On July 27, 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) held an exciting and fun event at the HPE campus in Mahadevapura in Bengaluru -- the 4th edition of CodeWars. A legacy that started 22 years ago in Houston with just 80 students has now evolved to become one of the most anticipated and sought after events exclusively organized for 11th and 12th grade students – CodeWars! CodeWars is a high school computer programming competition designed to spark interest in careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

CodeWars has become synonymous to a battlefield for budding coders across all regions where HPE, the company that was recognized as one of the Best Employers for New College Graduates by Forbes (2018), has an established presence. In this competition, HPE challenges young coders using 20 problems of increasing levels of complexity that are to be cracked within a time frame of 3 hours. This particular CodeWars event successfully combined several quality ingredients: a high-tech setting, a wide range of programming challenges, plenty of food, music, and giveaways - all in an exciting, stimulating, and competitive environment.

CodeWars gives students the opportunity to see what it is like to code for a technology company. At these events, students get to solve the real-life problems they are likely to encounter in their future professional careers. Those in attendance found it exciting to see a completely packed cafeteria with enthusiastic students eagerly looking forward to a day full of challenging competitions. While a few students looked nervous, others chilled out, playing solitaire to pass the time. About 100 teams from various schools across the city participated in the event. All students put their best foot forward battling for the winning title.

Students used some of the most popular programming languages such as Python and Java, C++ to crack the problems. The range of complexity was such that the participants were asked to write code for questions as simple as finding the difference between the original number and its reverse to more complex questions such as finding circular primes.

In addition to coding challenges, the students were quizzed on HPE trivia. It was exhilarating to see how the students answered these questions with ease, including some tricky ones such as what landmark innovation of HP is used in households even today and what term is used to define the green HPE rectangular logo. The students weren’t the only ones challenged however. The judges themselves found it very difficult to narrow the selection down to just 3 winners. Because of this, they decided to make some special mentions and give a shout-out to a few of the top performing teams.

At CodeWars, students often go all out and dress up in costumes reflecting their favorite fantasy characters. The extensive effort that participants put in for this event was clearly visible. They were not just determined to ace the tough coding challenges, but they also left no stone unturned in sporting the best possible costumes. Attendees saw so many iconic characters come alive that the event almost doubled as a mini Comicon. The dedication amongst students was such that many teams coded with their masks and accessories on throughout the entire event.

To summarize, CodeWars 2019 India was a great concoction of quality ingredients: a high-tech setting, a wide range of programming challenges, plenty of coding, and tempting giveaways -- all delivered in an exciting, stimulating, and competitive environment.