By Chelsey Keith P. Ignacio, Special Features and Content Senior Writer

The programming skills of StackLeague challengers are being put to the test once more as the country’s largest online programming league returns for its third season.

Launching the new season last Feb. 10 at Microsoft Philippines, StackLeague is back to present participants with a chance to win cash prizes, career opportunities, access to exclusive events, and get nationwide recognition.

StackLeague is open to everyone who holds programming knowledge. For its third season, StackLeague is split into two divisions, the Pro League and Student League. Professionals who have graduated or are already working in the industry could partake in the Pro League. This season, they are offered career growth, professional networking, and job opportunities.

Meanwhile, the Student League is open for students from grade school up to college, with access to scholarship grants, mentorship, and internship opportunities offered to them.

To join the programming league, interested participants simply need to sign up at StackLeague’s website and start taking on the challenges. The league has three challenger levels, which include Bronze, Silver, and then Gold. As players conquer more challenges, they gain more points and elevate their ranking.

Cash prizes await challengers when they level up, rewarding P100 for Bronze and another P100 for Silver, and P300 when they reach Gold. Additionally, unlocking a level rewards challengers with access to special giveaways, exclusive events, and opportunities.

Furthermore, for this season, StackLeague gives a chance for Silver and Gold players to earn more points with a player versus player competition. In the PVP Mode, players in the aforesaid levels can challenge other players and bet on points, and the winner will take all.

And given the two divisions this season, StackLeague will reward two sets of Weekly Top 10 players who accumulated the highest points of the week. The Weekly Top 10 will receive P500 each. Also, all weekly winners will be automatically invited to the StackLeague Playoffs monthly qualifier, where there are nine monthly qualifier rounds.

The Top 10 highest-ranked players from each division at the end of StackLeague Season 3 will get cash awards, media recognition, and special prizes.

StackLeague is powered by StackTrek’s fully automated talent analytics and assessment platform, which evaluates eight fundamental programming areas including Simple Expression, Parsing and Regex, Standard Library Usage, Algorithms, Control Structures, Error Handling, Data Structures, and Object-Oriented Programming. The programming languages supported in StackLeague are JavaScript, Java, Python, C#, and PHP.

Aside from the programming tournament, StackLeague also has an ambassador program that rewards the participants who will go beyond the competition itself through the referral program and blog writing. The StackLeague Ambassador of the Month will get P3,000 plus a StackLeague shirt, while the Ambassador of the Year will get P20,000 and a StackLeague jacket.

The official scoring of StackLeague has commenced on Feb. 12. Meanwhile, the StackLeague Playoffs will run from March to November; the finals week will take place in December. StackLeague will announce the Mid-Season Rankings in June, and all grand winners of StackLeague Season 3 will be announced on Dec. 9.

Supported by technology companies Microsoft, AWS, GCash, Deltek, Viber, and Accenture as well as online recruitment companies JobStreet, Kalibrr, and Workbank, StackLeague is on a mission to develop programming leaders who inspire a nation into coding. More than 20,000 challengers take part in the league.