Skip to content

Weekly Code Golf Challenge

Switched off for now

This feature is not in the slash menu at the moment. OSCAR had grown to twenty nine commands, and the ones around the semester plan come first. The code is kept, and HIDDEN in src/util/command_surface.py switches it back on.

The Weekly Code Golf Challenge (#53) brings competitive programming and code-minification fun directly into the FIN Discord community.

Every calendar week, OSCAR presents an algorithmic puzzle. The objective is classic code golf: solve the problem using the fewest bytes of source code possible.

Commands

/codegolf [nummer] [rangliste]
/challenge [nummer] [rangliste]

Parameters

  • nummer (optional, 1–10): Directly open a specific challenge from the archive.
  • rangliste (optional, True/False): Open directly in leaderboard view.

Key Features

1. Weekly Rotation & Archive

  • Challenges rotate automatically every calendar week using the standard ISO week number ((iso_week - 1) % len(challenges)).
  • An interactive dropdown menu allows students to browse past and upcoming challenges from the archive at any time.

2. Language Agnostic

  • Participants can submit solutions in any programming language: Python, C, C++, Rust, JavaScript, Haskell, Bash, APL, Brainfuck, etc.
  • The modal form lets you specify your language alongside the code snippet.

3. Byte-Count Measurement

  • Code size is calculated precisely as the number of UTF-8 bytes.
  • Outer whitespace and surrounding markdown code blocks (e.g. python ...) are automatically stripped before counting.
  • Every student has their personal best recorded. If you submit a shorter solution later, your record is updated automatically!

4. Live Leaderboards

  • Each challenge features a real-time Top 10 leaderboard ranked by byte length in ascending order.
  • Ties are broken by earlier submission timestamp.
  • Top entries are honored with medals: 🥇 Gold, 🥈 Silver, 🥉 Bronze.

5. Host Safety & Sandbox Decision

  • Running arbitrary user-submitted code inside the bot's host container would pose security and isolation risks.
  • In accordance with the decision for Issue #53, OSCAR measures code size statically and provides peer-review and discussion channels. Students can share, review, and benchmark each other's solutions in community threads.

6. Gamification & Badges

  • Submitting at least one solution to any challenge unlocks the ⛳ Code-Golfer achievement badge, viewable in /badges and /progress.

7. Privacy & GDPR Compliance

  • All code golf submissions are linked to your Discord user ID and fully exportable via /my_data.
  • Deleting your account via /my_data wipes all your challenge submissions immediately from the database.

Challenge Catalog

# Challenge ID Title (DE) Title (EN) Goal
1 fizzbuzz FizzBuzz Klassiker Classic FizzBuzz Print 1–100, replace multiples of 3 with 'Fizz', 5 with 'Buzz', both with 'FizzBuzz'
2 palindrome Palindrom-Prüfung Palindrome Checker Check if a string reads the same forwards and backwards (ignoring case & spaces)
3 fibonacci N-te Fibonacci-Zahl N-th Fibonacci Number Compute the $N$-th Fibonacci number for given $N$ via stdin
4 primes Primzahlen bis N Primes up to N Output all prime numbers up to $N$ separated by spaces
5 caesar Cäsar-Chiffre (ROT13) Caesar Cipher (ROT13) Shift alphabetic characters by 13 positions
6 vowels Vokale zählen Count Vowels Count total vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in the input text
7 collatz Collatz-Folge Collatz Sequence Steps Calculate steps to reach 1 in the $3n+1$ sequence
8 anagram Anagramm-Prüfer Anagram Checker Check if two comma-separated words are anagrams
9 rpn Reverse Polish Notation Reverse Polish Notation Evaluate arithmetic expression in postfix notation (+, -, *, /)
10 roman Römische Zahlen Roman Numerals Convert an integer (1–3999) into Roman numeral string

How to Submit a Solution

  1. Run /codegolf or /challenge.
  2. Inspect the active weekly challenge, input/output format, and example test cases.
  3. Click ⛳ Lösung einreichen / Submit Solution.
  4. In the pop-up modal, specify your programming language and paste your code.
  5. Click Submit. OSCAR calculates the byte count and informs you immediately of your score and rank!