So you’ve just taken part in a Zindi competition, do you know how you get points at the end of each challenge?

Today we’re gonna be working out how points are awarded on Zindi, and to help us is the recently closed AgriFieldNet India Challenge. Let’s explore it together.

Everyone who takes part in a points or prize competition, such as the AgriFieldNet India Challenge, will receive points proportional to the prize money, i.e. if a competition is for $10 000 then there are 10 000 points available unless otherwise stated in the prize section. If you are in a team, each team member receives the same amount of points. Points are awarded based on the formula

As you can see Starlink doesn’t receive the top points as they are a team of 3 but after they pass code review they will receive the top prize. We always encourage teaming up and sharing ideas as you will be required to work in teams in the working world.

Didn’t make it to the top of the leaderboard? Worry not, at Zindi all efforts are rewarded!

Taking part in any of the three kinds of competitions allows you to gain points for the first submission you make, as well as extra points if you submit a non-sample submission. Points earned depend on the kind of competition and are awarded as illustrated in the table below. These are the minimum points you can receive, if you rank higher than ~1000th place you will receive more than 25 points (only if you submitted a non-sample submission).

To motivate you to keep challenging yourself to learn and develop your data science skills, points acquired will gradually decay over time, unless you continually take part in the Zindi community. Points decay exponentially at the rate of e^-t/488, where t is the time elapsed from the date you were awarded the points.

To read more about points you can look at the Zindi rules, section 10.