Prove your Skills with Algorand Code Challenges
The Algorand Developer Portal has a new way to learn how to become an Algorand developer: Challenges.
Challenges are a way for developers to learn fundamental and advanced skills by actually coding. You’ll modify incomplete code snippets that perform key Algorand tasks such as creating basic payment transactions, smart contracts, and much more. This is all done in your browser with no need for any installations. Once your code is complete, you’ll hit the “run code” button and await the confirmed transaction on TestNet. For each challenge you complete, you’ll earn a MainNet ASA Badge that can be sent to the address/wallet of your choosing.
How Challenges Work
Developer Portal Challenges are available in two languages at the moment, JavaScript and Python. Each Challenge is provided in self contained Replit environments with everything needed to accomplish the task, including documentation links relevant for the Challenge. A pre-funded TestNet account is also available and should be used to complete the challenge.
To complete a challenge, you will need to implement all the sections marked with TODO. Once you believe all the TODOs have been implemented, the code can be run directly in the Replit VM. Running the code in the Replit should submit some number of transactions to the network and, assuming they’ve been accepted to the network, send the transaction IDs to a backend server for validation. If the conditions of the Challenge are met, YAY!
If there is some issue with the transaction(s), an error message will appear to give some more information to help successfully complete the challenge.
Note
There are several sections in each challenge that should not be modified, else the validation may not happen successfully.
Challenge Rewards
Successful challengers will be rewarded with a Badge, which is an on-chain MainNet ASA, that can be sent to the wallet of their choosing. These Badges can be used to brag to friends and colleagues about your sweet Algorand development skills.
Due to the nature of these badges being rewarded for showing an aptitude of a specific skill, the badge MainNet ASAs are frozen. They’re for you and only you and not meant to be sold or transferred.
As new challenges are made available, so will new badges. In the image above, you’ll see a subset of the Rookie level badges. Get excited for the more difficult (and thus way cooler) Veteran and Pro level badges. Collect them all to show off your Algorand cred!
The Future Of Challenges
While there may only be a few challenges now, we want to expand Challenges into many different topics and skills! Ultimately, we want this to be a way for you to complete full learning courses that teach you the ins and outs of being an Algorand developer! Stay tuned for leaderboards, additional Challenges, and ways to share your Challenge progress with friends, community, or even companies!
As with anything we do at Algorand, we want to hear your feedback in Discord! What works, what doesn’t, and where would you like to see Challenges go? Thanks as always and happy coding!