Every year around New Year's, I encourage people to commit to the #100DaysOfCode challenge. And this year, I went a step further.

But first, let me tell you about #100DaysOfCode.

Alex Kallaway created the #100DaysOfCode challenge back in 2016.

I had the honor of hanging out with Alex in Toronto, and I even wrote an in-depth history of the challenge.

The #100DaysOfCode challenge is massive. How massive? To give you an idea: challenge participants tweet the #100DaysOfCode hashtag once ever 20 seconds.

The #100DaysOfCode Twitter bot – which does nothing but randomly retweet people who tweet with hashtag – has more Twitter followers than a lot of Fortune 500 companies do.

The #100DaysOfCode challenge works like this:

  1. You code at least a little bit each day for 100 days in a row. Each day you tweet about what you did.
  2. Each day you reply to other people's tweets to support them.

That's it. Super simple. It's a public commitment device with a built-in support network to help keep you motivated.

This is a powerful model for any kind of endurance-based challenge.

This year I wanted to channel the brilliant simplicity of the #100DaysOfCode challenge into more advanced developer challenges.

These 2 new challenges are a good fit for more advanced developers who may not have the time to commit to the #100DaysOfCode challenge.

These challenges are also well-suited to people who have already finished one or two rotations of #100DaysOfCode, and want to try something more advanced.

And so the #ProjectEuler100 challenge and the #AWSCertified were born.

In this article, I'll explain these challenges briefly and also showcase some of their participants' achievements so far.

An Update On The #ProjectEuler100 Challenge

Project Euler is a website created back in 2001. It hosts a collection of around 600 different algorithm problems that get progressively harder, to the point where even people with math PhD's still struggle with them.

This said, the first 100 problems are totally do-able by a new developer. Thousands of people have completed the first 100 Project Euler problems over the years.

It's just brutally hard. Like... Dark Souls hard.

Dark_Souls__Prepare_to_Die_Edition_Box_Shot_for_PC_-_GameFAQs
Dark Souls is a video game famous for being ridiculously hard. But it becomes much easier with consistent practice - just like these algorithm problems.

I love the Project Euler problems. I used them extensively when I was first learning to code. I love these so much that we've added these Project Euler problems to freeCodeCamp's Interview Preparation section.

I've boiled everything down to these 6 simple rules all participants must follow.

  1. Tweet out a photo of yourself giving a thumbs-up and announcing that you are committing to the #ProjectEuler100 challenge.
  2. Create a GitHub repository.
  3. Each time you complete a problem, add your solution to your GitHub repository and tweet a link to it using the #ProjectEuler100 hashtag.
  4. Then scroll through the #ProjectEuler100 hashtag and give supportive feedback on at least 2 tweets from other developers.
  5. Move on to the next Project Euler problem. You can't skip ahead. You have to complete all 100 problems in order. But you can use any programming language you want to solve these.
  6. Once you've finished all 100 of them, tweet out a celebration photo of yourself with your laptop open to your GitHub repo.

So far more than 700 people have joined the #ProjectEuler100 Discord chatroom.

The #ProjectEuler100 Twitter bot is already up to 300 followers.

And since this challenge is completely self-paced, several super-motivated developers are already reaching the last half of the challenge.

Here are some things people are tweeting about the challenge:

And some people have already made it pretty far into the challenge:

You can read more about the #ProjectEuler100 challenge here.

An Update On The #AWSCertified Challenge

And last week, we launched the #AWSCertified challenge. Here are the rules:

  1. Tweet out a photo of yourself giving a thumbs-up and announcing that you are committing to the #AWSCertified challenge.
  2. Each day tweet at least one time about your progress and what you've learned or done, using the #AWSCertified hashtag.
  3. Each day, reply with encouragement to at least 2 other people who are also using the #AWSCertified hashtag.
  4. Each time you earn a certification, print it out, pose with it, and tweet a triumphant photo.

In total, AWS offers 12 certifications. Here's a breakdown of the tests, how much they cost, and how long the certifications are valid for.

AWS_Certification_-_Validate_AWS_Cloud_Skills_-_Get_AWS_Certified-1
A chart showing all 12 AWS certifications. (Since the time that AWS made this chart, the've broken down the "Big Data" certification into 2 specialty certifications - Database and Analytics). We explain each of these in much more detail later in this article.

So far more than 500 people have joined the #AWSCertified Discord chatroom.

And here are some tweets from the community:

We've had a lot of people publicly commit to the challenge just in the past 24 hours:

We even had one of the challenge participants already earn their first certification. That was fast.

Andrew from ExamPro is creating full-length preparation courses for each of these certifications, and he's making these completely free (and ad-free) on freeCodeCamp's YouTube channel.

You can read more about the #AWSCertified Challenge here.

Both the #ProjectEuler100 and the #AWSCertified challenges are off to a strong start.

If you are looking for a more advanced developer challenge for 2020, either of these could be a good option for you.

I just want to give a big shout-out to all the people tackling these challenges. Your ambition and persistence are so inspiring.

Keep up the progress toward your goals. We're all looking forward to watching you complete these challenges and become stronger developers as a result.

Happy coding.