CodeSport: Increasing Participation in Programming Using Coding Tournaments as an Alternative to Hackathons

Though hackathons are successful in attracting large crowds, they may not be sufficiently effective for broadening participation in computing, because they lack appeal for underrepresented groups in computing, and for people with family and job obligations. We propose a contrasting model for creating interest in computing, by making coding a spectator sport. We present an experience report on the design and implementation of a coding tournament, including survey results that informed the design of the system along with post-event questionnaire data from participants, exploring their attitudes towards different coding events. We find that coding tournaments can be an effective and engaging alternative to hackathons, and that they can motivate some audience members to pursue more coding activities, and possibly even participate as competitors in future tournaments.