Google Kick Start: The global online coding competition
Coding is one of the most sought-after popular career options nowadays. With well-paying jobs and lots of opportunities to make an impact through profiles such as software application developers, database administrators, computer system analysts, etc. it has caught the attention of many youngsters. Youngsters interested in coding, who want to make a career out of it, need to look no further as Google has got its own coding competition, Kick Start, to test their skills.
What is Google Kick Start?
Earlier known as APAC University Test, Kick Start is a worldwide online coding competition that consists of three-hour rounds of algorithm-based tasks created by Google developers. Participants get the opportunity to practise and develop their programming abilities while obtaining a glimpse into the technical skills required for a job at Google by competing in one or all of the online rounds hosted throughout the year. Well, the top participants may be invited to interview at Google! The eight rounds take place at various times throughout the year, making them widely accessible to coders from all over the world.
Each Kick Start round is available to all participants, with no requirements for pre-qualification, so you can try your hand at one or all of them. Throughout the season, multiple Coding Practice with Kick Start events are held in addition to the online rounds. If you need some extra practice, try working around the low-pressure, multi-day practice sessions with dedicated Google engineering help to learn more about the problems and platform in preparation for the next Kick Start round.
How can you register for Google Kick Start?
Registrations for Google Kick Start 2022 are open from February 1 to November 12. Interested participants can register through its official website, track their progress levels in the coding contest and download participation certificates. They have to start by creating a profile on the official website and fill in the required details. Once a Google coding competitions profile is created, automatic registration for other coding competitions organised by Google is done. These include Hash Code, Code Jam etc.
After this, the candidates need to register for Kick Start through an additional step where they’ll need to click Register to finish signing up for the competition. They can cross-check whether you have registered for Kick Start or not by going to its homepage and finding a “You have registered for Kick Start 2022” notification at the top right hand corner of their browser. Now, they can start competing in the first round along with other participants.
How do the Google Kick Start rounds work?
As soon as each round is open, the three-hour countdown begins where registered candidates can compete on the official website by completing algorithmic and mathematical puzzles. After the round, they can review their ranks as well as the round analysis. When a round begins, a link on the homepage takes them to that round's dashboard. The puzzles can be seen on the Round Overview page listed as per the difficulty level. All the test sets during the competition are "visible verdict test sets" which means they'll know whether the code passes during a particular round or not.
What are the rules for participating in Google Kick Start contest?
Participants must be at least 18 years of age at the time of registration for the contest. Although registration is open throughout the Kick Start contest, they must register before participating in any of the rounds. Further, the competition comprises practice sessions which can be accessed by the participants via Google Kick Start’s Schedule page. Contestants may use any programming language shared on the Kick Start official website for submitting the solutions.