1. What?
   1. Competition around any aspect of testing.
   2. Most competitions are FREE to participate
   3. Common Categories of Testing Contests:
      1. Testing
      2. Automation
      3. Test Strategy
      4. Bug Hunting
      5. Tool Evaluation
      6. Product Learning
      7. Solution Development, etc.
2. Where?
   1. Online
      1. More predominant during pandemic
   2. Offline
   3. Checkout
      1. testingconferences.org
   4. Follow Testing Communities & their handles On
      1. LinkedIn
      2. Twitter
      3. Facebook
      4. Instagram
      5. Community Chat Groups
      6. Good Testing Handles
         1. TTT
         2. TTN
         3. TTC
         4. ATA
         5. MOT
         6. Moolya
         7. Synapse QA
         8. Elite Testers
3. Who?
   1. Mostly Organized By
      1. Testing Communities
      2. Testing Companies
      3. Testing Conferences
      4. Testing Tool Companies
4. Why?
   1. Learning
   2. Reputation
   3. Enjoyment
   4. Networking
   5. Improves Productivity
   6. Boosts your Creativity
   7. Boosts your Collaboration Skills
5. When?
   1. No Fixed Date / Frequency
   2. Average: 3-4 Contests / Month
   3. Duration:
      1. Anything from few hours to few days
      2. Depends on the challenge of the event
6. How?
   1. Pre Contest
      1. Learning Resources
         1. 50+ tips to win testing contests by Ajay Balamurugadas
         2. Pooja Shah's Blogpost on How to win a Testathon
      2. Learn from Judges
         1. Checkout their work
         2. Visit there
            1. Blogs
            2. Git Repositories
            3. Social Handles, etc.
      3. Checkout for
         1. Past Winners
            1. Seek their advice
         2. Organizer Details
         3. Topic of Competition
         4. Organizer's Motto / Vision
         5. Any previous competition reports (if available)?
      4. Small things that make a big difference
         1. Know shortcuts
            1. Use them
         2. Touch Typing
      5. Assign Roles & Responsibilities with your team mates
      6. Know the right people to partner with
   2. During Contest
      1. Ensure you don't cross time
      2. Use right tools
         1. Text Expanders
         2. Report Templates
         3. Anything that can save your time. Check out bit.ly/rpajtoolkit
      3. Take backups of your work periodically
      4. Record your activity
      5. Focus on your own work instead of looking at what others are doing
      6. 3 Step Rule
         1. Outline
            1. Start with outline of solution
         2. Extend
            1. Extend & Elaborate on the outline
         3. Beautify
            1. Beautify & Format your final output
      7. Coordinate as a team
      8. Regroup before event closure and do a short peer-review
      9. Have a checklist for tasks to be done
      10. Prepare your solution in a way that you can submit it at any moment.
          1. State References
          2. State Assumptions
          3. State Open Questions
          4. Mention your contact details
          5. Use Colors, Fonts, Style, Comments consistently, etc.
      11. Report at multiple levels
          1. Q PRA DEEP
             1. Quick
             2. Practical
             3. Deep
      12. State your Conclusion
   3. Post Contest
      1. Ask for feedback
      2. Network with other attendees
      3. Check out submissions by other participants
      4. Look at all the winning submissions and analyze what they did better?