Weekly challenge rules
Last updated August 2026
The weekly challenge awards a real prize, so it needs real rules. These apply to every challenge run on StudiesSprint. Entering means you accept them.
Who runs it
The promoter is StudiesSprint. Questions about a challenge or a result go to hello@studiessprint.com.
This is a competition of skill
Winners are chosen by a person judging the work against the criteria below. Nothing is decided by chance, by a draw, or by how many people vote for you. If two entries are judged equal, the tie is broken by judging them again on the same criteria — never by picking one at random.
Who can enter
You need a StudiesSprint account with an active membership, and you must be 16 or older. If you are under 18 we will ask for a parent's or guardian's consent before paying a prize.
Staff, and anyone involved in setting or judging a challenge, cannot enter it.
How to enter
Submit your work through the challenge page before the deadline shown on that challenge. The deadline is enforced by the site — once it passes, entries are refused, so do not leave it to the last minute.
One entry per person per challenge. You may edit your entry as many times as you like up to the deadline; the version in place at the deadline is the one that gets judged. Entering costs nothing beyond the membership you already have.
After you submit, you answer a short set of questions about your own code. Those answers are part of your entry and are judged.
What we judge
- Does it meet the brief. Every requirement in the brief is present and works.
- Does it work. It runs, handles the obvious edge cases, and doesn't fall over on first use.
- Do you understand it. Your answers to the follow-up questions show you can explain your own decisions, the mechanism behind them, and what would break.
- Is it well made. Readable code, sensible structure, and a considered interface.
The judge's decision is final. We don't enter into correspondence about individual scores, but if you think a rule was applied wrongly, email us within 14 days of the result and we will look at it.
It has to be your own work
Submit work you built yourself, for this challenge. Using AI tools is allowed and you must say which ones you used and what you used them for — that disclosure is part of the entry form, and being honest about it costs you nothing.
What is not allowed: passing off someone else's work as yours, submitting something you built before the brief was published, or having another person do the work. The follow-up questions exist to check that you understand what you submitted. An entry that cannot be explained by the person who submitted it is disqualified, and repeated attempts end the account.
You keep ownership of what you build. By entering you allow us to show your entry and your name on the site and in the announcement of the result.
The prize
Each challenge states its own prize on the challenge page, and that is the prize for that challenge — this page does not promise any particular amount. Unless the challenge says otherwise there is one winner, and no cash alternative or substitution.
We publish the result within 7 days of the deadline and notify the winner by the email on their account. If a winner does not reply within 14 days we may award the prize to the next placed entry.
Money prizes are paid within 28 days of the winner confirming their payment details. You are responsible for any tax due on a prize.
Announcing winners
We publish the winner's display name and their entry. If you would rather not be named publicly, tell us before the result is published and we will announce you by initials instead — it does not affect whether you win. We will still confirm the result to anyone who asks in writing.
If something goes wrong
If a challenge has to be changed, paused or cancelled — a broken brief, an outage over the deadline, circumstances outside our control — we will say so on the challenge page and by email. Where a challenge is cancelled after entries have opened, we run it again rather than withholding the prize.
We may disqualify an entry that breaks these rules or the terms of service.
Your information
We use your entry and account details to run the challenge, judge it, and pay the prize. Bank or payment details given for a prize are used for that payment only. The privacy policy covers the rest.
Law
These rules are governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer elsewhere, you keep the protections of your home country's mandatory law.