Investigation of the feasibility and development of a user-friendly platform for creating and hosting programming contests as a recruitment aid for software companies

Abstract

This thesis describes the development of a platform for creating and hosting programming contests, intended to aid software companies in their, often time-consuming and expensive, recruitment processes. Conducted on behalf of a company named Software Skills, the project aimed to test the feasibility of using such a platform as a tool for attracting and getting in touch with potential new recruits, and making it user-friendly and stable enough to go into active use within the industry. The project resulted in a fully-functioning platform, with support for participating in contests using three different programming languages, with access to high-level APIs, an online coding environment with syntax highlighting, console output, and graphical visualization of program behavior. New contests may be implemented in Python, with no need for working with other languages. The thesis follows the project from its beginning to its end, describing the methodologies used, the challenges encountered, the solutions devised, and the final results.