TCS CodeVita Wins New Guinness World Records Title for World’s Largest Programming Competition

Tata Consultancy Services’ Global Programming Challenge Saw 136,054 Participants from 34 Countries; Ben Alexander Mirtchouk of Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey Named Winner

NEW YORK | MUMBAI, May 24, 2021: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that the ninth season of TCS CodeVita has won a Guinness World Records™ title as the world’s largest computer programming competition with 136,054 participants from 34 countries.

The 2021 TCS CodeVita competition invited college students from around the world to pit their programming skills against each other to be ranked among the top student programmers globally. Their knowledge and coding skills were tested as they solved complex real-world problems over an intense six-hour period. The winners walked away with cash prizes, and internship offers to work directly with technology leaders at TCS. This year’s champion, Ben Alexander Mirtchouk of Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey, is the competition’s first ever US winner.

“We are delighted to be awarding TCS this Guinness World Records title for the largest computer programming competition and would like to congratulate every single one of the 136,054 people that took part to smash the record,” said Neil Foster, VP EMEA APAC, Guinness World Records Limited. “They should be justly proud of the achievement and we are especially gratified in seeing innovative record solutions that bring people together digitally and to challenge themselves in a competition of this nature.”

“Long before words like hackathon became common, TCS saw the potential of programming as a sport and that inspired TCS CodeVita,” said Ananth Krishnan, CTO, TCS. “In a world where technology, innovation and creativity are playing a pivotal role, this competition is fueling a passion for programming in brilliant young people with diverse educational, social, geographical, and cultural backgrounds.”

“I’ve always been passionate about computer science and coding competitions. I gave it a shot without any specific intention of winning,” said Ben Alexander Mirtchouk, winner and student at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. “Doing a lot of practice questions from CodeVita’s practice platform was really helpful. I could see the real-world applicability of the problems I was solving. It was a really cool experience all around.”

The 1^st Runner Up was Václav Volhejn, a student at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. He was followed by 2^nd Runner Up Ali Khosravi from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

The top three CodeVita finishers received cash prizes of $10,000, $7,000 and $3,000, respectively. They were also offered the opportunity to intern directly with one of the company’s technology leaders.

Launched in 2012 to spread awareness about the various applications of coding and help spot promising talent, CodeVita helps instill the ‘programming as a sport’ culture worldwide. Since then, hundreds of students have completed internships at TCS via CodeVita. In addition, from Season 3 onwards, CodeVita has led to more than 11,000 TCS job offers, underscoring an emerging recruitment trend – the gamification of hiring.

For more information, visit https://www.tcscodevita.com/

About Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for over 50 years. TCS offers a consulting-led, cognitive powered, integrated portfolio of business, technology and engineering services and solutions. This is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile™ delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development.

A part of the Tata group, India's largest multinational business group, TCS has over 488,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $22.2 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. TCS' proactive stance on climate change and award-winning work with communities across the world have earned it a place in leading sustainability indices such as the MSCI Global Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Emerging Index. For more information, visit www.tcs.com and follow TCS news at @TCS_News.

To stay up-to-date on TCS global news, follow @TCS_News.

About Guinness World Records

What’s the fastest game bird in Europe? This was the question that inspired the founding of Guinness World Records (GWR) back in 1955. Starting with a single book published from a room above a gym, GWR has grown to become a global multimedia brand, with offices in London, New York, Beijing, Tokyo and Dubai. Today, we deliver world class content, not just through books, but via TV shows, social media and live events. Every year, our in-house consultancy helps thousands of brands, businesses and organisations to harness the power of record breaking and deliver award-winning campaigns and marketing solutions – engaging audiences, creating captivating, shareable content, and telling authentic stories that generate genuine media impact. To find out more about record breaking for businesses, visit https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/business-marketing-solutions/