Find and Solve Programming Problems in Form of a Game: CheckiO
If you are a coder, you regularly come across programming problems. These problems are sometimes so hectic, that they become a lot boring.
So now, there is a treat for Python programmers. CheckiO has created a game in which programming problems are represented by islands. This has made solving problems in coding much more interesting.
CheckiO
CheckiO is a Las Vegas based startup. The team of this start up is Ukraine based. For two years this company had been really under the radar while raising funds. Now they have seed money which is funded by different industries and companies and its value is $750,000.
Founders
The idea started when Alex Lyabakh, the company’s founder and CTO had an idea about different users handing over different coding solutions to a problem and the best one gets picked out by the community. This, combined with a game of 90’s graphics formed the idea of creating game for users where they can solve problems for fun. He turned to Liza Avramenko, who became the CEO of this company. They afterwards took this idea to different firms but didn’t get funding. They even reached a point where they thought it was a failure. But then, Techstar, the company based in Las Vegas found the CheckiO team on AngelList.
After getting approached by Techstar, they found alumni in different countries including Russia, Ukraine and US. This was a plus point for the team. After some time they got seed money of $750,000 on board to build a community.
Popularity
There are now 40,000 users who play the game. The best solutions of the coders are also rewarded. For this, the company was lucky to get Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python on board as chief advisor. He reviews the best solution codes to a problem.
Process
The programming problems are basically sent to the team of CheckiO, which then review the problem and then add it into the game. They also offer hints to the players which they can use at later stages. As the programmers progress through the game and levels, their own level changes and they can take on even larger problems.
You can sign up for this game if you at least know how to create functions in Python. This is free and here is the link to this game.
