Facebook will host its second Hacker Cup

THE SOCIAL NETWORK Facebook is offering hackers a crack at its 2012 Hacker Cup.

Registration is open now and the first three online rounds of the challenge will be held this month. In a blog post the firm said that hacking is core to Facebook's development.

"Hacking is core to how we build at Facebook. Whether we're building a prototype for a major product like Timeline at a Hackathon, creating a smarter search algorithm, or tearing down walls at our new headquarters, we're always hacking to find better ways to solve problems," said David Alves, a mobile engineer at the firm.

"Programmers from around the world will be judged on accuracy and speed as they race to solve algorithmic problems to advance through up to five rounds of programming challenges. This is your chance to compete against the world's best programmers for awesome prizes and the title of World Champion."

The competition is global, meaning that anyone can enter, and after three online rounds that last until February the top 25 entrants will be flown to Facebook headquarters for more challenges. In the early stages participants will get three hours to solve a challenge. The top scoring 100 people willl move on to the next stage, and so on.

While the top 100 in each stage will each get a t-shirt, the other prizes are more interesting. The World Champion will get $5,000, 2nd gets $2,000, 3rd gets $1,000 and everyone else gets $100. µ