This is what I learned from organizing student competitions

When it comes to competitions, some people enjoy watching, others are thrilled by challenging themselves by competing, and some of us like organizing competitions. My story began during my first year of college; I had just enrolled in Zagreb University of Applied Sciences (TVZ for short) for a computer engineering degree.

Due to my competitive nature, I always wished there was an opportunity to challenge myself among my peers in programming.

Something of a similar nature already existed at my college – the TVZ Mc2 student competition for which students apply in teams up to 3 and are tasked to develop a website or mobile application in a span of few months.

My two friends and I ended up in the final round but failed to achieve any of the prizes. I was bitterly disappointed and blamed everything other than us: the organizers, voting, COVID…

And of course, what does any sensible person do in such a situation? If you cannot beat them, join them, and so I joined the organization team for the 10th edition of TVZ Mc2.

That was my first major experience in organizing anything and it was so much more than I expected.

I was mostly tasked with doing the PR for the competition, but since we were a small student’s team, everybody did almost everything.As part of the PR activities, we attended lectures at our college to present the competition and then one student’s remark struck a chord with me: They expressed feeling like freshmen were somewhat overlooked – possessing some programming basics but lacking the know-how to craft a complete app or website.

Their words resonated deeply because I’ve been there myself. Inspired by this, we resolved to offer them and all the other freshmen an opportunity I yearned for in my own journey.

We organized a hackathon for freshmen in C programming language as an incentive for them to sign up for TVZ Mc2 and creatively named it TVZ Mc3 (because c2 * c = c3). With the help of a professor, we found a company to sponsor the prizes, and that same professor had already developed a platform for code submission and evaluation which he let us use.

The only thing missing was the tasks. Unlike TVZ Mc2 where you are given a whole lot of time to develop a prototype of a product, we wanted to focus on competitive programming. The main goal of competitive programming is to solve hard programming tasks as quickly as possible without that much room for creativity.

The hackathon turned out to be a hit, everybody was pleased and that got me thinking: why don’t we scale this up a little bit? If scaling is what you want, there aren’t many better companies to contact than Infobip – but I didn’t know that at that time, since I knew nothing about the company in general.

One of my colleagues pitched my idea for a competition to one of the executives at Infobip during a sporting activity and the next thing you know is we (the student council of TVZ) were invited to Infobip for a meeting. People at Infobip liked our idea and wished to support it by helping us organize.

We formed a team after pitching the idea to the Student Council and recruiting volunteers mainly for non-technical roles. Later, I enlisted computer engineering colleagues to help with programming tasks.

We collaborated with Infobip, deciding to host the competition in June 2022, just before their engineering internship and the company provided a conference hall venue (on the campus), 1300 EUR in prize money, and additional funding from the college covered organizational costs. To engage a wider audience, we planned a livestream panel with diverse guests.

All of this sounded too good to be true, but here we were. But from here the first challenges arose. 

Since this wasn’t a “formal” job, not every member of our team took on their responsibilities with the same passion. Not only was the issue itself problematic, but we also lacked redundancy, and each team member possessed a unique skillset that wasn’t easily replaceable.

For example, if we waited for poster designs, we relied on one person with the necessary skills, limiting options. As the event neared, our scope expanded with daily new ideas. It was my first time feeling this level of stress, with all responsibility on my shoulders. I felt overwhelmed by numerous small tasks, fearing any minor issue could ruin everything. I was too invested to back out.  

A friend with more event organization experience taught me a helpful technique. When overwhelmed, he’d jot down every task on paper. It clarified that tasks were finite, some less important than they seemed.

Now that we finally had everything ready, we realised there was one key component left to be done, writing of the problems students would be solving.

We opted for Java coding, despite its seeming limitations, for several reasons. Firstly, it ensured fairness among competitors, as they all had the same tools. Secondly, Java’s popularity among TVZ students ensured familiarity, as it’s a required course with a project component. Lastly, as organizers, our comfort with Java allowed us to define, test, and evaluate problems effectively.

We crafted three diverse problems for the 6-hour competition, aiming to evaluate various programming skills. The tasks included matrix operations for algorithmic challenge, object-oriented problem-solving for clean code, and extensive file parsing.

Despite some initial mistakes in task definition, they were successful as competitors prioritized tasks based on their skillsets. Our errors could have been avoided with better timing, but last-minute finishing seems unavoidable. We continued to use the platform developed by one of our professors for task collection and evaluation.

At the end, the competition itself turned out to be a hit – approximately 25 students showed up and most of them were happy with the outcome.  

We kicked off with opening speeches, rule explanations, and a 3-hour task period before lunch, addressing questions and troubleshooting platform issues. After the break, they had another 3 hours to finish tasks.

After our mostly manual evaluation and grading, we had a ceremony were we all gathered and celebrated the winners of the cup. They received reward checks and trophies while the recruiters were eagerly awaiting to talk to them.

And besides the tasks in the competition itself, I strongly feel that the most important things students receive from such events is how their potential future workplaces might look since as a student all of that might seem scary.

This was essentially TVZ Java Cup 2: Electric Boogaloo, so why would you want to read the same thing twice?

Although the format was already established, there was one key difference – I was given an opportunity to work for Infobip as a Junior Software Engineer.  

Despite that, I spent time drafting potential improvements for the project’s next iteration. Everything felt familiar compared to last year but with less uncertainty. The key difference was the lack of volunteers to write competition tasks. I stepped in, but with a twist: I needed a team. Who would be better to form it than last year’s top competitors? With approvals in place, we began our work.

The people in question were now my colleagues, and each of us faced similar day-to-day challenges across different teams. Drafting ideas was the toughest part. We brainstormed together but struggled with sparse ideas. While solving programming problems requires specific skills, creating them demands creativity. Working on tasks was a side project alongside our regular jobs, resulting in tasks being completed just on the morning of the competition.  

This year, tasks were categorized into three difficulty brackets with unique point values, and additional challenges were added for extra points. We also had to consider ChatGPT, which sparked different opinions among us. While some wanted to forbid its usage, I leaned towards crafting problems too complex for ChatGPT to solve. Eventually, we settled on making tasks impervious to ChatGPT and prohibiting its usage.

Overall, this year’s competition mirrored last year’s success, pleasing most students (even though there was one dissatisfied person who requested the first-place cash prize).

What stood out most was the team’s dedication, despite their lack of event organization experience. Their transition from former competitors to colleagues was remarkable, and I enjoyed watching them grow.

Now that I’ve shared my story, let’s consider does all of that even matters.

Personally, these competitions helped me secure a job and taught me valuable lessons in event organization, leadership, project management, and the importance of soft skills. They challenged my belief that only technical expertise matters to employers and taught me about proactivity, negotiation, and fundraising – essential skills in today’s business world. 

However, the competition wasn’t organized solely for my benefit. Let’s talk for a bit about what companies can gain from sponsoring such events.

Such events offer excellent opportunities to find potential hires efficiently in a competitive job market. For instance, the last two TVZ Java Cups resulted in Infobip gaining 12 talented engineers. These candidates have already distinguished themselves, reducing the need for extensive interviewing and vetting processes.

What other benefits can companies reap? Brand awareness may not have precise metrics, but I’ve seen a noticeable shift in how TVZ students perceive Infobip before and after the competitions. In my day, I didn’t even know about Infobip, let alone aspire to work there. Now, students are actively seeking opportunities to join the company, demonstrating a level of enthusiasm that surpasses even the most skilled recruiters.

Lastly, let’s consider the impact on students. They can gain diverse perspectives and valuable lessons from these events. Some are inspired by seeing ordinary ideas turn into reality, motivating them to pursue their own ideas with persistence. Others learn how knowledge acquired in college can lead to tangible rewards. Here are a few words from my colleague Martin, who competed in 2022 and assisted in organizing the 2023 competition: 

“As a participant and then organizer, I found it both enjoyable and beneficial. It provided opportunities for learning, skill development, and networking. As a participant, I honed time management and problem-solving skills while maintaining code quality. As an organizer, I gained insights into balancing task difficulty and length to optimize learning for students. It was a valuable learning experience for both competitors and organizers, and I’m eager to participate again.“

But it’s not just about the TVZ Java Cup. I encourage current students to create their own projects or competitions. They don’t have to focus on Java or involve cups specifically, but they will undoubtedly impress and receive support from future employers. Even if you think it doesn’t apply to your field of study, trust me, you’re mistaken. For instance, civil engineering students at TVZ were inspired to create their own competition, challenging each other to build the most durable bridge from pasta.

Remember, it may be challenging, and you may doubt yourselves, but always remember why you started your project.