Our 2021 season kicked off in October with a coding challenge sponsored and created by Next. Of the 60 students who managed to score 100%, 4 were fast-tracked to Assessment Centre stage, with 3 eventually being handed offers.

The 3 students - from Aberdeen, Leeds and Southampton respectively - were able to skip the initial application stages as well as the technical screening, with the code challenge proving their technical capabilities.

Kish Gokani from Next said “The challenge has definitely been a success, I was able to let the hiring managers know that the candidates were technically proficient enough to score 100% on the coding challenge which then immediately turned their interview into an offer.”

As for the students themselves, we asked what they thought of the opportunity, and of the competition as a whole.

One said “I actually started participating in VarsityCode not thinking about the prizes. I was doing it for the fun and challenge of it and as something to put on my CV.

So, I was surprised and quite happy tbh, when Next Technology reached out to me, informing me about making it to the final assessment centre. A month after that, I went on to the assessment centre and was fortunate to do well and get accepted.

Regardless of the prizes, the VarsityCode challenges were so much fun to do and since they were provided by real tech companies/organisations, it felt like it’s a good representation of simplified real life challenges.

It was also quite fun to see how different universities compete in a league to see who comes out on top against different universities and students.”

With another candidate stating “The whole concept of this competition is very appealing to me as it gives you motivation that the challenges are made by real companies and are from real-world industry settings. Also since it is based on universities competing against each other, it is a nice way to compare your skills not only to the general public (as other coding competitions) but to your peers who are receiving the same education as you.”

So, if you want to show some of the UK’s top employers what you can do, whilst competing against your peers, it’s not too late to join VarsityCode! 👇

https://www.showcode.io/varsitycode/

Or, if you’re interested in sponsoring the competition, and hiring some awesome tech grads, then get in touch at hello@showcode.io