Cignithon Testing Hackathon, A mega testing hackathon in India was organized by Cigniti Technologies on 9th Feb 2020 at T-Hub (IIIT Hyderabad) and was powered by The Test Tribe Community. It was a rocking start to the New year for the testing community, especially from Hyderabad’s point of view. A sleepy, cozy, overcast Sunday was not sufficient to dampen the spirits of the Hyderabad Testing community, which came forward to constitute one of the biggest testing hackathons of India. More than 118+ testers from 52+ different companies turned up for the event which was fun-filled and challenging at the same time with opportunities for making cash, friends and a reputation.
Some key highlights of Cignithon Testing Hackathon:
- 3 Products to test from varying domains and on different platforms
- Prizes worth 2 lakhs up for grab
- Opportunity to network with 118+ testing professionals
- Potential hiring opportunity with one of the leading pure-play testing companies in the world Cigniti
- 1600+ bugs found ( A mind-boggling number by any standards)
- Testers from 52+ companies participated
- 9 winning teams across 3 products
- 3 miscellaneous awards
- Lots of fun, networking, SWAG, and smiles. All around.
Register for Cignithon 2022 – by Cigniti Technologies
The day started at 11:30 AM with the T-Hub auditorium completely jam-packed. An enthusiastic lot of testers, TTT volunteers and Cigniti leadership were geared towards making this event a great success. Paras, our host for the day, wove his magic and was the thread that held the entire event together. Cigniti leadership led by Subhendu and especially Raghuram set the ball rolling. Raghuram’s enthralling rendition of the history of software in the Indian context and especially the part on software testing captivated the audience as it is always good to know how the career you are a part of came into existence.
As a precursor to the actual bug hunting, Mahesh walked us all through the Event format, followed by a brief overview of the products provided by the three Startups I mentioned above.
The teams of two were allowed to be formed and asked to give some unique name to it. Teams were told to determine their strategies as to how to go ahead with their bug -hunting activities. Ajay provided his valuable inputs on how to go ahead with the bug-hunting activities with the intent of winning the hackathon. Then the teams took a break for lunch (which was quite delicious) where there were umpteen opportunities to network and form teams if not already done.
The actual bug hunting exercise then started at 2:15 PM. The teams were all set. The product URLs, instructions and good luck wishes were shared with the teams, and the actual hackathon began. Teams deployed multiple strategies to outwit the competition and put their best feet forward to claim the prizes. Strategies ranged from picking up a single application to picking all applications with a time-boxed approach, going through the instructions in detail or directly jumping into testing. So on and so forth.
The apps were from varying domains with a mix of platforms(Web/Mobile) and that enabled people with different skillsets and experiences to leverage their strengths. Teams with a varying mix of experiences definitely had a stronger chance of winning.
The time flew by and soon the ending was near. Teams rushed in to scour through any untouched areas and logging bugs in a hurry. The battle continued for a good 3.5 hours. Testers were not ready to stop. No time to look at the clock. Fingers waving their magic as fast as they can on the keyboard, logging as many bugs as possible. There were tea and snacks to enjoy in between the testing duration, but were we ready to stop and enjoy it? No, all we wanted is to log as many good bugs as possible.
Like all good things has to end, the hackathon window got over and bug submissions were stopped. We all were tired but super happy. Who says you can’t feel adrenaline rush while you test?
There was a breather finally and we all were actually relaxing for the first time after a good 3.5 hours of intense work. This was also a very good opportunity to network with other testers out there and learn from them.
A whopping 1600+ bugs were logged in the process by 118+ testers in a matter of few hours. If you are in the Software world, you know how huge is that number.
The sheer number of bugs meant evaluating was a huge challenge for the product teams and this meant needing more time for the same. Hoe to engage the team. In stepped Paras and then there were a few sets of fun events to enable people to collect swag and goodies. Ample games to network with others out there of course.
When the final results were to be announced there was excitement all around. Some of the teams were extremely confident of winning while some were skeptical. However, the confidence or lack of it was not the deciding factor but the efforts spent and the quality of bugs raised that differentiated the winners from the rest.
Finally, the results were out:
Oropocket
- Winner: Team Bug Eaters (Pottumurty Manikant & Sandeep Jinde from Qapitol QA)
- 1st Runner up: TribeTesters (Ashwin Chordiya from HCL & Saurabh from ZenQA)
- 2nd runner up: SomethingFishy (Vaibhav P & Shaik Rahman)
Hisab
- Winner: Amigos (Rohit Anney & Laxminarayana Boga from CBRE)
- 1st Runner up: Da Vinci (Arun Nandireddi & Vishal Vala from EPAM Systems)
- 2nd Runner up: Phinox (Rajesh Nemani from Cigniti & Suneetha Garlapati from First Tech Consulting)
Younify
- Winner: Automatons (Sandeep Uppala from Ebix Software & Satheesh Valluri from EMIDS)
- 1st Runner up: Team Autobot (Nadimpalli Babu & Venkatesh Salagrama from Sureify Labs)
- 2nd Runner up: anOnymOus (K.V. Yoganand from Innominds Software & Surya Krishna from VMax E-Solutions)
A big congratulations to all the Winners. However, anyone and everyone who turned up was a Winner as they chose to spend the Sunday in a worthy manner as compared to the lazing or other umpteen ways they could have. The success of this event would not only stoke the fire of passion that burns in the Hyderabad testing community with respect to their trade of testing but would also act as an encouragement for the thousands of other testers who were not able to take part but may take heart from this and chose to participate in future events to keep the flag of testing flying high.
Meanwhile, a lot of testers also shared their feedback for the event and about the things they are looking forward to from The Test Tribe. Tribals also agreed that there has to be a way to stay in touch with each other and there it was, official The Test Tribe Facebook Community. If you are a Tester and reading this, Join the Tribe NOW- http://bit.ly/tttcommunity
About the Author:
Ravi has 12+ years of experience in software testing with expertise in test automation. He has worked for Infosys, TCS, Expleo Group and currently working as a Test Consultant at Microsoft. He is a keen and avid learner and on the lookout for learning new skills primarily related to technology.
