Fair play
Rewards, leagues and leaderboards only mean something if everyone earns them the same way. This page explains what the platform enforces in each competitive area, what it records about your play, and what counts as cheating.
What is enforced
These rules are applied by the platform itself, not by your browser. Changing the page, your computer's clock or the requests your browser sends does not get around them.
Code Arena
- Your code is judged on the server. Pass or fail is decided there, not in your browser.
- Hidden test cases stay hidden. When you submit, a hidden case reports only whether it passed. Its arguments and expected output are shown only if you unlock it.
- The deadline is kept on the server. When your time is up, runs and submissions are refused, whatever the countdown on your screen says.
- All or nothing. A reward is paid only when a submission passes every test case.
- Paid once. Each problem pays once per language. Versions of the same language count as one.
- Code AI and rewards do not mix. Unlocking Code AI on a problem forfeits its reward.
- Runs are rate-limited. There is a short cool-down between runs, validations and submissions.
- Rewards are calculated on the server. The share you earn from your attempt and submission counts, the extra-language bonus, and the Code AI forfeit are all decided there when your submission passes. See Code Arena.
Spot Quiz
- The answer key never reaches your browser. You are told whether an answer was right or wrong; the correct option is not revealed.
- One answer per question. You cannot go back and change an answer.
- First complete run only. A quiz pays only if every answer is right on your first run through it, and pays at most once. Restarts are for practice.
- Game-mode limits are enforced. The session time limit, the per-question timer in Rapid Fire and the number of lives are all checked by the server. Questions are drawn at random and shuffled.
- The platform keeps the score. Your answers are marked one at a time as you submit them, and the reward is decided when your fifth answer arrives — on the server, from the answers it has recorded. Reloading, opening the quiz in two tabs or editing the page does not change it. See Why one wrong answer means no Zeal.
- Game modes show the right answer only after you have answered. In every mode except Rapid Fire, a wrong answer reveals the correct option for that question — once your answer is recorded. Rapid Fire reveals nothing until the run ends.
- A late Rapid Fire answer counts as wrong, whatever your screen shows.
- Game-mode quizzes are used once. A quiz you have played does not come back in a game mode, and a set won in a game mode does not pay again as a normal quiz.
- Reporting is limited. You can report up to 10 quizzes a day, and reporting in the middle of a game mode costs 1 Jolt and ends the run without rewards.
Challenge labs
- Every flag is unique. Each time you start a mission, a new random flag is created for you — or for your team — and placed inside your own lab. A flag from someone else's lab, or from an earlier attempt, does not work.
- A wrong flag ends the attempt. Guessing is expensive: each wrong flag fails the attempt, lowers the mission's multiplier, and means starting again with a new flag.
- Paid once. A mission pays the first time you capture it.
Events
- Only registered players and clans can play, and only while the event is live.
- Only captures inside the event window count toward the event leaderboard.
- Organizers can pause an event. While it is on hold, flag submission is blocked for everyone.
- Clan rosters are locked for the event, so teams cannot be reshuffled mid-competition.
- Platform administrators are not ranked on the global, Code Arena, quiz, CTF or event leaderboards.
AI assistants connected to your account
An AI assistant connected over MCP cannot reach any assessment. Quizzes, Code Arena, challenge-lab content, learning modules, roadmaps, discussions, clans, clubs, events, leaderboards and grading are closed to MCP for everyone, including administrators. An assistant can help you with your own labs. It cannot read a quiz or submit a solution for you. See What AI assistants cannot do.
What is recorded
The platform keeps a history of how you play. Platform staff can review it.
| Area | Recorded |
|---|---|
| Code Arena | Every save and every submission, with a timestamp. Staff can replay how a solution was written, step by step. |
| Spot Quiz | Every quiz and game-mode run you start, and every answer you give |
| Challenge labs | Every mission you start, every flag you submit — right or wrong — and every hint you unlock |
| Events | Registrations, and every capture and attempt during the event |
What counts as cheating
These are against the platform's rules everywhere, and against the rules of every event:
- Sharing flags or solutions — posting them, sending them to other players, or using ones someone else sent you.
- Submitting someone else's code as your own in Code Arena.
- Using AI where a challenge or event forbids it. In Code Arena, the built-in Code AI is allowed — it simply forfeits that problem's reward.
- Using more than one account — to compete twice, to farm rewards, or to feed one account from another.
Event disqualification
Every event publishes its own Rules and Regulations on its Info tab. The organizers can disqualify any player or clan that breaks them, or breaks the rules on this page. Decisions on disqualification, final rankings and prizes are made by the organizers. See Events.
Challenge labs and events in detail
These rules apply to every challenge lab and every CTF event. They are checked by the platform when you act, not afterwards.
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| A flag belongs to one attempt | Each Start Mission creates a new flag for your lab — or your clan's lab — and the previous one stops working at once. A flag copied from anyone else's lab is always wrong for yours |
| Guessing costs you | A wrong flag fails the attempt and lowers the mission's multiplier. There is no free retry |
| One mission at a time | Starting a second mission in the same lab fails the first |
| The mission ends with the lab | If the lab stops, expires or is killed, the running attempt fails |
| Hints are paid before they open | A hint opens only after its Jolt is taken, and only in order |
| Rewards are paid once | A mission, and each lab achievement, pays the first time only. Repeating it pays nothing |
| Team labs are clan-only | Only members of the owning clan can open a team lab, and a clan must have at least two members to deploy one |
| Events check registration | An event lab deploys only for registered players or clans, only while the event is live and not on hold, and only after any launch ceremony |
| The event window is final | Captures after the event ends are not scored for the event. When the labs are retired, captures pay half and still do not count for the event |
| Rosters are frozen | A registered clan cannot grow past the event's maximum, shrink below its minimum or be deleted until the event (or series) ends |
What the platform keeps about CTF play
In addition to the records listed under What is recorded, the platform keeps:
- every flag it generates for a mission, with when it was created and which player started the attempt — including in team labs, where it records the individual;
- which members were in a clan at the moment it registered for an event, and who registered it.
Organizers can use these records when they review an event — for example to check that a team's flags came from its own lab, and that its roster matches its registration. What happens next is covered under Event disqualification.
Reporting a problem or suspected cheating
| Problem | Where to report it |
|---|---|
| A broken or wrong Code Arena problem | The Report tab on the problem — see Code Arena |
| A wrong or badly formatted quiz question | Report Issues on the quiz — see Spot Quiz |
| A broken challenge lab mission during an event | The event's organizers |
| Suspected cheating | The event's organizers, or your platform's support or community channel |
When you report suspected cheating, say who, where (which problem, quiz, lab or event) and when. You do not need proof — staff can check the records described above.