CodeChef (www.codechef.com), a DirectI initiative, is a website that can help in improving coding skills in many programming languages. CodeChef.com has 3 sections:

1. Practice :- We can provide solutions to problems of varying difficulties in 35+ programming languages including Java, C, C++, PERL, Ruby, PASCAL, C#, etc… This section is for improving your logical and programming skills in various programming languages. This section can also be useful for preparing for upcoming competitions. For each successful submission you will receive a point and move up the codechef rank.
2. Compete :- CodeChef will be announcing competitions for techies. There would be an x number of problems published on the site and the one who is able to solve most of them would win great prizes like Cash prize, Laptops, i-pods, etc…
3. Discuss :- This section is the CodeChef discussion forum. You can discuss problems / solutions with other coders online.

The solutions that you submit will be compiled and run online. You would get to see your result immediately. I tried out some of the algorithms in Java. Initially, it is little difficult to understand how to submit and what kind of output the site expects in the beginning. But once you get hold of it, it’s fun!!!

I tried solving the Factorial algorithm and got it right third time. I figured out that my code was not the most optimal solution. Somebody provided a better solution that executed faster than my code. It encouraged me to improvise my solution and re-submit. The competitive feeling to provide better solution made me think more and write a better code.

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