“Developers are the new inventors. However, instead of tinkering with nuts and bolts in backyard garages, coders tinker with bits and bytes in coffee shops and corporate office parks.<\/p>\n
“The biggest companies in the world exist because of coders who create something new. This alone proves that coders are a valuable national asset,” said James Pearce, SMSPortal IT Director.<\/p>\n
Coding is already contributing to a better South Africa with the recent launch of a programme to teach at-risk youth and ex-offenders to code.<\/p>\n
![\"Click](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SMSPortal-Crack-the-Code-week-4-640x430.jpg\")
<\/a>Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n
Coding refers to the primary work activity of the talented software developers who build the mobile applications that enrich and improve our lives.<\/p>\n
SMSPortal’s national “Crack the Code” competition is open to anyone. To enter follow this simple process:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Traverse the tree to discover the formula, then solve the formula to find the ShortCode number.<\/li>\n
- SMS your name to the ShortCode number in order to receive the URL link to the 15min coding test.<\/li>\n
- Score the highest on the coding test and win yourself R5000 in cash.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
“Coders have a 24-hour window in which to take the test, and it should take the best of the best under 8 minutes.<\/p>\n
“However, with great effort comes great reward, and we’ve set the prize purse for the competition at a quick R5,000 per week,” explains Mr Pearce.<\/p>\n
Week 3 was a huge success and week 4 commences today, Tuesday 28 June at 09:00am, and you have until the next morning at 08:59am to enter.<\/p>\n
The winners of each round will be announced the following week.<\/p>\n
“You\u2019ll need some next-level coding skills if you\u2019re wanting to take home the weekly cash prize. Let the games begin\u2026,” concluded Mr Pearce.<\/p>\n
Winner of Week 3<\/h3>\n
Heinrich Lategan, a software developer from Centurion, was the winner of week 3, and entered after reading about the competition on MyBroadband,<\/p>\n
Having been in the industry for just over 3 years, he did find the competition challenging, saying that “It forces you to focus on the problem and understand it thoroughly before just jumping into the coding.<\/p>\n
“The tree algorithm was also a bit challenging as one calculation error can prevent you from even entering.”<\/p>\n
He added that the challenge makes you think of different approaches to solving the problem and also exposes you to concepts that you might not know about and how they can be used.<\/p>\n
“As technology in the rest of the world advances more developers are required to supply software that keeps up with other advancements,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If we in SA want to keep up with this advancement in technology we need to have more developers to keep up with the software demand.”<\/p>\n
His advice to budding software developers is to keep learning.<\/p>\n
“Programming is a field that never stops and keeps changing from day to day. Don’t let new programming technology and techniques pass you by,” he concluded.<\/p>\n
“If you can keep up with the technology then you can solve any problem you might face.”<\/p>\n
For more information visit: http:\/\/www.smsportal.co.za\/#!competitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n