SQL Server Challenge Idea Contest 2010-Q1
Welcome to the SQL Server Challenge Idea Contest 2010 Q1. SQL Server Challenge Idea Contest is a quarterly challenge from SQL Server Challenges team to recognize people with great SQL Server experience solving complex business problems using TSQL.
If you have a great SQL Server Challenge idea, send us your challenge idea and we will be very happy to review them.
What are challenge ideas?
Any business problem that requires above average SQL Server skills to solve may be qualified as an ideal candidate for the SQL Server Challenge Idea Contest. It could be one of the following:
- Any problem that you came across and successfully solved.
- Any problem that you have come across but was not able to solve.
- Any difficult problem that you have seen, heard of can think of.
Challenge Guidelines
The challenge idea you submit should follow the guidelines given below.
- It should be a problem that can be solved using TSQL.
- It should be a data transformation challenge – taking data from one or more tables and producing the output in a certain format.
- You should provide a description of the challenge.
- You should provide detailed list of the rules, logic requirements and additional details such as sort order etc, along with your submission.
- you should provide the sample data and expected results. The sample data should be simple, short and minimal and should focus on explaining the concept of the challenge
- You should provide the scripts to create the sample data
- Though not mandatory, it is recommended that you provide a more detailed data for performing the logic testing of the solutions. This data should contain a more detailed tricky set of data which has all sort of odd and exceptional value combinations.
- Finally, though it is not mandatory, we will be very happy if you can provide the script for generating the load testing data. The load testing is done with a larger data set, which is usally 1 million rows.
And the Winners Get…..
The authors of winning solutions will receive a few exciting prizes. 
The challenge idea that comes first will receive a cash prize of $100 by Paypal. In addition, the winner will get 10 SQL Stars and the challenge will be published at www.tsqlchallenges.com.
The SQL Server Challenges team will also select top (up to) 10 challenge ideas from the submissions and the authors of those challenges will get a consolation cash prize of $25 each. They will also earn 5 SQL Stars each for their interesting challenge idea. Selected challenge ideas will be published at www.tsqlchallenges.com.
Submitting the challenge idea
Follow the guidelines given below for submitting your challenge idea.
- Create a text file that explains your challenge idea. Name the file “firstname_lastname_SSCIC2010Q1.txt”. If your first name is “smith” and last name is “jones”, your file should be named “smith_jones_SSCIC2010Q1.txt”. Include the source data and expected output in the text description.
- Create a sql file that contains the scripts to create the input data. Use table variables instead of physical/temp tables and provide the insert scripts. Include your version of the solution (if you were able to solve the problem) in the sql file. Name the file “firstname_lastname_SSCIC2010Q1.sql”. If your first name is “smith” and last name is “jones”, your file should be named “smith_jones_SSCIC2010Q1.sql”.
- Send both the files by email to tc@beyondrelational.com. We will send a confirmation email when we receive the submission. If you do not receive a confirmation message in 24 hours, please resend your submission.
- Last date for submitting your entries is 31 January 2010 Midnight GMT. The winners will be announced by the second week of February.
Questions
Use this forum to discuss your questions on this contest.
Good Luck
Best of luck all the participants and we look forward to see your submissions soon.