Marathon Matches (MM)

Marathon Matches are challenges where your submission is automatically scored according to the scoring details mentioned in the match specification.

They are longer than SRM matches, usually lasting one week. They consist of one difficult problem that may not have a single correct solution, but rather something where optimization must be used to create a solution that performs better than the competition. A problem may consist of a board game simulation that must be solved as efficiently as possible, or a machine learning-related task, such as classification.

These matches are mainly divided into two categories:

• Algorithm Optimization Matches - These matches are hosted by Topcoder for practice and fun. The problems are usually NP-Hard, so no optimal solution is known. The matches usually run for one week, in which you write a program to score as well as possible against the problem’s scoring system. They are generally named as Marathon Match followed by a sequence number. Example: Marathon Match 118

• Machine Learning / Data Analytics / Image Processing / Predictive Analytics etc - These matches are designed with the help of our customers. They involve tasks with real-world applications and datasets. Example: CDC Text Classification - Marathon Match