Coding is a highly competitive industry where programmers are often pitted against each other based on level of skill and ability. TechCrunch50 startup Trollim has created a competition platform and social network for programmers that assesses their coding skills through coding battles.
Users are identified as “trolls” on the platform and once a user signs up, he or she fills out a profile that includes their age, location and coding language skills (C++, Ruby, PHP etc.). Trollim then gives the user 3 to 6 pieces of code, or a “test,” to fix to asses their baseline level of skill and based on the results of this test, the user is given a skill level of 1 though 5. Once a user has been assigned a skill level, he can then start challenging other programmers on the site to one on one battles, where trolls have to fix different pieces of code, or “rumbles,” where multiple programmers participate in a battle. As you win battles, Trollim’s proprietary algorithms will evaluate your skills and increase your coding skill level. Trollim says that you can search for users by country, skill level or age, letting users battle a variety of other programmers. Users can also see statistics and metrics on their skill level and improvement. You can also publish your ratings as a widget to a blog or web site.
Trollim is hoping to engage businesses by letting them access the site to find skilled programmers. For example, TechCrunch could sponsor a Ruby battle or rumble between coders if we needed a skilled Ruby programmer. Companies can give out prizes to the winners (or employment opportunities) and also receive detailed statistics from Trollim on participating programmers (if the programmers authorize this).
Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased)
The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Lior Zorea, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose
TO: I’m curious about a couple of things. Love the idea. Assessment is the key to learning. How do you develop the assessments in terms of code?
A: We test the users with code, bugs. In the end, there is a diffenece between coders andwe try to map these areas.
BH: Everything is about debugging?
A: Yes
BH: But those are the developers I want to hire, the ones who can code for hours. There’s more to programming than just debugging.
SD: I like the idea a lot. Maybe it should be more of a gaming platform, rather than a assessment?
A: There are two different versions. There is a gaming platform. But we want to get the enterprises in.
KR: I like the gaming aspect. This could be something to put on your elance profile.
A: One of the features is a rating widget. We will have a Troll village, we’ll also have a rating for companies.
LZ: Sounds like you are focused on smaller businesses.
A: Have five different levels and we are matching people around the globe.
Images:
Video:
Other Coverage:
TC50: Battle other coders to to prove yourself at Trollim VentureBeat.
Trollim throws programming gauntlet SDTimes.
poor naming. Idea isn’t that bad though, can’t see it being used by corporate people though, too much emphasis on “fun”.
His accent made him sound like “we’re trolling”.
This is the dumbest idea ever. Coding is not competitive, immature programmers are competitive, and they are usually overcompensating. They are like the guy who is always bragging about how great a golfer he is, where a truely good golfer lets his game do the talking. Douchebag programmers, we don’t care about your flimsy egos, just get your ass back to work.
“immature programmers are competitive”
I don’t know where you work, but where I work it would be beneficial if we coded more competitively. It’s very easy to write bad code when nobody is going to call you out on it. This becomes unmanageable code that some poor soul has to try to debug or extend years later.
Your code is not a special and unique snowflake. It might be good, or it might suck. The person that really has an ego problem is the guy who can’t handle legitimate code criticism from others and accuses people of “nitpicking” or says “sorry, that’s my coding style” in defense of badly written code.
That is true, but this product isn’t that. This product just has you fix some predefined code, so there is no real “Here is a problem; make a solution” it’s “Here’s some buggy code, switch a few while loops around please” and because there’s only 1 solution it seems pointless.
They need to take their own tests. trollim.com isn’t redirected to http://www.trollim.com – 404 error.
Sounds cool, but the website is inaccessible giving a 401 – Not Authorized
You should read over your writing before you submit it.
or a “test,” to fix to asses their baseline level of skill
Ha.
Would be great, but still needs a lot of work on the ‘battles’… still it has a lot of space to improve.
why would I battle when I can make money with sites like topcoder
+1 You’re right developers need to be free to put “food on their families.”
If it’s all about debugging, it’s about as useless a site as could possibly one could dream up…
Worthless!!
There’s a lot of Engrish and bizarre UI decisions made on that site…
At its core, this sounds like an Elo points based system, much like what is used in chess to rank masters, or what we use on mychances.net to rank colleges.
The article lists a lot of languages that aren’t available when signing up, I assume they are coming soon.
Groan. It drives me nuts when sites feel the need to create their own goofy vocabulary — trolls? rumbles?
I registered, but can only add C++, C# or Java as skill, 3 languages I don’t use. No PHP, no Ruby, no Perl. It’s a pity, the idea is fun.
Ruby, PHP, and Perl are not programming languages, they are scripting languages. You fail, no need to compete.
@yourdad you moron. why do u have to be so damn fussy.
Limited set of languages lets this down and seriously reduces the potential market. If there even is a market.. as the lead developer in a small startup I’d be tempted to offer this round the office (if they supported PHP) as a bit of fun, but I don’t think I’d ever pay for it. There’s more to programming than just debugging, so as a measure of skill it’s lacking large parts of what I’d need to know.
Somebody give these guys some cash! the idea is cool, a killer new time-waster! …but I’m afraid they may need smarter algorithms and strategic guidance… what about aiming at larger groups such as Fashion addicts or Micheal Jackson fans, geeks love to show off their skills but who doesn’t? …wait a second… does something similar exist already?
No. Somebody show these guys the door. Not only is it a horrible idea, but a complete waste of money. These guys should be shunned from the tech industry. They should be forced to work as used car salesmen.
they should incorporate elance.com features. so people can hire the best “trolls”.
Sounds like Top Coder (http://www.topcoder.com) to me. How are they going to differentiate themselves from that existing, and well-established, service?
Tried their test. First the site is broken and returns an error for every page I try to look at… Then I find that the code I wrote in my preferred editor (emacs rules) and I can’t copy it into the field. So I type the whole thing up, hit “charge!” and it tells me that I have errors – ‘Compile’.
It compiles and works as expected (even with the problem of the excessive space output that they seem to have intended). So whatever error my code has, it is on their end. Going to delete that profile and forget the site exists.
The coders (or should i say geeks?) should be better than this. We are not just some jugheads competing on everything, like football and baseball and hockey etc. This is why we are better at sharing and helping each other comparing to other communities. @Libc is right. Trollim is just trying to have coders idiotize so they can become a player in job-searching market.
TC50 really picked “awesome” startups this year. I’m beginning to wonder the guys that couldn’t make it to the final 50.
Worthless Startup. The trollim website is down or dead most of the time. Rumor has it that the CEO is getting sued by his investors.
I bet you that Trollim will be gone before the year ends.