Competition Instructions

Code Base

The supplied source code contains the following:

/src/xpday – skeleton and helper classes

/lib – 3^rd-party libraries needed to complete the tasks, run tests, etc.

/etc – sample word data files used by tests, story description, this document

/test/xpday – JUnit tests for helper classes

/test/xpday/acceptance – JUnit acceptance tests from story description

Prerequisites

A Wintel or Unix-based environment
An existing JDK installation, version 1.4 or greater
Software to open ZIPped files

Installation

These instructions assume you have already obtained a copy of the competition ZIP file (pp-comp.zip)

Having obtained the encryption password from the coaches, unzip the ZIP file to the directory from which you'll be working

the unzipped directory structure will create a directory called xpday)

Change to the xpday directory
Run the appropriate configuration script for your environment:

For Unix-based OSes, type . configure.sh <ENTER>
For Windows-based OSes, type configure.bat <ENTER>

Test the installation by typing ant verify-install (if installation has been successful, messages showing your current JAVA_HOME and ANT_HOME settings will be displayed)
Extract the source code and associated files by typing ant unpack
Start pairing!

Time Limit

From the time you begin installing the code base, you have exactly 60 minutes to complete the tasks specified below.

Evaluation Criteria

Implement the solution to ensure all acceptance tests provided (in test/acceptance/AZIndexerTest.java) execute successfully (they will all fail initially).

It is strongly recommended that you implement code to satisfy each acceptance test in order, as they have been constructed to support a logical progression of solution complexity.

Maintain the quality of your solution by using the ant metrics task to get feedback on a variety of quality metric checks. Your completed solution must violate none of these checks.

Winning

The first pair to achieve the above criteria (as assessed by the merry band of wandering coaches) will be declared the overall winner.

Should two or more pairs meet these criteria at (roughly) the same time, the coaches will decide on the final winner.

Should no pair meet these criteria within the allotted time, the coaches will decide on the winner based on work completed.

Notes

The supplied helper and skeleton classes are provided for your benefit only. There is no obligation to use them if you do not wish to do so. They can also be changed if needed.