aimed at the 650,000-strong developer community in India and will test their skills at writing secure code by pitting them against the best in the country, the company said.

The Microsoft Security Shootout comprises three online rounds. In the first and second rounds, participants will need to answer 30 questions. From the first round, the top 1,000 will move to the next stage, from which 100 participants will be selected for the final round. The finalists will then be given an application with built-in vulnerabilities, which they will have to identify and neutralize. 

-John Ribeiro, IDG News Service

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