challenge · online
Kaggle Benchmarking Challenge (DEV x Kaggle)
When it actually closes
contest rules
- Stated
- “October 11, 2026, 11:59 PM PDT”
- Printed zone
- PDT
- IANA zone
- America/Los_Angeles
- UTC
- 2026-10-12T06:59:00Z
- Your time
- Mon Oct 12, 6:59 AM UTC (loading your time zone…)
Safe cutoff
challenge page's Live/Ended status flips to Ended at 23:59:59 UTC
- Stated
- “challenge page's Live/Ended status flips to Ended at 23:59:59 UTC”
- Printed zone
- UTC
- UTC
- 2026-10-11T23:59:59Z
- Your time
- Sun Oct 11, 11:59 PM UTC (loading your time zone…)
Prizes
$2,500 cash · 5 slots
Five winners each receive $500 USD cash, a DEV++ Membership and an exclusive DEV winner badge, for a $2,500 cash total. Every valid entry gets a completion badge, which has no cash value. There is one contest with no tracks or sponsor side prizes, so nothing stacks. The limit is one entry per participant, and a winning team shares a single $500.
Winner
cash · ×5
$500
Eligibility
Individuals: eligible
"open to individuals who are not residents of the following jurisdictions: Afghanistan... Yemen and are at least age eighteen (18) or older"
Checked for one adult entering alone from Nevada, USA. Rules can differ by country, so read the rule quoted here for where you live.
Entry cost
Free to enter
Payout
unknown
The launch post calls it a "$500 USD cash prize", but no delivery channel (PayPal, wire, gift card and so on) is stated. DEV contacts winners at the email on their DEV profile within 10 business days of the Nov 5 announcement.
Rights — what you give up
entrant-keeps
You keep ownership of your entry: the rules say "Sponsor does not claim ownership rights in your Entry."
Gotchas
- The rules say 'development of your Entry was started during, and not prior to, the Entry Period' (on or after Sept 23, 2026 9:00 AM PDT). A benchmark built before then does not qualify.
- Only one entry is allowed, and if you post more than one, only the first is judged. Publishing a test or draft post with #kagglechallenge could lock in a weak entry.
- The deadline is inconsistent: the rules say 11:59 PM PDT Oct 11, but the challenge page's Live/Ended status is coded to flip to Ended at 23:59:59 UTC Oct 11 (4:59 PM PDT). Submit well before 4:59 PM PDT to be safe.
- The benchmark link must be publicly accessible on Kaggle, so you need a Kaggle account. Kaggle gives free model access only within quota limits, so heavy multi-model runs could hit the cap.