For the past six years, Big Nerd Ranch has held a three-day app building competition called Clash of the Coders, and we’re proud to say that this year is no different. During these seventy-two hours, we challenge our Nerds to explore new technologies, push their skills to the limit and consume as much coffee as humanly possible.

Clash of the Coders kicks off on the evening of Wednesday, May 3, and concludes on Saturday, May 6, when each team demonstrates their enormous learning achievements. Applications can be mobile, web-based or desktop, and points are awarded for learning something difficult and useful. Extra points are available for writing a server using Elixir, Go, Node or Swift, and even more extra points are available for using technologies such as The Google Cloud Datastore, Amazon DynamoDB, Riak, Rust, GraphQL, Vue.js or Internet of Things platforms.

Want even more extra points? You better work with new people! We encourage our Nerds to expand beyond their normal team, so you’ll see plenty of iOS, Android and web developers working together.

Last year, our Nerds set the bar high with projects that improved our internal processes (like answering the front door via Slack) and our teaching methodologies. 2016 winner Raisin developed and designed a real-time slideshow system that allows students to ask questions and follow the presentation remotely, while also gathering timing data to help instructors spot rough patches in the curriculum.

Members of the 2017 winning team receive their name on our giant trophy, bragging rights for a whole year and their choice of conspicuously cool technology, like a personal distiller or a Sub Phatty synthesizer, or the ever popular drone.

Sound interesting? We think so too. We’ll announce the winners of our Sixth Annual Clash of the Coders next week, but until then, you can follow their journey on social media. We’ll be posting on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with #BNRClash. Stay tuned!