19 June 2015

The Last Post on This Blog (for all the right reasons)

Friends,

I have used this blog to make announcements regarding the PL/SQL Challenge since April 2010.

We had a great run, and now we can look forward to a greater future, as the PL/SQL Challenge is now an Oracle website:

plsqlchallenge.oracle.com

And that's not all: we now have an official blog at the official Oracle blogsphere:

blogs.oracle.com/plsqlchallenge

So all future announcements will happen there.

Thanks for all your support and dedication over the years!

Warm regards,
Steven Feuerstein

10 June 2015

PL/SQL Challenge Website Joining Oracle!

When I (re)joined Oracle in March 2014, the PL/SQL Challenge website was also acquired by Oracle. I'd been thinking that in a few months or so, we'd have it up and running on an Oracle server, re-branded with lots of red.

But then, well, I got kind of busy with all sorts of other stuff. My bad.

But I am very happy to announce that over the coming weekend (13-14 June), PL/SQL Challenge will go offline for hopefully no more than a few days and then resurface as an Oracle website.

And that's why for the first time in five years, we will not offer new, competitive quizzes on SQL or PL/SQL or anything else this coming week (we will still put up some of our "deja vu" quizzes). I don't want to set up quizzes and then not give you sufficient time to take them (and you never quite know what's going to happen so....).

Now, those of you who've been to the website know that we use lots of orange (why? Because it's a pleasant color and also is the thematic color of my Oracle PL/SQL books published by O'Reilly Media):



You are probably also very familiar with Oracle's use of red:



Well, do not worry - we are not going to replace all that orange with red. That would make the website unreadable, an assault on the eyes. But come 15 June, our banner will be transformed as follows:


Chills running down my spine....so exciting!

The site will be largely unchanged from current functioning. You will, however, need to accept the Oracle Terms of Use. In addition, since some players may have been using an email address on the PL/SQL Challenge different from their Oracle Single Sign-on email, we will give you an opportunity to synchronize the two accounts:


The "fine print" asks you to authorize us to transfer profile information from the PL/SQL Challenge to your Oracle Profile. We are asking for this, because the PL/SQL Challenge collected all sorts of profile information, some of which is already in your Oracle Profile, which is the "source of truth" at Oracle. So you will no longer be able to provide your name, country or company in the PL/SQL Challenge. Instead this information is stored in your Oracle Profile.


We plan over time to integrate points on the PL/SQL Challenge with OTN community rankings, but that may take a little while to complete. Do not worry, though! All your hard work and dedication on this site will be recognized.

I look forward to a greatly increased level of quiz-taking activity, as well as a broader array of quizzes offered, and I hope you do, too!

11 May 2015

Obfuscated SQL Contest Winners!

Chris Saxon and Kim Berg Hansen collaborated to offer an Obfuscated SQL Contest:

Daylight savings changes are coming in across the world! Scheduling meetings with colleagues across the globe is always a challenge. With different countries switching on different dates (and some not switching at all!) through March this is even harder. To help us navigate this, we'd like a SQL query that returns the current date and time for different timezones. There is, however, a twist. We don't want plain or boring or readable SQL.

We want the most ingenious, creative, quirky and downright weird SQL you can muster to perform this task.

And thus begins the Obfuscated SQL Contest.

The challenge: 

Write a single SQL statement that returns the current date and time for all the following locations:
Bangalore, London, New York, Chicago and Denver.

The rules:
  • The output must match this format (all on one line):
BAN - DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS; LON - DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS; NEW - DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS; CHI - DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS; DEN - DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS
  • Maximum length the SQL statement can be is 4,000 characters (after removing unnecessary whitespace)
  • Supply the minimum version of Oracle required to execute the query and (if relevant) the maximum
  • You cannot create any additional objects yourself. However you can use any objects supplied with the default installation of Oracle Enterprise Edition
The judging panel will pick a winner or winners based on the following criteria:

  • Using little-known or rarely-used features of Oracle
  • Exploiting features for something other than their intended purpose
  • Making use of multiple features within a single query
  • Quirky, funny or otherwise ingenious SQL code
53 players submitted some crazy SQL, and Chris and Kim have selected the winner and runners-up:

Overall winner: Stelios Vlasopoulos
Runner up: Sean Stuber
Runner up: James Su

Thanks to everyone for participating in this contest. We hope to do more in the future.

Check out all the details here

26 March 2015

Tweaking the Weekly Quizzes at the PL/SQL Challenge

We've decided a couple of things:
  1. Enough with the really dull names as in "Weekly SQL Quiz".
  2. It's time to start up Deja Vu quizzes for SQL, Database Design, and Logic.
So starting on 4 April 2015 (just shy of the fifth anniversary of the PL/SQL Challenge)....

SQL Quizzes

We will rename and continue the weekly SQL quiz as Select from SQL.

And we will add a Deja Vu SQL quiz.

Database Design Quizzes

The weekly Database Design quiz will be renamed to Dynamite DB Design, but otherwise continue unchanged.

And we will add a Deja Vu DB Design quiz.

Logic Quizzes

The weekly Logic quiz will be renamed to I Love Logic, and will free itself from the constraints of our Mastermind-style quiz and offer various formats of logic puzzlers.

And we will add a Deja Vu Logic quiz.

Annual Championships

For 2015 and beyond, the rankings of all competitive quizzes (Oracle Magazine and Deja Vu quizzes are, for example, not competitive) in a domain will be combined to determine eligibility in the annual championships.

16 March 2015

Results of 2014 PL/SQL Championship

You will find below the rankings for the 2014 PL/SQL Championship; the number next to the player's name is the number of times that player has participated in a championship (you will see "1" for all players, since this was the first annual PL/SQL championship).

Congratulations first and foremost to our top-ranked players:

1st Place: mentzel.iudith of Israel

2nd Place: Andrey Zaytsev of Russia

3rd Place: _tiki_4_ of Germany


Next, congratulations to everyone who played in the championship. I hope you found it entertaining, challenging and educational. And for those who were not able to participate in the championship, you can take the quizzes next week through the Practice feature. We will also make the championship as a whole available as a Test, so you can take it just like these players did.

Finally, a big thanks to our reviewers, especially Elic, who not only reviewed three quizzes but also wrote two - a tremendous help for a busy Oracle Developer Advocate for PL/SQL (that is, me).

Steven Feuerstein

Rank Name Country Total Time % Correct Total Score
1mentzel.iudith (1)Israel32 mins 37 secs88%7520
2Andrey Zaytsev (1)Russia34 mins 50 secs84%7211
3_tiki_4_ (1)Germany22 mins 00 secs83%7112
4Karel Prech (1)Czech Republic33 mins 25 secs83%7066
5Ravshan Abbasov (1)Uzbekistan29 mins 50 secs81%6931
6VictorD (1)Russia30 mins 20 secs81%6929
7Jeroen Rutte (1)Netherlands34 mins 52 secs81%6911
8João Barreto (1)Portugal24 mins 07 secs79%6804
9Pavel Noga (1)Czech Republic33 mins 56 secs78%6614
10Michal Cvan (1)Slovakia34 mins 23 secs78%6612
11dmitrysk (1)Russia31 mins 41 secs76%6473
12Kuvardin Evgeniy (1)Russia34 mins 22 secs76%6463
13Chad Lee (1)United States25 mins 14 secs74%6349
14Viacheslav Stepanov (1)Russia33 mins 58 secs74%6314
15Siim Kask (1)Estonia33 mins 59 secs74%6314
16Ivan Blanarik (1)Slovakia31 mins 13 secs72%6175
17Marcus Matzberger (1)Germany27 mins 44 secs71%6039
18Rytis Budreika (1)Lithuania16 mins 42 secs69%5933
19gobruins (1)United States23 mins 35 secs69%5906
20Christoph Hillinger (1)Austria28 mins 51 secs69%5885
21Niels Hecker (1)Germany30 mins 28 secs69%5878
22Patrick Barel (1)Netherlands20 mins 23 secs67%5768
23swart260 (1)Netherlands32 mins 36 secs67%5720
24Jan Šerák (1)Czech Republic33 mins 08 secs67%5717
25Chase Mei (1)Canada34 mins 26 secs67%5712
26Joaquin Gonzalez (1)Spain17 mins 40 secs66%5629
27Ingimundur Gudmundsson (1)Norway33 mins 18 secs66%5567
28Martin_Scholz_Berlin_München (1)Germany34 mins 31 secs64%5412
29Krzysztof Helbin (1)Poland14 mins 10 secs62%5343
30Rakesh Dadhich (1)India18 mins 53 secs62%5324
31Leszek Grudzień (1)Poland24 mins 59 secs62%5300
32tonyC (1)United Kingdom32 mins 23 secs62%5270
33Henry Abeska (1)Czech Republic22 mins 26 secs55%4710
34Alex Stirbu (1)Romania23 mins 47 secs55%4705
35Sean Molloy (1)United States31 mins 56 secs55%4672
36Manfred Kleander (1)Austria34 mins 28 secs55%4662
37Pavel Vorontsov (1)Russia11 mins 29 secs53%4604
38Stelios Vlasopoulos (1)Belgium24 mins 22 secs50%4253
39Jerry Bull (1)United States02 mins 45 secs10%889

03 March 2015

Results of 2014 Annual Logic Championship


You will find below the rankings for the 2014 Logic Championship; the number next to the player's name is the number of times that player has participated in a championship.

Congratulations first and foremost to our top-ranked players:

1st Place: Mehrab of United Kingdom - 100% correct!

2nd Place: Christoph Hillinger of Austria
 - 98% correct!

3rd Place: Rytis Budreika of Lithuania
 - 98% correct!
Next, congratulations to everyone who played in the championship. I hope you found it entertaining, challenging and educational. And for those who were not able to participate in the championship, you can take the quizzes next week through the Practice feature. We will also make the championship as a whole available as a Test, so you can take it just like these players did.

This championship marks a big change for the Logic quizzes. For several years we have used a Mastermind-like format for our quizzes. Yet we also published (and, of course, anyone could also write) automated solvers for Mastermind.

As a result, we changed our quizzes for the championship and expect to do so for the weekly quizzes as well.

Steven Feuerstein

PS - Below the table of results for this championship, you will find another list showing the championship history of each of these players.

Rank Name Country Total Time % Correct Total Score
1Mehrab (2)United Kingdom44 mins 28 secs100%4159
2Christoph Hillinger (2)Austria32 mins 22 secs98%4086
3Rytis Budreika (2)Lithuania38 mins 16 secs98%4069
4gobruins (2)United States26 mins 29 secs95%3996
5Viacheslav Stepanov (2)Russia44 mins 03 secs95%3946
6Rich Dellheim (2)United States39 mins 57 secs93%3850
7Pavel Zeman (1)Czech Republic43 mins 42 secs93%3839
8craig.mcfarlane (1)Norway44 mins 13 secs93%3838
9Naresh Kumar (2)Malaysia44 mins 53 secs93%3836
10Hamid Talebian (1)Netherlands38 mins 58 secs90%3746
11Elic (2)Belarus42 mins 45 secs90%3735
12JasonC (2)United Kingdom35 mins 05 secs85%3543
13katuinbouter (2)Netherlands42 mins 48 secs85%3521
14NickL (1)United Kingdom43 mins 18 secs85%3519
15Jerry Bull (2)United States44 mins 06 secs83%3410
16danad (2)Czech Republic44 mins 46 secs83%3408
17Kuvardin Evgeniy (1)Russia44 mins 07 secs80%3303
18mentzel.iudith (2)Israel43 mins 45 secs78%3196
19Sandra99 (2)Italy44 mins 34 secs78%3194
20Telmoc (1)Portugal40 mins 18 secs65%2671
21Niels Hecker (2)Germany43 mins 35 secs65%2661
22Eric Levin (1)United States44 mins 54 secs65%2657
23Krzysztof Helbin (1)Poland29 mins 45 secs63%2594
24Alex Stirbu (1)Romania44 mins 02 secs63%2553
25Köteles Zsolt (1)Hungary44 mins 07 secs63%2553
26Sean Molloy (2)United States44 mins 32 secs63%2551
27Justin Cave (2)United States40 mins 46 secs60%2455
28tommyTT (1)Poland41 mins 40 secs60%2452
29Stelios Vlasopoulos (2)Belgium43 mins 45 secs60%2446
30MarkM. (2)Germany44 mins 42 secs60%2444
31Chad Lee (2)United States44 mins 13 secs58%2338
32Zoran Krekic (1)Croatia24 mins 52 secs55%2286
33Jason H (2)United States37 mins 07 secs50%2037
34Oleksiy Varchyn (1)Norway17 mins 01 secs48%1987
36Henry Abeska (1)Czech Republic25 mins 19 secs38%1535
37Cor van Berkel (1)Netherlands10 mins 48 secs25%1041
38AndreyBerliner (1)Ukraine19 mins 26 secs23%909

Championship Performance History

After each name, the quarter in which he or she played, and the ranking in that championship.
Name History
Mehrab2013:30th, 2014:1st
Christoph Hillinger2013:18th, 2014:2nd
Rytis Budreika2013:12th, 2014:3rd
gobruins2014:4th
Viacheslav Stepanov2013:1st, 2014:5th
Rich Dellheim2013:31st, 2014:6th
Pavel Zeman2014:7th
craig.mcfarlane2014:8th
Naresh Kumar2014:9th
Hamid Talebian2014:10th
Elic2013:13th, 2014:11th
JasonC2013:35th, 2014:12th
katuinbouter2013:21st, 2014:13th
NickL2014:14th
Jerry Bull2013:2nd, 2014:15th
danad2013:23rd, 2014:16th
Kuvardin Evgeniy2014:17th
mentzel.iudith2013:4th, 2014:18th
Sandra992013:17th, 2014:19th
Telmoc2014:20th
Niels Hecker2013:3rd, 2014:21st
Eric Levin2014:22nd
Krzysztof Helbin2014:23rd
Alex Stirbu2014:24th
Köteles Zsolt2014:25th
Sean Molloy2013:24th, 2014:26th
Justin Cave2014:27th
tommyTT2014:28th
Stelios Vlasopoulos2013:16th, 2014:29th
MarkM.2013:10th, 2014:30th
Chad Lee2013:34th, 2014:31st
Zoran Krekic2014:32nd
Jason H2013:14th, 2014:33rd
Oleksiy Varchyn2014:34th
PLCHTEST2014:35th
Henry Abeska2014:36th
Cor van Berkel2014:37th
AndreyBerliner2014:38th

26 February 2015

PL/SQL Championship for 26 February Postponed

We will NOT hold the championship today.

Even if the website becomes available within next two hours, I do not want to take a chance at starting the competition and then having problems before it is done.

We will reschedule for a day and time in March.

Participants will receive an email for a new date and time soon.

But based on requests from the last one, I will put this out idea out now:

What do you think of holding the championship on Saturday?

More specifically, please post a comment here if you are participating in the 2014 PL/SQL championship and you cannot or do not want to compete on Saturday

Three Out of Four Isn't Too Bad

We held two annual championships last week (SQL and Database Design).

We held a third this week on Logic.

They all went pretty smoothly.

In 2.5 hours it is time for the grand finale: the PL/SQL Championship.

And the PL/SQL Challenge website just went down. Possibly another DDOS attack.

I suppose I should feel proud that our website is so high profile, so mission critical, that someone thinks it is worth their time to attack it.

Except I know the site is not all that high profile and is definitely not mission critical.

So I am just really irritated.

Well, worst comes to worst, we will just reschedule.

That's better than having the championship start and then the site goes down.

Because in that case, I have to produce new quizzes. That would be a serious hassle.

24 February 2015

Results of First-ever Database Design Annual Championship

You will find below the rankings for the 2014 championship; the number next to the player's name is the number of times that player has participated in a championship.

Congratulations first and foremost to our top-ranked players:

1st Place: Sean Molloy of United States

2nd Place: Pavel Zeman of Czech Republic

3rd Place: Justin Cave of United States


As you can see in the table below, the ranking was very tight, with the top two players both getting 91% correct, and the next four all with 87% correct.

Next, congratulations to everyone who played in the championship. I hope you found it entertaining, challenging and educational. And for those who were not able to participate in the championship, you can take the quizzes next week through the Practice feature. We will also make the championship as a whole available as a Test, so you can take it just like these players did.

Thanks and congratulations to the Database Design Quizmaster, Chris Saxon, also our brand-new Oracle Developer Advocate for SQL.

Steven Feuerstein

Rank Name Country Total Time % Correct Total Score
1Sean Molloy (1)United States23 mins 21 secs91%2657
2Pavel Zeman (1)Czech Republic38 mins 25 secs91%2596
3Justin Cave (1)United States23 mins 14 secs87%2457
4Elic (1)Belarus28 mins 30 secs87%2436
5mentzel.iudith (1)Israel28 mins 34 secs87%2436
6Sandra99 (1)Italy34 mins 22 secs87%2413
7Stelios Vlasopoulos (1)Belgium35 mins 22 secs83%2259
8Viacheslav Stepanov (1)Russia20 mins 06 secs78%2220
9Andrey Zaytsev (1)Russia35 mins 43 secs78%2207
10Eric Levin (1)United States38 mins 55 secs78%2194
11Christoph Hillinger (1)Austria15 mins 06 secs78%2190
12Michal Cvan (1)Slovakia36 mins 31 secs78%2154
13Siim Kask (1)Estonia20 mins 26 secs74%2118
14Jan van Overveld (1)Netherlands23 mins 26 secs74%2106
15Niels Hecker (1)Germany36 mins 56 secs78%2102
16Ivan Blanarik (1)Slovakia19 mins 30 secs74%2072
17Chad Lee (1)United States32 mins 45 secs74%2069
18_tiki_4_ (1)Germany08 mins 35 secs74%2066
19Kuvardin Evgeniy (1)Russia28 mins 49 secs74%1985
20Chase Mei (1)Canada07 mins 58 secs70%1968
21Joaquin Gonzalez (1)Spain16 mins 33 secs70%1934
22danad (1)Czech Republic30 mins 46 secs70%1927
23Maxim Borunov (1)Russia35 mins 53 secs70%1906
24Pavel Noga (1)Czech Republic39 mins 31 secs70%1892
25Oleksiy Varchyn (1)Norway12 mins 57 secs65%1848
26Jan Šerák (1)Czech Republic29 mins 45 secs65%1831
27Leszek Grudzień (1)Poland18 mins 23 secs65%1826
28Manfred Kleander (1)Austria36 mins 13 secs70%1805
29Rytis Budreika (1)Lithuania07 mins 16 secs65%1771
30Michal P. (1)Poland22 mins 26 secs65%1760
31Anna Onishchuk (1)Ireland15 mins 50 secs65%1737
32Marcus Matzberger (1)Germany22 mins 19 secs61%1661
33Sachi (1)India11 mins 00 secs57%1606
34Henry Abeska (1)Czech Republic13 mins 08 secs61%1597
35Mehrab (1)United Kingdom39 mins 16 secs61%1593
36Naresh Kumar (1)Malaysia30 mins 22 secs61%1579
37Krzysztof Helbin (1)Poland19 mins 07 secs61%1574
38PZOL (1)Hungary34 mins 30 secs61%1562
39Tobias Stark (1)Germany27 mins 01 secs57%1542
40dannyg64 (1)United States19 mins 14 secs57%1523
41João Barreto (1)Portugal30 mins 57 secs57%1476
42MarkM. (1)Germany28 mins 53 secs48%1184
43Ravshan Abbasov (1)Uzbekistan28 mins 13 secs43%1087
44Scott Wesley (1)Australia00 mins 45 secs17%397

21 February 2015

Results of Annual SQL Championship for 2014

You will find below the rankings for the 2014 SQL Championship; the number next to the player's name is the number of times that player has participated in a championship.

Congratulations first and foremost to our top-ranked players:

1st Place: Andrey Zaytsev of Russia

2nd Place: Pavel Zeman of Czech Republic

3rd Place: Chad Lee of United States


Next, congratulations to everyone who played in the championship. I hope you found it entertaining, challenging and educational. And for those who were not able to participate in the championship, you can take the quizzes next week through the Practice feature. We will also make the championship as a whole available as a Test, so you can take it just like these players did.

Thanks and congratulations to the SQL Quizmaster, Kim Berg Hansen, and Oracle Developer Advocate for SQL, Natalka Roshak, for creating such excellent quizzes! Finally, no championship of this quality could ever happen without the careful work of our amazing reviewer, Elic (aka, Vitaliy Lyanchevskiy).

Steven Feuerstein

Note: Below the table of results for this championship, you will find another list showing the championship history of each of these players.

Rank Name Country Total Time % Correct Total Score
1Andrey Zaytsev (1)Russia44 mins 20 secs84%5373
2Pavel Zeman (1)Czech Republic44 mins 38 secs84%5371
3Chad Lee (2)United States35 mins 15 secs82%5259
4Niels Hecker (2)Germany42 mins 23 secs82%5230
5Christoph Hillinger (2)Austria19 mins 57 secs80%5170
6Jerry Bull (2)United States35 mins 43 secs80%5107
7Stelios Vlasopoulos (2)Belgium43 mins 09 secs80%5077
8Rytis Budreika (2)Lithuania18 mins 56 secs77%5024
9Scott Wesley (2)Australia22 mins 45 secs77%5009
10Tobias Stark (2)Germany43 mins 56 secs77%4924
11Ivan Blanarik (2)Slovakia26 mins 51 secs73%4693
12Justin Cave (2)United States38 mins 34 secs73%4646
13Anna Onishchuk (2)Ireland16 mins 53 secs70%4582
14Oleksiy Varchyn (1)Norway20 mins 38 secs70%4567
15Sean Molloy (2)United States27 mins 45 secs70%4539
16gobruins (1)United States30 mins 11 secs70%4529
17Leszek Grudzień (2)Poland24 mins 31 secs68%4402
18Jason H (2)United States26 mins 00 secs68%4396
19Michal Cvan (2)Slovakia38 mins 35 secs68%4346
20mentzel.iudith (2)Israel41 mins 04 secs68%4336
21Eric Levin (2)United States42 mins 17 secs68%4331
22Viacheslav Stepanov (2)Russia29 mins 24 secs66%4232
23AndreyBerliner (1)Ukraine32 mins 13 secs66%4221
24Sandra99 (1)Italy34 mins 09 secs66%4213
25swart260 (2)Netherlands35 mins 57 secs66%4206
26tonyC (1)United Kingdom39 mins 06 secs66%4194
27_tiki_4_ (2)Germany11 mins 16 secs64%4155
28Rakesh Dadhich (2)India22 mins 09 secs64%4111
29Ravshan Abbasov (1)Uzbekistan33 mins 29 secs64%4066
30Pavel Noga (1)Czech Republic44 mins 53 secs64%4020
31Yuan Tschang (2)United States44 mins 51 secs61%3871
32Chase Mei (2)Canada29 mins 30 secs59%3782
33Kuvardin Evgeniy (2)Russia30 mins 56 secs59%3776
34Hertha Rettinger (2)Germany31 mins 29 secs57%3624
35Mehrab (1)United Kingdom44 mins 48 secs57%3571
36Arūnas Antanaitis (1)Lithuania16 mins 45 secs55%3533
37VictorD (1)Russia24 mins 43 secs55%3501
38Krzysztof Helbin (2)Poland26 mins 24 secs55%3494
39NarendraReddy (1)India21 mins 30 secs50%3214
40Sachi (2)India44 mins 42 secs41%2521

Championship Performance History

After each name, the quarter in which he or she played, and the ranking in that championship.

 
Name History
Andrey Zaytsev2014:1st
Pavel Zeman2014:2nd
Chad Lee2013:31st, 2014:3rd
Niels Hecker2013:7th, 2014:4th
Christoph Hillinger2013:2nd, 2014:5th
Jerry Bull2014:6th
Stelios Vlasopoulos2013:27th, 2014:7th
Rytis Budreika2013:22nd, 2014:8th
Scott Wesley2013:12th, 2014:9th
Tobias Stark2013:39th, 2014:10th
Ivan Blanarik 2013:15th, 2014:11th
Justin Cave2013:17th, 2014:12th
Anna Onishchuk2013:28th, 2014:13th
Oleksiy Varchyn2014:14th
Sean Molloy2013:30th, 2014:15th
gobruins2014:16th
Leszek Grudzień2013:8th, 2014:17th
Jason H2013:26th, 2014:18th
Michal Cvan2013:18th, 2014:19th
mentzel.iudith2013:4th, 2014:20th
Eric Levin2013:19th, 2014:21st
Viacheslav Stepanov2013:21st, 2014:22nd
AndreyBerliner2014:23rd
Sandra992014:24th
swart2602013:37th, 2014:25th
tonyC2014:26th
_tiki_4_2014:27th
Rakesh Dadhich2014:28th
Ravshan Abbasov2014:29th
Pavel Noga2014:30th
Yuan Tschang2013:24th, 2014:31st
Chase Mei2013:11th, 2014:32nd
Kuvardin Evgeniy2014:33rd
Hertha Rettinger2013:36th, 2014:34th
Mehrab2014:35th
Arūnas Antanaitis2014:36th
VictorD2014:37th
Krzysztof Helbin2013:25th, 2014:38th
NarendraReddy2014:39th
Sachi2013:9th, 2014:41st

20 January 2015

Participants and Dates set for (four!) 2014 Annual Championships

2014 is a thing of the past, but there are at least four more 2014-related activities to do: the annual championships.

With the expanding selection of weekly quizzes come an expanded set of annual championships.

This year we have four, and here are the dates and times:
  • SQL Championship - Tuesday, February 17, 14:00 UTC
  • Database Design Championship - Thursday, February 19, 14:00 UTC
  • Logic Championship - Tuesday, February 24, 14:00 UTC
  • PL/SQL Championship - Thursday, February 26, 14:00 UTC
Once again, my apologies to those of you who must participate at an awkward and dark hour.

And now for the lists of participants....

SQL Championship - Tuesday, February 17, 10:00 UTC

The following players will be invited to participate in the 2014 championship. The number in parentheses after their names are the number of championships in which they have already participated. See the FAQ for an explanation of the three ways a player can qualify for the championship. And congratulations to all listed below on their accomplishment and best of luck in the upcoming competition!

Name Rank Qualification Country
Stelios Vlasopoulos (1)1Top 50Belgium
Rakesh Dadhich (1)2Top 50India
mentzel.iudith (1)3Top 50Israel
swart260 (1)4Top 50Netherlands
Naresh Kumar (1)5Top 50India
james su (1)6Top 50Canada
Rytis Budreika (1)7Top 50Lithuania
_tiki_4_ (1)8Top 50Germany
Ivan Blanarik (1)9Top 50Slovakia
Niels Hecker (1)10Top 50Germany
Oleksiy Varchyn (0)11Top 50Norway
Justin Cave (1)12Top 50United States
Milibor Jovanovic (1)13Top 50Serbia
Chase Mei (1)14Top 50Canada
Viacheslav Stepanov (1)15Top 50Russia
Henry Abeska (0)16Top 50Czech Republic
Scott Wesley (1)17Top 50Australia
Sean Molloy (1)18Top 50United States
Andrey Zaytsev (0)19Top 50Russia
Krzysztof Helbin (1)20Top 50Poland
Hertha Rettinger (1)21Top 50Germany
Maxim Borunov (0)22Top 50Russia
Sachi (1)23Top 50United States
dmitrysk (1)24Top 50Russia
yonderboi (0)25Top 50Russia
Leszek Grudzień (1)26Top 50Poland
Dipendra Thapa (0)27Top 50India
Arūnas Antanaitis (0)28Top 50Lithuania
Ravshan Abbasov (0)29Top 50Uzbekistan
Sameer Chaudhari (0)30Top 50India
Pavel Zeman (0)31Top 50Czech Republic
Pavel Vorontsov (1)32Top 50Russia
Pavel Noga (0)33Top 50Czech Republic
tonyC (0)34Top 50United Kingdom
Anna Onishchuk (1)35Top 50Ireland
Jerry Bull (1)36Top 50United States
fsqatech (0)37Top 50United Kingdom
Sandra99 (0)38Top 50Italy
Kuvardin Evgeniy (1)39Top 50Russia
gaurav kowale (0)40Top 50India
Jason H (1)41Top 50United States
Christoph Hillinger (1)42Top 50Austria
gobruins (0)43Top 50United States
Livio Curzola (0)44Top 50Luxembourg
Chad Lee (1)45Top 50United States
Eric Levin (1)46Top 50United States
Michal Cvan (1)47Top 50Slovakia
NarendraReddy (0)48Top 50India
Tobias Stark (1)49Top 50Germany
VictorD (0)50Top 50Russia
Yuan Tschang (1)69CorrectnessUnited States
Mehrab (0)77CorrectnessUnited Kingdom
AndreyBerliner (0)89CorrectnessUkraine

Database Design Championship - Thursday, February 19, 10:00 UTC

The following players will be invited to participate in the 2014 championship.The number in parentheses after their names are the number of championships in which they have already participated - they are all zero because this is the very first championship for this quiz!

See the FAQ for an explanation of the three ways a player can qualify for the championship. And congratulations to all listed below on their accomplishment and best of luck in the upcoming competition!

Name Rank Qualification Country
mentzel.iudith (0)1Top 50Israel
Siim Kask (0)2Top 50Estonia
Justin Cave (0)3Top 50United States
Elic (0)4Top 50Belarus
Stelios Vlasopoulos (0)5Top 50Belgium
Niels Hecker (0)6Top 50Germany
Joaquin Gonzalez (0)7Top 50Spain
Milibor Jovanovic (0)8Top 50Serbia
Krzysztof Helbin (0)9Top 50Poland
yonderboi (0)10Top 50Russia
Chad Lee (0)11Top 50United States
Sean Molloy (0)12Top 50United States
Sandra99 (0)13Top 50Italy
Sherry (0)14Top 50Czech Republic
Pavel Noga (0)15Top 50Czech Republic
Ivan Blanarik (0)16Top 50Slovakia
Manfred Kleander (0)17Top 50Austria
Rytis Budreika (0)18Top 50Lithuania
Jan van Overveld (0)19Top 50Netherlands
Maxim Borunov (0)20Top 50Russia
Leszek Grudzień (0)21Top 50Poland
Tobias Stark (0)22Top 50Germany
Scott Wesley (0)23Top 50Australia
Pavel Zeman (0)24Top 50Czech Republic
Viacheslav Stepanov (0)25Top 50Russia
Christoph Hillinger (0)26Top 50Austria
Marcus Matzberger (0)27Top 50Germany
Jerry Bull (0)28Top 50United States
VictorD (0)29Top 50Russia
MarkM. (0)30Top 50Germany
Pavel Vorontsov (0)31Top 50Russia
João Barreto (0)32Top 50Portugal
_tiki_4_ (0)33Top 50Germany
Anna Onishchuk (0)34Top 50Ireland
dannyg64 (0)35Top 50United States
Andrey Zaytsev (0)36Top 50Russia
danad (0)37Top 50Czech Republic
EdgarsP (0)38Top 50Latvia
Ravshan Abbasov (0)39Top 50Uzbekistan
Sachi (0)40Top 50United States
Eric Levin (0)41Top 50United States
Oleksiy Varchyn (0)42Top 50Norway
JasonC (0)43Top 50United Kingdom
Chase Mei (0)44Top 50Canada
Henry Abeska (0)45Top 50Czech Republic
Naresh Kumar (0)46Top 50India
Kuvardin Evgeniy (0)47Top 50Russia
PZOL (0)48Top 50Hungary
Michal P. (0)49Top 50Poland
Michal Cvan (0)50Top 50Slovakia
Mehrab (0)51CorrectnessUnited Kingdom
Dan Kiser (0)106CorrectnessUnited States

Logic Championship - Tuesday, February 24, 10:00 UTC

The following players will be invited to participate in the 2014 championship. The number in parentheses after their names are the number of championships in which they have already participated. See the FAQ for an explanation of the three ways a player can qualify for the championship. And congratulations to all listed below on their accomplishment and best of luck in the upcoming competition!

Name Rank Qualification Country
Jerry Bull (1)1Top 50United States
mentzel.iudith (1)2Top 50Israel
Köteles Zsolt (0)3Top 50Hungary
Stelios Vlasopoulos (1)4Top 50Belgium
Chad Lee (1)5Top 50United States
Viacheslav Stepanov (1)6Top 50Russia
AndreyBerliner (0)7Top 50Ukraine
Milibor Jovanovic (1)8Top 50Serbia
Niels Hecker (1)9Top 50Germany
Elic (1)10Top 50Belarus
Kanellos (1)11Top 50Greece
Naresh Kumar (1)12Top 50India
Peter Chenery (1)13Top 50United Kingdom
Rich Dellheim (1)14Top 50United States
Sandra99 (1)15Top 50Italy
Mehrab (1)16Top 50United Kingdom
james su (1)17Top 50Canada
gobruins (1)18Top 50United States
katuinbouter (1)19Top 50Netherlands
Kuvardin Evgeniy (0)20Top 50Russia
Christoph Hillinger (1)21Top 50Austria
mark kavalaris (0)22Top 50United States
Alex Stirbu (0)23Top 50Romania
Pavel Zeman (0)24Top 50Czech Republic
Rytis Budreika (1)25Top 50Lithuania
umir (1)26Top 50Italy
Margit Biróné Sonkoly (0)27Top 50Hungary
Sean Molloy (1)28Top 50United States
craig.mcfarlane (0)29Top 50Norway
Pavel Vorontsov (1)30Top 50Russia
MarkM. (1)31Top 50Germany
NickL (0)32Top 50United Kingdom
Eric Levin (0)33Top 50United States
Yuan Tschang (1)34Top 50United States
Zoran Krekic (0)35Top 50Croatia
Dipendra Thapa (0)36Top 50India
JasonC (1)37Top 50United Kingdom
danad (1)38Top 50Czech Republic
tommyTT (0)39Top 50Poland
Jason H (1)40Top 50United States
Henry Abeska (0)41Top 50Czech Republic
Vijay Mahawar (1)42Top 50India
Cristinel Boboc (1)43Top 50Romania
kias (0)44Top 50Czech Republic
Telmoc (0)45Top 50Portugal
Krzysztof Helbin (0)46Top 50Poland
Justin Cave (1)47Top 50United States
Oleksiy Varchyn (0)48Top 50Norway
Cor van Berkel (0)49Top 50Netherlands
Hamid Talebian (0)50Top 50Netherlands
Jennifer Schiltz (0)51CorrectnessUnited States
Dan Voiculet (0)63CorrectnessRomania

PL/SQL Championship - Thursday, February 26, 10:00 UTC

The following players will be invited to participate in the 2014 championship for the PL/SQL Challenge.

The number in parentheses after their names are the number of championships in which they have already participated. Wait a minute, they are all 0s. Well, we've done plenty of championships for PL/SQL, but they were for the daily quiz. So this is the first for the weekly quizzes.

See the FAQ for an explanation of the three ways a player can qualify for the championship. And congratulations to all listed below on their accomplishment and best of luck in the upcoming competition!

Name Rank Qualification Country
swart260 (0)1Top 50Netherlands
Rakesh Dadhich (0)2Top 50India
Stelios Vlasopoulos (0)3Top 50Belgium
Viacheslav Stepanov (0)4Top 50Russia
mentzel.iudith (0)5Top 50Israel
Rytis Budreika (0)6Top 50Lithuania
Niels Hecker (0)7Top 50Germany
Siim Kask (0)8Top 50Estonia
Milibor Jovanovic (0)9Top 50Serbia
Ivan Blanarik (0)10Top 50Slovakia
Jerry Bull (0)11Top 50United States
Krzysztof Helbin (0)12Top 50Poland
Maxim Borunov (0)13Top 50Russia
Kuvardin Evgeniy (0)14Top 50Russia
james su (0)15Top 50Canada
Chad Lee (0)16Top 50United States
Sherry (0)17Top 50Czech Republic
Pavel Noga (0)18Top 50Czech Republic
Leszek Grudzień (0)19Top 50Poland
Yuan Tschang (0)20Top 50United States
gobruins (0)21Top 50United States
Ravshan Abbasov (0)22Top 50Uzbekistan
VictorD (0)23Top 50Russia
Oleksiy Varchyn (0)24Top 50Norway
Chase Mei (0)25Top 50Canada
Justin Cave (0)26Top 50United States
Marcus Matzberger (0)27Top 50Germany
Karel Prech (0)28Top 50Czech Republic
João Barreto (0)29Top 50Portugal
Jason H (0)30Top 50United States
Andrey Zaytsev (0)31Top 50Russia
Joaquin Gonzalez (0)32Top 50Spain
Michal Cvan (0)33Top 50Slovakia
Jeroen Rutte (0)34Top 50Netherlands
dmitrysk (0)35Top 50Russia
Manfred Kleander (0)36Top 50Austria
Patrick Barel (0)37Top 50Netherlands
Christoph Hillinger (0)38Top 50Austria
Sean Molloy (0)39Top 50United States
Alex Stirbu (0)40Top 50Romania
_tiki_4_ (0)41Top 50Germany
Pavel Vorontsov (0)42Top 50Russia
Anna Onishchuk (0)43Top 50Ireland
Margit Biróné Sonkoly (0)44Top 50Hungary
Livio Curzola (0)45Top 50Luxembourg
Henry Abeska (0)46Top 50Czech Republic
Ingimundur Gudmundsson (0)47Top 50Norway
Martin_Scholz_Berlin_Berlin (0)48Top 50Germany
tonyC (0)49Top 50United Kingdom
Paolo Zaffaroni (0)50Top 50Italy

05 January 2015

Happy New Year, and....New and Revamped Quizzes for the New Year

Happy new year to the thousands of Oracle technologists who played a quiz or otherwise visited and benefited from the PL/SQL Challenge in 2014.

The Challenge continues into the very frosty New Year (as I write, it is 0 degrees Fahrenheit here in Chicago), but first, let's do (some of) the numbers from 2014.

Over 4000 Oracle technologist took at least one quiz in 2014. 

Altogether players at the PL/SQL Challenge submitted over 114,000 answers to quizzes (including practice quizzes and tests).

Along the way, we had lots of help from several reviewers. Elic was our superstar, the main reviewer on PL/SQL and SQL quizzes. Livio Curzola helped Eli make sure that the Logic quizzes were top-notch. Many thanks to both of you, as well as players like Iudith Mentzel, who wrote several quizzes for PL/SQL Explore. 

Thanks also to Kim Berg Hansen, our SQL Quizmaster, and Chris Saxon, Mr. Database Design (and, as of 1 January our newest Oracle Database Evangelist!), for providing interesting and challenging quizzes all year.

Wow. That's a lot of devotion (writing quizzes, reviewing quizzes, playing quizzes) to improving one's skill set in SQL,  PL/SQL, Database Design and Logic.

Now let's take a look at 2015.

As you may recall, back in March, I rejoined Oracle after a 22 year absence. Not too surprisingly, I got really busy. One "victim" of my busy-ness was a decision to end the daily quiz after four years (whew). I really hated to do it, and consider that quiz one of my finest accomplishments.

So we shifted to three weekly quizzes and life went on. But since I was spending less time in every way on the PL/SQL Challenge and since it turned out that many players really thrived on the discipline of playing a quiz every day of the week (crazy people!), our numbers have dwindled a bit through 2014.

OK, fine, but what about 2015? The new year provides us with an opportunity to expand and reorganize our quizzes.

Why, you might ask, would we consider doing this? Let me count the ways.

1. We replaced the daily PL/SQL quiz with two competitive quizzes, PL/SQL Challenge and PL/SQL Explore. The former is written solely by me (Steven Feuerstein); the latter was intended to feature lots of quizzes by players, exploring "nooks and crannies" of PL/SQL. I have, however, written most of these quizzes, and there is no clear distinction in the content of the two.

2. The Oracle Database Evangelist team I have been tasked to build is now taking shape. This means that, among other things, Natalka Roshak is now a full-time SQL Evangelist, and part of that job (I have decided) is to write a weekly SQL quiz. That means that we will now have two SQL quizzes - so what will be the difference between these two?

3. We added a PL/SQL Deja Vu quiz, featuring a previously-played quiz. Now that the SQL quiz has been going on so long, perhaps we should add a SQL Deja Vu quiz as well.

We (myself, Kim Berg Hansen, Natalka Roshak, Chris Saxon and Dan McGhan) have been discussing these ideas and decided we'd generated enough interesting thoughts to share them with you for feedback.

I expect that we will start this new configuration on 1 April 2015, the start of Q2 and the fifth anniversary of the PL/SQL Challenge (!).

Here's what we are currently thinking about for....

PL/SQL Quizzes

1. PL/SQL Language quiz: covers the features of the PL/SQL language, including best practice, performance, etc. Pretty much what the PL/SQL Challenge has been. Primary author: Steven Feuerstein, others welcome! Rankings qualify for annual championship.

2. PL/SQL Built-ins quiz: focuses exclusively on the built-in or supplied packages. This would replace, in essence, PL/SQL Explore. Primary author: Steven Feuerstein, others welcome - especially with more specialized packages with which I have minimal experience. Rankings qualify for annual championship.

3. PL/SQL Deja Vu: as before, features a quiz from the past. Non-competitive.

SQL Quizzes

1. SQL Features quiz: covers the features of the SQL language, from DDL to DML. Primary authors: Kim Berg Hansen and Natalka Roshak others welcome! Rankings qualify for annual championship.This quiz would generally avoid performance-related features, because the second SQL quiz would focus on:

2. SQL Performance quiz: while I don't feel there is enough on PL/SQL performance to have a separate quiz just one that, it does seem more than possible to do this with SQL. And it certainly is a topic of endless interest and discussion. Rankings qualify for annual championship. Primary authors: Kim Berg Hansen, Natalka Roshak and Chris Saxon; others welcome!

3. SQL Deja Vu: features a quiz from the past. Non-competitive.
Database Design Quizzes

Stick with the current weekly quiz, but probably steer away from quizzes that focus primarily on performance, since the SQL Performance quiz will cover that. Rankings qualify for annual championship. Primary author: Chris Saxon, others welcome!

But we can also add a DB Design Deja Vu quiz.

Logic Quizzes

We are exploring replacing the competitive Mastermind-based quiz with a new logic quiz that uses different formats. Part of the problem with continuing with Mastermind, is that we have published (and others have no doubt built) automatic solvers.

And we can also add a Logic Deja Vu quiz.

Database Administration Quiz (?)

I have had several requests to start up a DB admin quiz, and am happy to do so, but we need someone to step forward and take overall responsibility for managing the quiz.

Any takers?

Names for Quizzes

As our quizzes grow in number, I'd also like to come up with less generic and more interesting names for our quizzes. Kim Berg Hansen offers a bunch of ideas below, to get the creative juices flowing. We'd love to hear your ideas!

1a: PL/SQL Language
1b: PL/SQL - Language par Excellence
1c: PL/SQL - Code of Choice
1d: PL/SQL Challenge
1e: PL/SQL - Code Genie

2a: PL/SQL Supplied Code
2b: PL/SQL - Don't Reinvent the Wheel
2c: PL/SQL - Already Invented
2d: PL/SQL - Modules Supplied
2e: PL/SQL Built-ins

3a: SQL Language
3b: SQL - The Way of the Set
3c: SQL - Set to Win
3d: SQL Magic
3e: SQL - Game, Set and Match
3f: SQL - When It's About Data
3g: SQL - Dancing with Data
3h: SQL - Mind Over Data

4a: SQL Performance
4b: SQL - Go to Warp 10
4c: SQL - Go to Warp 8
4d: SQL - High Speed Pursuit
4e: SQL - Data Formula One

5a: DB Design
5b: Database - Craft Your World
5c: Build a Better Database
5d: Database - Building Blocks
5e: Database - Data Builder

6a: DB Admin
6b: Database - Operational Administry
6c: Database - Operating Theater
6d: Database - Smooth Operator
6e: Database - Data Shaman