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.

2 comments:

  1. Nice New Names
    Marga

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Steven, All,

    I should confess that I have prepared a long reply to the previous proposal made at about the
    Beginning of 2015,regarding splitting the different quiz categories into several narrower ones, like Performance, PL/SQL Packages, and so on.

    As by now, I understand that such an idea was abandoned at least for the moment,
    and I am extremely glad about it, because it looked to me as something far too artificial to be done,
    in addition to generating additional time pressure on the players by having to play too many quizzes,
    or, instead, having to become selective and decide which quizzes they are going to play
    and which they are not.

    Regardless of the quiz names, the important thing in my opinion is to keep the right balance between
    the different topics that compose the material for each type of quiz.

    Thus, for example, in my opinion, Performance, though topmost important for everything we are doing,
    is NOT and should not become a separate topic by itself, just as it is not in the real life, it is instead the common background for all the quizzes we play, so tackling performance problems is welcome
    now and then, without separate dedicated quizzes to performance alone.

    Something very similar can be said about "separating out" the PL/SQL supplied packages
    into a separate quiz.

    Deja Vu quizzes are always welcome, for those who still have spare time ...

    Playing is nice, but it is also very demanding, and I myself strongly feel that I don't have enough time
    left for thinking upon creating new quizzes, due to the fact that, maybe, I am playing too much ...
    or ... well ... I am spending too much time thinking over each quiz that I have played and,
    far too often, played wrong ...


    And, last but not least, of course, Happy 5th Anniversary to the PL/SQL Challenge,
    and many more still to come :) :)

    I myself do feel as if I am already playing it for about 100 years.


    Thanks a lot & Best Regards,
    Iudith

    ReplyDelete