A Programming Contest With a Spelling-Bee Twist
Picture a coding competition held under bright lights, with contestants on stage and time pressure mounting. That's the Python Bee, an event that turns writing Python code into a spectator sport. Modeled on a spelling bee, it challenges contestants to produce working Python functions one character at a time, announcing each keypress aloud as they go.
A sample prompt might be: "Write a function that, given two integers, returns their sum." From there, the competitor spells out the solution: "d–e–f–" and so on through the entire function. Every character counts, including punctuation and whitespace, and invalid Python means elimination.
The format has a critical twist: competitors work in pairs. The two partners sit back-to-back, taking turns spelling successive characters. They cannot see each other, pass notes, or otherwise coordinate their strategy beyond the alternating turns.
From "Bad Idea" to Tradition
The Python Bee was conceived by MIT students in 2009 as an entry in a contest for "bad ideas." Despite-or perhaps because of-that origin, it became a recurring tradition at MIT and later spread to other organizations, including Dropbox. Dropbox has run Python Bees at its past two Hack Weeks and decided to bring the format to a wider audience at its DBX conference.
Competition Format at DBX
At the event, DBX attendees can enter the Python Bee's qualifying round on July 9 by following signage at the conference. Participants team up and use laptops or mobile devices to complete the qualifying challenges. The top ten qualifiers, forming five teams, earn a spot in the finals on the main stage.
Dropbox's Guido van Rossum voiced his enthusiasm for the competition, calling it "a wonderful idea to test your wizard-level knowledge of programming in Python." He added that he looked forward to watching the champions battle, though he admitted he wouldn't be competing himself.
