Q2 2013 PL/SQL Championship Results!

You will find below the rankings for the 2013-2 playoff; the number next to the player's name is the number of times that player has participated in a playoff.

Congratulations first and foremost to our top-ranked players:

1st Place: Frank Schmitt of Germany wins: Amazon.com US$250 Gift Card .

2nd Place: Chris Saxon of United Kingdom wins: Amazon.com US$175 Gift Card.

3rd Place: Niels Hecker of Germany wins: Amazon.com US$100 Gift Card.
Congratulations to everyone who played in the playoff. I hope you found it entertaining, challenging and educational. And for those who were not able to participate in the playoff, you can take the quizzes next week through the Practice feature.

Warm regards,
Steven Feuerstein


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

Rank	Name	Country	Total Time	% Correct	Total Score
1	Frank Schmitt (6)	Germany	23 mins 28 secs	92%	2971
2	Chris Saxon (6)	United Kingdom	27 mins 56 secs	92%	2881
3	Niels Hecker (12)	Germany	29 mins 10 secs	92%	2857
4	Janis Baiza (7)	Latvia	22 mins 49 secs	88%	2834
5	Peter Schmidt (4)	Germany	30 mins 57 secs	92%	2821
6	Ivan Blanarik (6)	Slovakia	33 mins 42 secs	92%	2741
7	mentzel.iudith (11)	Israel	34 mins 38 secs	92%	2682
8	Chad Lee (9)	United States	32 mins 35 secs	88%	2663
9	Alexey Ponomarenko (1)	Ukraine	32 mins 45 secs	88%	2635
10	Jason H (2)	United States	30 mins 31 secs	84%	2520
11	Michal Cvan (9)	Slovakia	29 mins 01 secs	80%	2485
12	Mike Pargeter (11)	United Kingdom	23 mins 51 secs	76%	2473
13	Randy Gettman (11)	United States	32 mins 28 secs	80%	2451
14	Vincent Malgrat (6)	French Republic	34 mins 42 secs	84%	2431
15	kowido (10)	Germany	34 mins 27 secs	84%	2416
16	Dieter Kowalski (5)	Germany	34 mins 13 secs	80%	2356
17	Jerry Bull (9)	United States	31 mins 05 secs	80%	2353
18	Siim Kask (11)	Estonia	25 mins 03 secs	76%	2289
19	Tony Winn (3)	Australia	31 mins 34 secs	80%	2244
20	Jeroen Rutte (5)	Netherlands	32 mins 26 secs	76%	2241
21	Ajaykumar Gupta (2)	Singapore	33 mins 57 secs	76%	2211
22	Frank Schrader (12)	Germany	32 mins 21 secs	76%	2143
23	Veera Marimuthu (2)	Singapore	30 mins 45 secs	76%	2135
24	Matthias Rogel (3)	Germany	18 mins 02 secs	60%	1869
25	Viacheslav Stepanov (10)	Russia	31 mins 11 secs	64%	1751
26	Stelios Vlasopoulos (8)	Belgium	23 mins 17 secs	56%	1674
27	Leszek Grudzień (1)	Poland	25 mins 17 secs	56%	1599
28	Pavel Noga (1)	Czech Republic	34 mins 52 secs	60%	1593
29	swart260 (5)	Netherlands	33 mins 40 secs	64%	1582
30	Vinu Garg (4)	India	24 mins 03 secs	56%	1569
31	Rakesh Dadhich (3)	India	27 mins 45 secs	56%	1550
32	Naresh Kumar (1)	India	32 mins 00 secs	60%	1540
33	Yuan Tschang (7)	United States	34 mins 43 secs	60%	1531
34	Livio (1)	Luxembourg	34 mins 51 secs	44%	878

Playoff Performance History

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

Name	History
Frank Schmitt	Q4 2011:24th, Q2 2012:4th, Q3 2012:23rd, Q4 2012:5th, Q1 2013:15th, Q2 2013:1st
Chris Saxon	Q4 2010:16th, Q2 2011:2nd, Q4 2011:8th, Q3 2012:22nd, Q4 2012:3rd, Q2 2013:2nd
Niels Hecker	Q2 2010:2nd, Q3 2010:1st, Q4 2010:15th, Q1 2011:7th, Q3 2011:8th, Q4 2011:11th, Q1 2012:2nd, Q2 2012:5th, Q3 2012:3rd, Q4 2012:9th, Q1 2013:8th, Q2 2013:3rd
Janis Baiza	Q2 2010:3rd, Q4 2010:7th, Q3 2011:10th, Q4 2011:2nd, Q3 2012:25th, Q1 2013:6th, Q2 2013:4th
Peter Schmidt	Q3 2010:2nd, Q4 2010:14th, Q3 2012:29th, Q2 2013:5th
Ivan Blanarik	Q1 2012:3rd, Q2 2012:15th, Q3 2012:18th, Q4 2012:27th, Q2 2013:6th
mentzel.iudith	Q4 2010:4th, Q1 2011:18th, Q2 2011:25th, Q3 2011:6th, Q4 2011:5th, Q1 2012:8th, Q2 2012:19th, Q3 2012:35th, Q4 2012:6th, Q1 2013:4th, Q2 2013:7th
Chad Lee	Q2 2011:28th, Q3 2011:19th, Q4 2011:13th, Q1 2012:1st, Q2 2012:26th, Q3 2012:30th, Q4 2012:25th, Q1 2013:22nd, Q2 2013:8th
Alexey Ponomarenko	Q2 2013:9th
Jason H	Q3 2012:19th, Q2 2013:10th
Michal Cvan	Q3 2010:23rd, Q4 2010:25th, Q3 2011:23rd, Q1 2012:12th, Q3 2012:16th, Q4 2012:17th, Q1 2013:16th, Q2 2013:11th
Mike Pargeter	Q4 2010:22nd, Q1 2011:16th, Q2 2011:10th, Q4 2011:6th, Q1 2012:6th, Q2 2012:20th, Q3 2012:6th, Q4 2012:23rd, Q2 2013:12th
Randy Gettman	Q3 2010:8th, Q1 2011:27th, Q2 2011:12th, Q3 2011:4th, Q4 2011:12th, Q1 2012:20th, Q2 2012:22nd, Q3 2012:32nd, Q4 2012:14th, Q1 2013:5th, Q2 2013:13th
Vincent Malgrat	Q4 2011:10th, Q1 2012:15th, Q2 2012:16th, Q4 2012:8th, Q1 2013:3rd, Q2 2013:14th
kowido	Q1 2011:26th, Q2 2011:9th, Q3 2011:17th, Q4 2011:21st, Q1 2012:4th, Q2 2012:1st, Q3 2012:9th, Q4 2012:2nd, Q1 2013:1st, Q2 2013:15th
Dieter Kowalski	Q1 2012:21st, Q2 2012:8th, Q4 2012:16th, Q1 2013:24th, Q2 2013:16th
Jerry Bull	Q2 2011:34th, Q3 2011:9th, Q1 2012:14th, Q2 2012:14th, Q3 2012:15th, Q4 2012:18th, Q1 2013:11th, Q2 2013:17th
Siim Kask	Q1 2011:30th, Q2 2011:7th, Q3 2011:11th, Q4 2011:4th, Q1 2012:9th, Q2 2012:6th, Q3 2012:33rd, Q4 2012:12th, Q1 2013:13th, Q2 2013:18th
Tony Winn	Q3 2010:17th, Q2 2013:19th
Jeroen Rutte	Q3 2010:20th, Q3 2012:12th, Q4 2012:13th, Q1 2013:10th, Q2 2013:20th
Ajaykumar Gupta	Q1 2013:7th, Q2 2013:21st
Frank Schrader	Q3 2010:12th, Q4 2010:30th, Q1 2011:1st, Q2 2011:5th, Q3 2011:1st, Q4 2011:1st, Q1 2012:13th, Q2 2012:3rd, Q3 2012:2nd, Q4 2012:4th, Q1 2013:2nd, Q2 2013:22nd
Veera Marimuthu	Q1 2013:21st, Q2 2013:23rd
Matthias Rogel	Q2 2013:24th
Viacheslav Stepanov	Q1 2011:9th, Q2 2011:4th, Q3 2011:14th, Q4 2011:20th, Q1 2012:19th, Q2 2012:12th, Q3 2012:7th, Q4 2012:24th, Q1 2013:20th, Q2 2013:25th
Stelios Vlasopoulos	Q4 2010:38th, Q4 2011:22nd, Q1 2012:30th, Q2 2012:33rd, Q3 2012:1st, Q4 2012:1st, Q1 2013:30th, Q2 2013:26th
Leszek Grudzień	Q2 2013:27th
Pavel Noga	Q2 2013:28th
swart260	Q2 2012:24th, Q3 2012:27th, Q4 2012:28th, Q1 2013:32nd, Q2 2013:29th
Vinu Garg	Q2 2012:32nd, Q1 2013:31st, Q2 2013:30th
Rakesh Dadhich	Q2 2012:13th, Q1 2013:26th, Q2 2013:31st
Naresh Kumar	Q2 2013:32nd
Yuan Tschang	Q2 2012:27th, Q3 2012:26th, Q4 2012:30th, Q2 2013:33rd
Livio	Q2 2013:34th

On the Importance of Being Emailed

I don't know about you, but my In box functions as my to-do list. Not my only to-do list, mind you. I still scratch out lists on paper with an ancient technology known as a pen. But my In box plays a critical role in reminding me of upcoming items of interest.

I am not the only one, as I was reminded rather forcefully this week.

The PL/SQL Challenge reminds players (who have asked for reminders) about their daily and weekly quizzes. We also send out emails with results, once the quiz has closed.

Unfortunately, the email queue for our site (and perhaps others?) got backed up this week. Emails did not go out. And I did not pay sufficient attention to notice.

As a result, we received some painful emails like:

I got reminder for 2013-07-30 quiz at early morning of 2013-08-03. Looking at the email headers it is not my local SMTP server problem. All other emails from plsql challenge also is very late, so I missed Fridays quiz :(

I didn't get "Quiz Results"-mails on 31 July and 01 August and I also didn't get a "Reminder"-mail yesterday (or already some days before). So I forgot to play the quiz yesterday.

and worst of all:

I have been playing PL/SQL quizzes without having missed a single quiz since last 2 years.  Since I am working, I rely on reminder emails, But I missed out the 1st August 2013 quiz. If you can please resolve the issue with reminder emails and consider my waiver for 1st August Daily Quiz, which I could not take.  

Sadly, we cannot issue waivers or give you credit for a missed quiz. Hundreds of people did play on Thursday and Friday (though I wondered at the time why the count was lower than usual - I just figured it was due to summer holidays).

We will do our best to ensure that the emails keep on flowing, but remember:

If it is a weekday, there is a PL/SQL quiz for you to take!

Q2 2013 Championship Rescheduled for 3 September

Due to conflicts on 3 August and then the joy of summer vacations and holidays, we will hold the Q2 2013 Championship on 3 September, at 15:00 UTC (still a single time, but now on Tuesday, not Saturday).

Players will be invited via email to sign up for the championship, confirming their participation.

Q2 2013 Championship will NOT be held on 3 August

It is tough finding a time in the summer to play the Championship! Enough players said "no" to 3 August to trigger the rule that says: "Find a new date!" So the championship will not be held on 3 August. We will poll our players and find a better date - and for this second attempt, we will shift back to a weekday, not the weekend.

Q2 2013 PL/SQL Championship to be held on 3 August

The second quarter of 2013 is now history. And that means....it's time for the next championship competition!

The following players will be invited to participate in the Q2 2013 championship. The number in parentheses after their names are the number of playoffs in which they have already participated.

See the FAQ for an explanation of the three ways a player can qualify for the playoff.

And congratulations to all listed below on their accomplishment and best of luck in the upcoming competition! We have six first-time championship players and many veterans of this fine competition.

This championship will be different from past events in two important ways:

Everyone will play at the same time: 3 August 16:00 UTC. Which means we are also holding the championship on a Saturday, the first time ever that we play on the weekend. Our three players from the Asia-Pacific region (who will be playing in the very early morning) have graciously accepted this additional challenge. Everyone else is in Europe and the United States, so it shouldn't be too painful. :-) We shall see how it goes!

Name	Rank	Qualification	Country
Ajaykumar Gupta (1)	1	Top 25	Singapore
Rakesh Dadhich (2)	2	Top 25	India
Janis Baiza (6)	3	Top 25	Latvia
swart260 (4)	4	Top 25	Netherlands
mentzel.iudith (10)	5	Top 25	Israel
Stelios Vlasopoulos (7)	6	Top 25	Belgium
Chris Saxon (5)	7	Top 25	United Kingdom
Vinu Garg (3)	8	Top 25	India
Milibor Jovanovic (2)	9	Top 25	Serbia
Mike Pargeter (10)	10	Top 25	United Kingdom
Ivan Blanarik (5)	11	Top 25	Slovakia
Viacheslav Stepanov (9)	12	Top 25	Russia
Niels Hecker (11)	13	Top 25	Germany
Veera Marimuthu (1)	14	Top 25	Singapore
Vincent Malgrat (5)	15	Top 25	French Republic
Frank Schrader (11)	16	Top 25	Germany
kowido (9)	17	Top 25	Germany
Jeroen Rutte (4)	18	Top 25	Netherlands
Dieter Kowalski (4)	19	Top 25	Germany
Jerry Bull (8)	20	Top 25	United States
Siim Kask (10)	21	Top 25	Estonia
Jason H (1)	22	Top 25	United States
Leszek Grudzień (0)	23	Top 25	Poland
Tony Winn (2)	24	Top 25	Australia
Frank Schmitt (5)	25	Top 25	Germany
Peter Schmidt (3)	31	Correctness	Germany
Joaquin Gonzalez (5)	32	Wildcard	Spain
Chad Lee (8)	33	Correctness	United States
Matthias Rogel (2)	34	Wildcard	Germany
Naresh Kumar (0)	35	Wildcard	India
Jan Soubusta (0)	48	Wildcard	Czech Republic
Alexey Ponomarenko (0)	77	Wildcard	Ukraine
Yuan Tschang (6)	85	Correctness	United States
Randy Gettman (10)	94	Correctness	United States
Pavel Noga (0)	96	Correctness	Czech Republic
Michal Cvan (8)	107	Correctness	Slovakia
Livio (0)	332	Correctness	Luxembourg

Are "abandoned" quizzes included in rankings analysis?

JasonC asks this question:

Occasionally, I'll start a quiz, and it's about a subject I have no knowledge of at all - I can't even make an educated guess.  So I just close the window and do something else.

So then I wondered if my non-start gets logged somewhere as null points, and a VERY long time ?

The reason for this is that I notice I nearly always complete the quiz quicker than the AVERAGE time, but slower than the MEAN time, which suggests to me that a few excessively long times are skewing the average - maybe these could be people failing to complete the quiz?  None of this really matters: I've no complaints about my scores (well, they're lower than I would like, but that's another story!) - I'm just curious.

Excellent question! I thought I knew the answer but decided to look at the code, anyway. The code always tells the truth. :-)

Here's what the code tells me:

   PROCEDURE submit_saved_answers (comp_event_id_in IN INTEGER)
   IS
      l_comp_event      qdb_comp_events%ROWTYPE
                           := one_comp_event (comp_event_id_in);
      l_competition     qdb_competitions%ROWTYPE;
      l_answer_closed   BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE;
   BEGIN
      /* Assign an end date to all answers for which there is at 
           least one saved answer. */
      FOR rec
         IN (SELECT DISTINCT eva.compev_answer_id, eva.user_id
               FROM qdb_compev_answers eva, qdb_quiz_results qr
              WHERE     eva.compev_answer_id =
                           qr.compev_answer_id
                    AND eva.comp_event_id = comp_event_id_in
                    AND eva.ended_on IS NULL)
      LOOP
         UPDATE qdb_compev_answers eva
            SET ended_on =
                   qdb_player_mgr.user_end_time (
                      comp_event_id_in,
                      rec.user_id)
          WHERE eva.compev_answer_id = rec.compev_answer_id;
      END LOOP;
   END submit_saved_answers;

Look, a comment! I proudly proclaim in my trainings that my code is self-documenting, requiring no comments. But I am glad I broke my pledge here.

 

Bottom line: in the current scheme of things at the PL/SQL Challenge, we will not automatically set an end time for your answer when the quiz consists of a single question. For multiple-question competitions like the playoff, we will automatically set an end time if you answered at least one of the questions.

There can still, however, be some very long answer times that will skew the average. I have tried to isolate those in at least some of our calculations, but may not have caught them all.

Some Changes in Championship Rules (and more)

We have decided to institute a few changes in the rules and format for the quarterly championship, as well as rules for winners of other prizes.

First, regarding winners of prizes (weekly, monthly, etc.): while you can choose to remain anonymous on your public profile, you will not be eligible to receive a prize unless you have completed the following parts of your profile (which you can keep private):

On your Account-Personal page, provide your real and full name, as well as the country in which you reside. Then complete at least one of the three "My Website" fields with your LinkedIn account, professional website and/or other webpages that identify you and your profession. Your company website, combined with an email address in the same domain, is acceptable.

On the Account-Professional page, tell us the name of the company for which you work, the university you attend, or whatever is appropriate in your case.

Bottom line: we want to make sure that the players who win prizes are "real people" and not duplicate accounts, team efforts, or anything else. Of course, we can't stop you from putting in "phony" data, but we remain confident in the honesty and integrity of our players.

Second, regarding the quarterly championship:

1. The above rule applies to everyone who wishes to participate in the championship. In other words, even if you qualify by ranking, you will not be able to play in the championship without completing the minimal elements of your profile listed above. Only "real people" can compete!

2. Everyone will play in the championship at the same time. We will no longer offer multiple times at which it can be taken. We realize that this could cause hardship for some players (I'm thinking about the Pacific nations mostly), but we figure that if you are sufficiently honored and excited to be in the championship, you'll make it work.

In all cases, if a player does not provide the necessary information their status will be set to "Not Ranked" for the appropriate quiz.

We haven't finalized the time for the championship yet, but since most players are in the US and in Europe, we expect to aim for the end of the work day in Europe, late morning in the US.

Thanks once again for your dedicated play on the PL/SQL Challenge site. We will be unveiling new features in the coming months that will make it an even better at helping you become (more of) an expert in Oracle technologies.

Warm regards,
Steven Feuerstein