Key Dates

Eligibility

To register for Neo4j®’s Code Golf ("Contest"), participants must be at least 18, be located where the Contest is allowed by law and must follow the entry requirements in the "How to Enter" Section below. Your participation in the Contest constitutes your agreement to be bound by these official rules (“Official Rules"). Void where prohibited by law. Employees, officers, directors, agents, and representatives of Neo4j, Inc. ("Neo4j") its affiliates and subsidiaries, and their immediate family and household members, are not eligible to enter or to win. Employees, officers, directors, agents, and representatives of the United States federal government, and their immediate family and household members, are not eligible to enter or to win. Contest entrants are referred to as "you" or "participant".

False and/or deceptive entries or acts shall render participants ineligible.

Conditions

a) The Contest is governed by these Official Rules and is sponsored by Neo4j, Inc. All decisions regarding the Contest, including but not limited to winner selection, will be made by Neo4j, whose decisions shall be final.

b) Participants agree not to disclose, or use any confidential or proprietary information, of an employer or third party in any entry.

c) The winner is solely responsible for all applicable federal, state, provincial, and local taxes. All federal, state, provincial, and local laws apply.  Winners agree to cooperate and provide any documentation required by law to facilitate payment of prizes.

d) Neo4j is not responsible for (i) lost, late, delayed, misdirected, stolen, unintelligible, or incomplete entries or electronic mail; (ii) electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet or computer malfunctions, failures, or difficulties; (iii) errors in transmission; or (iv) any condition caused by events beyond Neo4j’s  control which may affect the Contest. Neo4j makes no warranty, either express or implied, regarding this Contest, web site or any of its content, including, but not limited to, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Neo4j does not warrant that the content and delivery of this web site shall be free from errors, bugs, or viruses, uninterrupted, or repairable if damaged or impaired.

e) All entries become the property of Neo4j. By entering the Contest, the participant irrevocably consents to allow Neo4j to use participant’s entry in any Neo4j promotions and advertisements and participant consents to Neo4j’s  use of all personally identifiable information in accordance with the terms of the Neo4j privacy policy located at: http://neo4j.com/privacy-policy/

f) By participating in the Contest, you agree to release and hold Neo4j harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims, and actions of any kind in connection with the Contest or resulting from acceptance, possession, or use of any prize, including, without limitation, property damage, and claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy.

g) Any attempt by a participant to deliberately damage any web site or undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, Neo4j reserves the right to seek damages from any such participant to the fullest extent permitted by law.

h) The Contest may be terminated at any time without prior notice; and no prizes will be awarded.

Names of Winners

The names of the winners are available by sending a request and self- addressed, stamped envelope to: Neo4j, Inc., 111 E 5th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401, United States.

The names and logos identifying Neo4j’s  products and services are trademarks or registered trademarks of Neo4j, Inc. All other brands or products or names are trademarks, tradenames or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

Arbritration and Disputes

As a condition of participating in the Contest, participant agrees that any and all disputes which cannot be resolved between the parties, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with the Contest, or any prize awarded, or the determination of winner shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action exclusively by arbitration pursuant to the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association, then effective and in accordance with its expedited hearing procedures. The arbitration will be conducted before a single arbitrator and will be limited solely to the dispute between participant and Sponsor. The arbitrator’s award, including attorneys’ fees, shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. Further, in any such dispute, under no circumstances will participant be permitted to obtain awards for, and participant hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, incidental or consequential damages, or any other damages, including attorneys’ fees, other than actual out-of-pocket expenses (i.e., costs associated with entering the Contest), and participant further waives all rights to have damages multiplied or increased. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or participant’s rights and obligations or Sponsor's rights and obligations in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of California, U.S.A., without giving effect to the conflict of laws rules thereof, and all proceedings shall take place in the State of California in San Mateo County.

General Conditions

Neo4j reserves the right to cancel, suspend, and/or modify the Contest, or any part of it, and  these Official Rules. Neo4j, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the Contest or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner.  To the extent that  the Contest requires the submission of user-generated content such as software, photos, videos, music, artwork, or essays, you warrant that your submission is your original work, has not been copied from others, and does not violate the privacy, intellectual property rights, or other rights of any other person or entity. You may include Neo4j trademarks, logos, and designs in your submissions.

Anti-Harassement Policy

Your submission must comply with the Neo4j Anti-Harassment Policy (https://graphconnect.com/anti-harassment-policy/), and it may NOT contain, as determined by Neo4j in our sole discretion, any content that is obscene or offensive, violent, defamatory, disparaging or illegal, or that promotes alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco or a particular political agenda, or that communicates messages that may reflect negatively on the goodwill of Neo4j. Our Neo4j Code Golf Contest is dedicated to providing a safe and comfortable environment and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of the following: gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, Nationality, religion, political views, previous event attendance, or lack of computing experience, or lack of chosen programming language, or tech stack.

We do not tolerate harassment of Neo4j Code Golf contest participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate at any time.

Project and Submission Requirements

It’s simple.  First and foremost, to participate in the Neo4j Code Golf contest, you must register at devpost, which is where you are now, and then go to the Neo4j code-golf platform to participate, preferably using same login as devpost for easier leaderboard management. The code-golf platform is fully automated, and you must write short Cypher queries based on the question to reduce the time and resources the query takes, eventually leading to a faster and more efficient query. In other words, the goal is to write shorter queries (in length) and achieve as few db-hits as possible with the Cypher queries, and the least the number of characters in the query are, and least the number of db_hits are for a Cypher query the higher you are placed in the leaderboard. Note that, lesser score from db-hits and shorter queries are placed up higher on the leaderboard. So a point of 10 will get higher place compared to point of 100, simple. Though in case of similar db_hits score, shorter query lenght will be placed higher on leaderboard. All entries must be submitted by September 15, 2022, to be eligible for consideration.  Contest entrants must submit short Cypher queries with low db_hits to win the contest. Given the platform is automated and leaderboard based, every contestant can see their position in real-time on the leaderboard.

To enter the Contest, the participant must correctly and timely submit entries on or before 11:59 PM PT on September 15, 2022 (the "Contest Period"). The time for submitting your Neo4j Code Golf Contest entry is during the Contest Period. Entries must be initiated during the Contest Period.  All entry material or submissions must be provided as open source and freely usable by all.

Prizes

a) The cash prizes available for winning individual (no teams) entries are:

It includes: 

Beginner (6 Prizes) - $9K in total

·         Winner: $4000

·         First Runner Up: $2500

·         Second Runner Up: $1000

·         Fourth Place: $500

·         Fifth Place: $500

·         Sixth Place: $500

Intermediate (6 Prizes)- $9K in total

·         Winner: $4000

·         First Runner Up: $2500

·         Second Runner Up: $1000

·         Fourth Place: $500

·         Fifth Place: $500

·         Sixth Place: $500

Advanced (6 Prizes)- $9K in total

·         Winner: $4000

·         First Runner Up: $2500

·         Second Runner Up: $1000

·         Fourth Place: $500

·         Fifth Place: $500

·         Sixth Place: $500

The prize does not include:
a) Taxes which may occur to the winner  

Judging Criteria and Winner Selection

Neo4j Code Golf is a leaderboard-based contest, which means everyone can see who the winners are for each level (Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced). Though in situations that may need resolution Judges and Neo4j will solely determine which entries are timely and correct.  Qualified entries are automatically judged on the following weighting parameters:  100 percent for the least amount of db_hits. In case of similar db_hits score between code golfers, shortest Cypher query (in length) will be placed higher on the leaderboard.

Neo4j will contact the potential winner via email with information on how to collect their prizes. The potential winner must respond within the time provided, or Neo4j may select an alternate potential winner or void prize. Failure to follow the prize redemption procedures, disqualification, or failure or inability to accept the prizes may result in the selection of an alternate potential winner or void of prize.