It's weird that there is no reason given here. It's not that I expected a real reason, but there isn't even a fake PR buzzword-filled explanation, there's just... nothing.
Google stopping coding competitions
101–110 of 335 posts
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate how "normal" of a company google is becoming. Closing down services and products not because they aren't profitable, but because they aren't profitable enough . They've really lost their way the last few years. In the late 2000's/early 2010's, google was pictured as the "fun" place to work. In part due to their coding competitions and the various other events they held for students throughout the year. Everyon…
It's been a long time coming. Google ran an experiment: "We are surrounded by stodgy, calcified software firms. Can we build a company that isn't like that and is also successful?" For a long time, they succeeded. But I think that experiment has run to a conclusion and they've discovered for themselves why their competition became stodgy and calcified (it wasn't because that's what they wanted to be; it's because the…
>We are surrounded by stodgy, calcified software firms.
Cue Amazon's efforts to stay away from 'Day 2'...
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#103We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years? That's a LONG time to do anything, and despite what Google has become, it absolutely defined tech culture. Now it's obvious and commonplace, but an employee-centric company was revolutionary at the time. Things like this changed the lives of every single person here, either directly or indirectly. And best yet, it's a chance fo…
Know what's even worse than Google on autopilot? Microsoft.
A Tesla?
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#104Before jumping on the "Google is now Oracle" bandwagon, curious with anyone with even a little inside baseball knowledge can comment on the reasoning behind this. Because if it's for penny-pinching, "we need to be more efficient" reasons, then yeah, I'm ready to jump on the bandwagon too. But someone else posited it may be more that they want to focus on new skills needed for AI, for example (i.e. "Software 2.0" vs.…
Yeah I’ve always been a bit leery of code competitions. I saw a lot of undergrads spend a lot of effort on these contests, and I was never convinced it was the best use of their time (especially because the university I did my graduate studies at had a professor who put a lot of effort into running the competitive programming club). I think a group of 15-20 bright and enthusiastic CS students under the guidance of a…
[dead]
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#105I can't imagine this cost very much to keep running.
Google is still a company where (especially for projects like this) the work is done by engineers volunteering time outside of their core job description. It may be as simple as "Morale dropped too low for the folks there to feel like it was worth it to continue," or "They let go of the people who were volunteering their 20% time to make this happen."
And spending time even if it's ostensibly "your" time outside of your core job on something that no one up your management chain cares about, or worse actively disapproves of you working on, isn't the best place to be in.
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#106is this because people will just use chatGPT to cheat?
I know a competitive programmer who actually has been to Code Jam finals. He says ChatGPT wouldn't be able to solve the majority of tasks that are used in algorithmic competitions like Code Jam. ChatGPT might be able to do some of the simplest tasks, but Code Jam had a few rounds of increasing difficulty and at some point it wouldn't help much. The last round is actually in-person so there would be no influence of ChatGPT there at all (Edit: correction, the final round used to be in person, but it has moved online since Covid)
Also, even if people do use ChatGPT, that shouldn't be a problem - it's a tool like any other. Programmers use tools all the time. Is it cheating if someone uses Wolfram Alpha or Stack Overflow to solve a programming task at hand?
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#107So after 20 years - who won? Who is the Best Coder?
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#108We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years? That's a LONG time to do anything, and despite what Google has become, it absolutely defined tech culture. Now it's obvious and commonplace, but an employee-centric company was revolutionary at the time. Things like this changed the lives of every single person here, either directly or indirectly. And best yet, it's a chance fo…
> We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years?
We did? Everyone talking about how shitty and staid they've become is comparing to how great they were.
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#109We could lament them shutting it down, but why not thank them for doing this for 20 years? That's a LONG time to do anything, and despite what Google has become, it absolutely defined tech culture. Now it's obvious and commonplace, but an employee-centric company was revolutionary at the time. Things like this changed the lives of every single person here, either directly or indirectly. And best yet, it's a chance fo…
> That's a LONG time to do anything
I can't help but think that in a meeting somewhere someone mentioned that the coding competitions have run forever in response to people complaining how quickly everything dies -- and someone decided to fix the glitch.
Re: Google stopping coding competitions
#110Is there a backup for all the problems and solutions?