Certificates

We provide free certificates. Currently main types of certificates are:

• CodeAbbey Certificate of Zealous Coder - for solving 120 or more problems tagged with c-1 (see below).
• Honorary Diploma of Fanatic Girl-Coder (more exactly - for persons identifying as females) on reaching rank of "Fanatic", e.g. upon solving 85 problems.
  This one is intended for bringing more women to learn programming and improve gender equality in IT industry.

Certificates are presented in electronic form (at your profile page) and could be checked by its unique number at this page.

How to get certificate

First: reach the goal required by given certificate

Certificate of Zealous Coder is awarded for solving at least 120 problems of those specially marked with tag "c-1". Also they have bold numbers in the list. Please note this list could sometimes change slightly, with new problems added and some too old gone.

For Fanatic Girl-Coder - solve 85 any problems, reaching the rank of Fanatic :)

Accounts created before Jan 1 2022 are also eligible for older Stargazer certificate, granted for solving 145 problems of those existed before introducing new type of certificates. For convenience they are marked with tag "c-0". However you should prefer working for newer certificate as it requires 25 less problems (and excludes some too simple or too dull problems from list).

Request your certificate at forum

Put the title like - create new topic here and for convenience give it a title like "Ivan Ivanov is ready for certificate" - write your name here exactly as you want to see it on certificate!

Also it would be great if you write a few words about yourself - e.g. how long are you in programming, do you study or work - maybe about hobbies etc. For Fanatic Girl-Coder certificate this is very important, as your story should inspire and motivate others!

Also please check that your country is specified correctly in your profile (so we can put proper flag onto certificate).

Wait a bit

Wait (probably few days) - while necessary checks are done - there will be comment when your certificate is ready (or if we have some questions).
If there is no reaction, feel free to write again, or use "summon admin" button.

Usually everything will be all right. Our certificates are free and we really like giving them to good people :)

Paper copy

You are officially eligible to print your certificate on paper and hang on the wall. Certificate is identified by number - so any copy (even on the coffee cup or T-shirt) is valid if the code is readable and refers to your real certificate which could be checked on site :)

We are sorry, but we do not send paper copies anymore (it appears it is much easier for you to print them rather than to us send them and for Postal Service to deliver them undamaged).

Cheating and revoking

Please do not cheat. These certificates worth nothing and won't make you happy if you haven't solved problems :)

However several attempts were discovered. Here are things which you shouldn't do:

• post solutions found on internet
• post solutions taken from other user (your friend or colleague)
• do anything of above carefully renaming identifiers and reformatting code :)

Of course we can not guarantee that every cunning cheating scheme is revealed. However as years go we add few more sophisticated checks and if it happens that some cheating is discovered "post-factum", the certificate is marked as Certificate of Cheater and account is preserved.

In such a case please don't regard this as offence (and don't ask to delete it). We think it was just a friendly joke from you, to attempt cheating - and we also, as a part of joke, provide such a humorous "certificate" :)

All certificate types

Note that we do not "upgrade" certificates of Bishop and Stargazer (say, to Zealot) - they are of equal value and it makes no sense to hold more than one :)

1. Certificate of Bishop - antique certificate, not awarded anymore (it was given for 125 problems, but problems were somewhat harder on average at those first years of the site running).
2. Certificate of Stargazer is awarded for solving at least 145 problems, but also regarded obsolete.
3. Certificate of Zealous Coder or (Zealot for brevity) - new type, for 120+ problems from the dedicated list.
4. Certificate of Benefactor is a sign of appreciation for people making money donations you may see example below.
5. Certificate of Mason for people contributing (as a developer etc) to CodeAbbey related projects.
6. Certificate of Evangelist for efforts of attracting people to CodeAbbey (e.g. writing articles about it, inviting many colleagues from your University etc).