CodeRally 7.0

CodeRally 7.0 is a national-level competitive programming challenge organized by the IEEE Computer Society Student Branch Chapter of the Informatics Institute of Technology. Billed as the ultimate competitive programming challenge, the event is tailored for university students across all skill levels to push their boundaries through strategic thinking, algorithm optimization, and raw technical discipline. The competition featured three difficulty tiers—Advanced, Intermediate, and Beginner—and attracted participation from over 35 universities, making it a massive collaborative and competitive ecosystem.

The 2026 campaign unfolded over several months, starting with registrations and an awareness session in June and July. To equip participants for the intense coding battles ahead, the organizers hosted three major knowledge-sharing workshops. The first workshop in mid-July focused on the art of problem-solving and effectively using AI in competitive programming. This was followed by a second workshop in early August that delved into advanced tactics, complex algorithms, and system architectures, and a final virtual workshop designed to help teams perfect their strategies before the main competitions commenced.

The competitive phase featured preliminary selection weeks and a virtual hackathon on August 29, which ultimately narrowed down the field for the grand finale. On September 5, the top-ranked teams engaged in a continuous 24-hour physical hackathon that tested their mental endurance, clean code architecture, and logical problem-solving under rapidly evolving constraints. Following the intense marathon, the victors were crowned at the Award Ceremony on September 13. In the Advanced category, Team BALANCE from the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology emerged as the champions, while Team Whatever from Edith Cowan University topped the Intermediate track, and BitMasters from the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka won the Beginner category.