Panaxeo Coding Arena
Competition
•
Competition •
Join our virtual coding contest.
Boost your ego, win cool prizes and have fun.
Rules, tl;dr:
Welcome to our annual coding competition.
This time, your task is to code the most efficient Battleship player
Open to all! (No trolls, though.)
Player categories: Panaxeans, Juniors, Seniors
Deadline: 15 Dec 2023, 23:59
Prizes
Panaxeans
The best Panaxean gets €400 worth of hardware of their choice + a personal poster + eternal glory in our Hall of Fame
Juniors
The best Junior gets a year-long Skillmea membership + awesome merch
Seniors
The best Senior gets a Nintento Switch + awesome merch
Welcome to the Coding arena
Coding Arena is a Panaxeo tradition. Every year, we measure our egos coding skills. For the second time in forever, it’s open to the public! Y’all are very welcome to enter!
This year is all about Battleships. Your goal is to win 200 matches and destroy all enemy ships by firing at coordinates in a square mesh. Unfamiliar with the basic rules of this game? Let us google that for you.
Login below, get your API token and start playing battleships with us.
How to play?
You start a game by firing at coordinates. A new match starts immediately after the previous one ends.
You fire with API calls described below (/fire/<x>/<y>). The game ends after 200 matches.
You can play 20 games. 200 matches = 1 game. You can reset a current match series, which still counts as 1 game.
The opponent’s fleet:
Avengers Helicarrier (9 spaces), Carrier (5 spaces), Battleship (4), Destroyer (3), Submarine (3), and Patrol Boat (2).
Score and leaderboard
The total score is the number of rounds it took you to finish all 200 matches. The lower the number, the better. With more games, only the best game counts towards the final score.
There’s a twist, though
An Avengers Helicarrier™ has been stolen! (Along with those other ships.) When you destroy it, you’ll release the captured Avengers. One of them can help you with their unique abilities.
Thor can reveal 11 spaces at once with his lightning. The one you’re firing at + 10 random spaces. All in a single round.
Hulk can sink a whole ship at once. If you fire at a space with an actual ship and ask Hulk for help, he’ll destroy the entire ship.
Iron Man will use his scanners to reveal the smallest undiscovered ship.
You can use an Avenger ability in the next round immediately after destroying the Helicarrier. Only one Avenger is available per match, only once.
Board Placement Rules
The board is 12x12 spaces. The ships can only be placed vertically or horizontally. Diagonal placement is not allowed. No part of a ship may hang off the edge of the board. Ships may not overlap each other. No ship may be placed on another ship. No ship can touch another ship, not even diagonally. Once the guessing begins, the players may not move the ships.
Enter
the Coding Arena
Current
Leaderboard
The Battleship API
Endpoints
Getting the status of an ongoing game 📋
None
GET /firePath parameters
Query parameters
name
allowed value
required
description
test
yesfalse
Query will be performed on test data for simulation, no change to real game data, user score / number of
tries etc.
Headers
name
type
data type
description
Authorization
Bearer token
string
Authorization token copied from the UI
Responses
http code
content-type
response
200application/json; charset=utf-8FireResponse
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Max tries already reached"}
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Invalid query parameter or query parameter value supplied"}
403application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Unauthorized"}Example cURL
curl --request GET --url https://europe-west1-ca-2023-dev.cloudfunctions.net/battleshipsApi/fire --header 'Authorization: Bearer $token'
Firing at specified position 🎯
GET /fire/:row/:columnPath parameters
name
data type
required
description
row
integer
true
vertical position on the board from range [0,11]
column
integer
true
horizontal position on the board from range [0,11]
Query parameters
name
allowed value
required
description
test
yesfalse
Query will be performed on test data for simulation, no change to real game data, user score / number of
tries etc.
Headers
name
type
data type
description
Authorization
Bearer token
string
Authorization token copied from the UI
Responses
http code
content-type
response
200application/json; charset=utf-8FireResponse
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Max tries already reached"}
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Invalid values for row or column"}
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Invalid query parameter or query parameter value supplied"}
403application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Unauthorized"}Example cURL
curl --request GET --url https://europe-west1-ca-2023-dev.cloudfunctions.net/battleshipsApi/fire/:row/:column --header 'Authorization: Bearer $token'
Firing at specified position with help of avenger 🦸♂
GET /fire/:row/:column/avenger/:avengerPath parameters
name
data type
required
description
row
integer
true
vertical position on the board from range [0,11]
column
integer
true
horizontal position on the board from range [0,11]
avenger
string
true
use the power of specified avenger (hulk, ironman or thor)
Query parameters
name
allowed value
required
description
test
yesfalse
Query will be performed on test data for simulation, no change to real game data, user score / number of
tries etc.
Headers
name
type
data type
description
Authorization
Bearer token
string
Authorization token copied from the UI
Responses
http code
content-type
response
200application/json; charset=utf-8AvengerFireResponse
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Max tries already reached"}
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Invalid values for row or column"}
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Invalid value for avenger"}
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Avenger unavailable"}
400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Invalid query parameter or query parameter value supplied"}
403application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Unauthorized"}Example cURL
curl --request GET --url https://europe-west1-ca-2023-dev.cloudfunctions.net/battleshipsApi/fire/:row/:column/avenger/:avenger --header 'Authorization: Bearer $token'
Reset ongoing game ↻
Calling this endpoint results in resetting the ongoing game, but your attempt will be counted as one full game without saving the score.
GET /reset
Path parameters
None
Query parameters
name allowed value required description test yesfalse Query will be performed on test data for simulation, no change to real game data, user score / number of tries etc.
Headers
name type data type description Authorization Bearer token string Authorization token copied from the UI
Responses
http code content-type response 200application/json; charset=utf-8{"availableTries": number }400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Max tries already reached"}400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "No ongoing game found"}400application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Invalid query parameter or query parameter value supplied"}403application/json; charset=utf-8{"error": "Unauthorized"}
Example cURL
curl --request GET --url https://europe-west1-ca-2023-dev.cloudfunctions.net/battleshipsApi/reset --header 'Authorization: Bearer $token'
Response models
FireResponse
Model details
name
data type
description
grid
string
144 chars (12x12 grid) representing updated state of map, '*' is unknown, 'X' is ship, '.' is water.
cell
string
Result after firing at given position ('.' or 'X'). This field may be empty ('') if player calls /fire
endpoint or tries to fire at already revealed position.
result
boolean
Denotes if fire action was valid. E.g. if player calls /fire endpoint or fire at already revealed
position, this field will be false.
avengerAvailable
boolean
Avenger availability after the player's move.
mapId
integer
ID of the map, on which was called last player's move. This value will change when player beats current
map.
mapCount
integer
Fixed number of maps which are required to complete before completing one full game.
moveCount
integer
Number of valid moves which were made on the current map. Invalid moves such as firing at the same
position multiple times are not included.
finished
boolean
Denotes if player successfully finished currently ongoing game => if player completed mapCount
maps. Valid move after getting true in this field results in new game (or error if player has
already achieved max number of tries).
Example
{
"grid": "*...**********************XX.**********************************.***********.***********.***********************************************.********",
"cell": "X",
"result": true,
"avengerAvailable": false,
"mapId": 0,
"mapCount": 2,
"moveCount": 10,
"finished": false
}
AvengerFireResponse
AvengerFireResponse includes all the fields from FireResponse and adds the
following
Model details
name
data type
description
avengerResult
{mapPoint: {x: integer, y: integer }, hit: boolean}[]
mapPoint's values x (row) and y (column) denote coordinates which were affected by avenger
ability. Value of hit denotes, if coordinates specified by mapPoint have hit a ship.
Example
{
"grid": "*...**********************XX.****..****************************.***********.***********.***********************************************.********",
"cell": ".",
"result": true,
"avengerAvailable": false,
"mapId": 0,
"mapCount": 2,
"moveCount": 12,
"finished": false,
"avengerResult": [
{
"mapPoint": {
"x": 9,
"y": 2
},
"hit": false
}
]
}
Frequently asked
questions
-
We want a level playing field for students and juniors. that’s why we have two categories – juniors and seniors. There will be a winner in each of these categories.
Are you a student or are you just starting out in your engineering career? Select the Junior seniority level.
Are you a skilled engineer with real-world experience? Then you’re a senior. -
Coding arena started out as a Panaxeans only competition. Only Panaxeans can win eternal glory in the Hall of Fame. Wanna become a Panaxean?
-
‘Cause it’s fun.
-
You can enter the Coding arena at any point up to 15 December 2023. Time of entry doesn’t matter; your score does.
-
Ask away! codingarena@panaxeo.com
We've got a partner.
They'll help you code better.
We are required to put the official competition rules here in a special document.
Read it if you’d like. (Slovak).
