Frequently Asked Questions
I have questions about using Gild
I have questions about Coding Puzzles
I have questions about Skills and Certifications
Using Gild
- Can I have multiple accounts on Gild?
- How do I change my login email address?
- How do I permanently delete my account on Gild?
- How do I upload or change my photo?
- Why do I have to use Facebook connect or my LinkedIn account to join Gild?
- Can I have multiple accounts on Gild?
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Multiple accounts on Gild are not allowed. Anyone who is found to have multiple accounts will have all associated accounts removed and will not longer be able to log into Gild.
- How do I change my login email address?
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You can edit your email address by through your account settings. This is not necessary if you signed up using Facebook or LinkedIn.
- How do I permanently delete my account on Gild?
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Send an email to support@gild.com with your name and email address in the body and reference “Account Deactivation” in the subject line. Someone from the Gild team will contact you within 24 hours.
- How do I upload or change my photo?
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You can change your photo by clicking on your current picture on your profile page and either selecting a new profile picture from Facebook or uploading a new image.
- Why do I have to use Facebook connect or my LinkedIn account to join Gild?
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In order to authenticate who you are we require you to use one of the two social networks. This ensures that each individual only has one Gild account, making for more valid scores and ratings. We will never message your networks without your explicit approval.
Coding Puzzles
- Can I just send a release submission or should I always send a debug submission first?
- Can I still win a Coding Puzzle even if I won one in the past?
- How are the submissions executed?
- How are winners selected?
- How does Coding Puzzle scoring work?
- How long until I get my prize?
- I am passing all the debug test cases, but not the release. Why?
- I’m using an interpreted language. Any specific hint?
- My code works on my PC, why is it failing in production?
- What is a debug submission? And what is a release submission?
- Why do you need a private and a public set of test cases?
- Why does my code return no value for cyclomatic complexity?
- Can I just send a release submission or should I always send a debug submission first?
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You can send whatever type of submission you like in any order. (In fact, you can send the same submission multiple times using different languages). The submission in debug-mode is a tool Coderloop gives you in case you run into troubles and you cannot understand why your code is not passing the problem.
- Can I still win a Coding Puzzle even if I won one in the past?
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Yes. Everyone that participates in a Coding Puzzle is eligible to win multiple times.
- How are the submissions executed?
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First we decompress/unpack submissions that are compressed (zip/gz) or packed (tar).
Then we try to build your submission. If the submission includes a Makefile or a build.xml we execute make/ant on the root folder of your submission (the file must be then named Makefile or build.xml). The default action for make/ant is executed.
If the build did not produce a valid executable (an executable whose name is the keyword of the puzzle), we apply a default set of rules (a predefined build set for each programming language) to try to build your submission. Of course if your submission is using an interpreted language we do nothing.
Then we run a pre-syntax-check on your submission (mostly for all interpreted languages): if you misspelled something or you had some syntax errors, we identify this and we notify you about the mistake.
Eventually we run the submission…
We have a (large) set of test cases for each problem, and we run them all against your program. For each test case we run something like:
./yourprogram testcase > output
It is worth noting “yourprogram” must be an executable, named as the keyword of the problem you are trying to solve. This is very important if you are using an interpreted language.
For each output, we compute an md5 of it and we compare it against the expected md5. If it is different, game over. If it matches, we continue with the next test case until all the test cases are passed.
The execution phase has a maximum timeout (a different timeout value for each problem and includes the execution of all the test cases for that problem). If your program takes longer than the timeout, the execution is stopped and you will receive bad news (failed for timeout).
- How are winners selected?
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It’s simple–the person who performs best in the Coding Puzzle wins. To make sure that no cheating has occurred, we do manually review the top-performing code, and we ensure that the potential winner doesn’t have multiple accounts.
- How does Coding Puzzle scoring work?
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The scoring is based on number of test cases solved, worst cyclomatic complexity, average cyclomatic complexity, and submission cost.
- How long until I get my prize?
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Delivery of prizes takes on average anywhere from 2-6 weeks depending on your location and availability of the prize.
- I am passing all the debug test cases, but not the release. Why?
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The test cases used in debug mode are different from the ones used in release mode (even if the environment and all other settings/etc. are equals). When this happens, there is probably a test case in release mode that hits a bug in your code that the debug test cases are not showing. Try to think about corner cases/border cases of the input specification. If you cannot find a way out, try to contact us. We will try to check which test cases in release mode are making your submission fail. It might be helpful for other users too, in which case we might make a similar public test case to spot your bug.
- I’m using an interpreted language. Any specific hint?
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Watch out for the first line of your executable file. Since all the submissions are executed as “./yourprogram”, be aware that your deliverable must be executable. We will take care of permissions, but your submission should start with “#!/usr/bin/interpreter”. If you forget to do that, your program will fail to execute.
This is the first thing you should check if you see the following in debug mode:
cannot run /opt/candidate/yourprogram: No such file or directory
- My code works on my PC, why is it failing in production?
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This is something that happens everyday in the life of a developer. The code runs nicely on the developer’s laptop, but it fails in production. There are thousands of reasons why this can happen. First of all, our environment is not your laptop. You could be using a newer (or different) version of a programming language, or using libraries that are not available on our environment (please remember that only the basic/standard set of libraries are available for each language). Moreover, you could have misplaced files, you could assume system paths that are different in our environment, your code could be using relative paths that are different on our system, and so on. Finally, you could test your application differently from how we are testing your submissions. If your code is not managing corner cases/border cases – and we could do that – your code will fail our tests, but it will probably work nicely on your machine. Make use of the debugger feature to test what is going wrong with your submission. And remember: only the bot is the final judge on your submission – the only one allowed to say “yes, it works.”
- What is a debug submission? And what is a release submission?
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A submission is when you send us your code to be tested and rated against our test cases. Each problem (or most of them) have two sets of test cases: a public set and a private set. The private set is…private. It is used by our bot to test how good your solution is and is checked by our bot to see if you passed the problem or not.
The public set is available for download and can be used to test your application. You can then use the public set to check that you have understood the problem/specification, and check to make sure that your program produces the result we expect. You can also use public test cases to benchmark your application and see how fast it is.
You can do all of this with our bot too. If you send a submission checking “debug”, your solution will be tested against the public set of test cases. If there are faults, errors or the result does not match the expected one, the bot will tell you in the Submission page (for each submission). A debug submission is for personal use-only. It will not be reported on your public profile and, if you pass the problem in debug mode, it will not be displayed on your profile (ehy, it is a test!).
When you are done debugging your submission, you can send a release submission (whenever you want). The release submission is tested against the private set of testcases but you will not receive feedback in case of errors (e.g.: you will just know that the submission failed for timeout, for a build error or because it produced the wrong results). If you pass the problem in release mode, you will earn points/skills/glory/etc. on your public profile.
- Why do you need a private and a public set of test cases?
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With only one set of test cases it is very easy to cheat. If you know what your program will take as input and what is expected to produce for that input, you can just write a script that prints what is expected to print. However, your program must really solve the problem. For any input that respects the specification, it must produce the right result.
- Why does my code return no value for cyclomatic complexity?
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We currently don’t have the tools to evaluate cyclomatic complexity in certain languages. In these cases, scoring is based on other metrics, and your score is not affected.
Skills and Certifications
- Can I get a copy of my Certifications?
- Can I hide my skill scores?
- How can I use my profile to promote myself?
- How do I earn Gild Certifications?
- How do I recommend that a new skill be added?
- How does skill scoring work?
- I encountered an error in a question. What do I do?
- What type of companies accept Gild Certifications?
- When will I see a Code Snippet?
- Can I get a copy of my Certifications?
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At this time we do not offer copies of certifications to Gild members.
- Can I hide my skill scores?
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Currently, you cannot hide your Skill Scores.
- How can I use my profile to promote myself?
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From your profile page click the Promote Profile button. This will launch a window that will enable you to post your profile to your social networks or email it to your contacts. In addition, you can add a link to your profile in your email signature by following the directions in the promote section.
- How do I earn Gild Certifications?
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Certifications are earned when you reach certain skill scores. You earn a bronze certification when you achieve 550 points in a skill, silver at 650 points, and gold at 725 points. You can reach those skill scores by answering multiple choice questions, solving Code Snippets and playing in Coding Puzzles.
- How do I recommend that a new skill be added?
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We’re working on building a crowdsourcing model right now. Stay tuned…
- How does skill scoring work?
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Skill scores range from 0-800 points and depend on how many “skill activities” you perform and how well you perform on those activities. There are currently 3 kinds of skill activities on Gild: multiple choice questions (MCQs), Code Snippets, and Coding Puzzles. MCQs are given the least weight in your skill score, followed by code snippets, and coding challenges have the most impact on your Skill Scores. If you’re answering questions on a skill that doesn’t have Code Snippets or Coding Puzzles associated with it, like Google Analytics or Startup Financing, then MCQs are the only skill activity that affect your score.
- I encountered an error in a question. What do I do?
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You can click on Report on the right side of the page. Note: you will have to answer the question first before reporting a problem with it.
- What type of companies accept Gild Certifications?
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Many companies accept Gild certifications as a benchmark in their hiring process. Some of the larger companies that accept Gild certifications include Oracle, Ericsson, SAP and Sapient.
- When will I see a Code Snippet?
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Once you’ve reached a certain level of performance on multiple choice questions, you’ll start to get Code Snippets.
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