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Meta · Paid competitionMeta Hacker Cup
Meta's annual global programming contest, running since 2011 and free to enter from anywhere. A strong finish is a hard, externally verifiable signal — and unlike a rating on a practice site, the placing is Meta's to vouch for, not yours to claim.
Dates & timeline
Prizes
- 1st place: $20,000
- 2nd place: $10,000
- 3rd place: $5,000
- 4th place: $3,000
- 5th place: $1,000
- Running annually since 2011, originally as the Facebook Hacker Cup
- Tens of thousands of competitors from around the world each year
- Free to enter and open worldwide
Why it's worth your time
Meta Hacker Cup is an annual global programming competition, launched in 2011 as the Facebook Hacker Cup, that draws tens of thousands of competitors each year. The format is a practice round open to everyone, then a qualification round, then successive elimination rounds, with problems solved under time pressure in languages including C++, Python and Java. Entry is free and open worldwide.
The value for a 2nd-year is not the prize money, which realistically goes to a very small number of elite competitive programmers. It is that a placing is issued by Meta rather than asserted by you. Most of what a student can put in front of a founder is self-reported; a Hacker Cup round you cleared is a fact someone else is standing behind, and that is a categorically different kind of evidence.
How to apply
Watch the official page from around late September — the 2025 edition opened registration on 3 October.
Enter the practice round, which is open to everyone, to get used to the judge and the submission format.
Prepare with timed problem sets rather than untimed practice; the constraint in this contest is the clock.
Treat clearing the qualification round as the goal in your first year, not the finals.
Frequently asked questions
Is Meta Hacker Cup free to enter?
Yes. Entry is free and the competition is open to participants worldwide, held entirely online.
What are the prizes?
The winner receives $20,000, with $10,000 for second place, $5,000 for third, $3,000 for fourth and $1,000 for fifth.
When does the 2026 edition run?
The 2026 schedule has not been announced yet. As a guide, the 2025 edition opened registration on 3 October 2025, so watch the official page from around late September.
What is the format?
A practice round open to everyone, followed by a qualification round and a series of elimination rounds, with problems solved under time constraints in languages such as C++, Python and Java.
Is it worth entering if I cannot win?
Yes, for a specific reason: a round you clear is a result Meta issues, not a claim you make about yourself. That kind of externally verified signal is rare and disproportionately useful to a student with little track record.
Official links
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