Alexa Skill Wizard Challenge

Registration and Eligibility FAQs

1. Who is eligible to enter the competition?
   Eligibility Criteria: Students currently pursuing their under graduation or post graduation course in India and belonging to colleges listed in Annex A are eligible to participate in this challenge.

2. Do I need to pay any money to register for the challenge?
   No. You do not have to pay anything to anyone to register yourself for any challenge on HackerEarth.

3. Do I need to have any specific qualifications to be a participant for the challenge?
   If you love to code, you are more than welcome to participate in the challenge.

4. Does one have to be online and available for the entire duration of the challenge?
   No, one does not need to be logged in on HackerEarth or be online for the entire duration. You can develop the application on your local system based on the given themes and then submit it on HackerEarth, on the specific challenge page.

5. Who do I contact if I have any queries
   You can ask your questions on the discussions tab of the hackathon page. Additionally, you can also reach out to handles mentioned in the Contact Us tab.

Skill Building FAQs

1. Is there any cost for creating an Amazon Developer and AWS account?
   The Amazon developer account has no charges associated with it. You can build skills for free. If you are hosting your backend services on AWS, there may be certain charges associated to it based on the usage of services. You can create an AWS free tier account where you can use services for free as per the terms & conditions.

2. How is the environment? Will your environment support any language? Will you provide any IDE and DB for us to work on ideas?
   You have to develop the Alexa skill on your local system using your Amazon developer account and submit the skill ID on HackerEarth.

3. Since there is no specific technology mentioned, are there any restrictions on using number of pre-built libraries?
   There is no restriction to use any language, technology stack, or libraries. You can use any of them to create the Alexa skill.

4. What do I need to use to build my skill?
   Check out the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) developer portal and Getting Started Guide. To be eligible for prizes, you must have 1) entered a complete and eligible hackathon entry via the Hackathon submission form; and 2) have your Alexa Skill certified by the Alexa Skills Store. Your submission must include your Skill ID (can be found on the Skill Information tab in your Alexa developer account.)

5. What APIs or datasets can in include in my skill?
   You may use whatever APIs, SDKs, and datasets you choose, as long as you are authorized to use and distribute them.

Hackathon Submission FAQs

1. Do we need to have the entire idea fully working?
   The entire idea need not be fully implemented however, the submission should be functional so that it can be reviewed by the judges.

2. How do I submit what I have made for the Hackathon?
   You have to develop the skill on your local system using the Amazon developer web console and then submit it to the Alexa India Skill Store. You can host your skill on AWS Lambda (recommended), or another hosting service of your choice. Use of AWS Lambda will not increase your chance of winning. Please note, you will have to submit a video of your submission on the contest page.

3. Do I need to give a demo for the product that I have built?
   You must submit a video (max duration: 5 minutes) along with the skill submission. The video must include footage that clearly explains the skill’s features and functionality through a comprehensive demonstration. If you want you can submit a small presentation that demos your submission, however it's not mandatory, and only good to have.

4. If it is a team submission, does that mean all team members will have access to work at the same time?
   Yes, all team members can login from their account and do application submission on HackerEarth. While making the Alexa Skill submission on the Amazon developer console, one of you in the team can submit the skill on behalf of the team.

5. Does my skill need to be certified in the Skill Store?
   The skill must be new, functioning, and submitted for Alexa store certification prior to the end of the Hackathon Submission Period. The skill must be certified and publicly available in the Alexa skills store prior to the end of the Certification Period. The skill must function as depicted in the Idea Submission materials.

6. Do the skills have to be newly created for this competition, or can they be pre-existing?
   Existing skills are not eligible for this hackathon. Skills must be a new, functioning, and certified Amazon Alexa skill, made public in the Alexa Skills Store. The skills must be newly created and submitted after the developing team is qualified for round two of the event.

7. Can more than one person work on a skill and receive credit for it? And if the solution wins a prize, how will the prize money be split among the creators?
   Yes, teams are encouraged. If a team of individuals or an organization is selected as an award winner, the full prize amount will be sent to the submitter. It will be up to the winning team or organization to reallocate the prize money between the team members, as they deem it appropriate. The maximum time size is 3.

8. Can I enter more than one solution?
   Yes. There is no limit to how many times an eligible person, team or organization may enter. However, if you submit two or more skills that are identical or substantially similar, the Sponsor and HackerEarth reserve the right to disqualify all the submissions or require you to choose one submission to enter into the competition.

9. Do I retain intellectual property ownership?
   Yes. By submitting a solution to the challenge, you do not transfer any intellectual property rights to the Sponsor or HackerEarth. The Sponsor and HackerEarth will have the right to feature all skills entered in the competition for promotional purposes.

10. What will you do with my submission?
    The Sponsor and HackerEarth will have the right to publicly display your submission on the hackathon website and in the Alexa Skills Store, once your skill is certified. They will also be allowed to publicize your name on the hackathon website in connection with the submission and the hackathon during the competition and for 36 months after its conclusion.