HackerRank is a tech company that focuses on competitive programming challenges for both consumers and businesses, where developers compete by trying to program according to provided specifications. HackerRank's programming challenges can be solved in a variety of programming languages and span multiple computer science domains. On the consumer side, when a programmer submits a solution to a programming challenge, their submission is scored on the accuracy of their output. Programmers are then ranked globally on the HackerRank leaderboard and earn badges based on their accomplishments to drive competition among users. In addition to individual coding challenges, HackerRank also hosts contests where users compete on the same programming challenges during a set period of time and are then ranked at the conclusion of the event. HackerRank is part of the growing gamification trend within competitive computer programming and the consumer-side of their website is free for coders to use.
History
HackerRank was founded as InterviewStreet Inc. by two NIT Trichy alumni Vivek Ravisankar and Hari Karunanidhi. HackerRank is a Y Combinator-backed company, and was the first Indian company accepted into Y Combinator. They also participated in TechCrunch Disrupt in 2012, and currently have venture capital backing from Khosla Ventures and Battery Ventures.
Funding
In July 2015, HackerRank received $7.5 million funding from a Japanese firm Recruit Holdings’ HR technology fund. HackerRank has raised over $58 million over a series of fundraising rounds. On February 13, 2018 HackerRank announced they had raised $30 million in Series C funding, led by JMI Equity.
Acquisition
In December 2019, HackerRank acquired Mimir, a cloud-based service that provides tools for teaching computer science courses. Mimir is used by Google and some other universities including Michigan State, UCLA, Oregon State and Purdue. Mimir is HackerRank’s first acquisition.
Hackerrank provides developers to code in many different languages such as C++, Python, Java, Ruby, Swift, and many more. HackerRank categorizes most of their programming challenges into a number of core computer science domains, including:
Database: involves learning about management and maintenance of databases
Datastructure: involves learning about different types of available data structures and how to use them.
Mathematics: New challenging mathematical problems.
Artificial Intelligence: involves developing AI bots and using them against others.
Their enterprise-side product, HackerRank for Work, is a subscription service that aims to help companies source, screen, and hire engineers and other technical roles. The HackerRank for Work platform gives businesses the option to leverage a built-in library of programming challenges or write their own so as to tailor that programming challenge directly to a company's open position. Technical recruiters then use those programming challenges to test candidates on their specific programming skills and better understand their qualification for a certain role. Candidate's challenges, once submitted, are auto-scored and the results are then provided to the technical recruiter for review. Companies such as Amplify, Quora, and Capital One are using HackerRank for Work in their technical recruiting screening processes. In addition to screening, HackerRank also hosts programming hackathons, referred to as CodeSprints, as a way for companies to source technical candidates. Companies who have hosted or sponsored these CodeSprints include Addepar, Yahoo!, Quora, and Amazon.
Notable releases
CodePair, released in February 2014, combines programming challenges with real-time video for interviewing.
DroidRank, released in November 2014, adds support for Android-based programming challenges.
SudoRank, released in February 2015, adds support for Linux-based scripting challenges
In 2014, HackerRank for work had over 1,000 paying customers for their subscription service. Notable enterprise customers include Adobe, Amazon, Atlassian, Citrix, EA Sports, Evernote, Quora, Facebook, Twitter, Walmart, Yahoo!, D. E. Shaw and Zynga.