Telegram Announced Two New Contests for 2021

by Samuel White

Telegram announced that it is launching two new contests – in Android Java and Data Clustering – in which everyone is welcome to participate. Enthusiasts will need to create a C/C++ library and fix imperfections in the Android messenger client. In both cases, the assignment deadline is 23:59 on February 14 (Dubai Time).

1. The Data Clustering Contest

The prize fund in this contest is $50,000. The main objective of the competition is to create a C/C ++ library that can define the language and topic of the Telegram channel.

This algorithm should be able to use the title, description and text of several messages to determine the channel language and return a two-letter ISO code (or "other" if the language does not have a two-letter code). For channels in English and Russian, the algorithm must determine the relative weight for each of the channel's topics. The list of possible topics includes Books, Curious Facts, Erotic Content, Humor & Memes, Offers & Promotions, Marketing & PR, etc.

The library developed by the contestants must work locally, that is, without using the network. In addition, external dependencies should be minimized. When evaluating submissions, the speed and accuracy of the algorithms will be the priority.

The work will be tested on servers running Debian GNU/Linux 10.1 (buster), x86-64 with 8 cores and 16 GB of RAM. Before submitting, participants should make sure that the application works correctly on a clean system.

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The Internet ProtocolSamuel White

2. The Android Contest

The prize fund in the second contest is $60,000. The participants are tasked with identifying and fixing the Telegram client's imperfections for Android, in particular, glitches, errors, sloppy animation, slowdowns. The contestants' work should lead to significant and visible improvements from the user's point of view.

Participants need to download the client's source code and fix the identified flaws, then compile the application and submit the APK file to @ContestBot with a link to GitHub, which will describe the improvements made by the contestant.

The organizers stated that the more flaws and errors are found and corrected, the higher the reward. First of all, they will take into account the seriousness of the fixed problems and the complexity of their elimination. The code provided must also follow the same style as the existing code base.

Besides, contestants are welcome to improve existing features.

Telegram often launches various contests in iOS Swift, JS, C/C++, and Android Java. For instance, it has already launched a contest to create a news aggregator in 2019, the TON Blockchain Competition, and more.