Today Facebook announced open registration for its second annual Hacker Cup, a competition for the best hacker.

Programmers from around the world will race to accurately solve algorithmic problems, advancing through five rounds of challenges. The winners will walk away with prizes. Only one programmer will take home the title of world champion and the Hacker Cup trophy.

The competition commences with a 72-hour online-only qualification round that starts on January 20, 2012 at 4pm PT. If a developer advances, he or she will move onto three more online rounds. The most grueling round is the first one, which will last 24 hours straight, beginning at 10am on January 28. Only the top 500 competitors will move on to round two, which lasts from 1-4pm PT on February 4. A total of 100 competitors will advance to round three, which lasts from 1-4pm PT on February 11.

The top 25 competitors who advance will receive an email. Facebook will fly them out to Menlo Park, California for the last round on March 17, 2012. Facebook promises to reimburse the finalist for a visa application fee and up to $100 USD if it was incurred while obtaining the visa. Facebook does not reimburse for passport-related expenses. Finalists will all receive cash and other prizes, but only one will win the Hacker Cup trophy. Here’s last year’s trophy.

Facebook held its first-ever Hacker Cup in 2011. First place went to Russian Coder Petr Mitrichev, who also won the Google Code Jam in 2006. Second-place when to Anh Tuan Mitrichev. The third place winner was Tiancheng Lou, a third-year PhD student whose research is focused in combinatorial algorithm design.

Developers, will you register for the 2012 Hacker Cup?

Today Facebook announced open registration for its second annual Hacker Cup, a competition for the best hacker.

Programmers from around the world will race to accurately solve algorithmic problems, advancing through five rounds of challenges. The winners will walk away with prizes. Only one programmer will take home the title of world champion and the Hacker Cup trophy.

The competition commences with a 72-hour online-only qualification round that starts on January 20, 2012 at 4pm PT. If a developer advances, he or she will move onto three more online rounds. The most grueling round is the first one, which will last 24 hours straight, beginning at 10am on January 28. Only the top 500 competitors will move on to round two, which lasts from 1-4pm PT on February 4. A total of 100 competitors will advance to round three, which lasts from 1-4pm PT on February 11.

The top 25 competitors who advance will receive an email. Facebook will fly them out to Menlo Park, California for the last round on March 17, 2012. Facebook promises to reimburse the finalist for a visa application fee and up to $100 USD if it was incurred while obtaining the visa. Facebook does not reimburse for passport-related expenses. Finalists will all receive cash and other prizes, but only one will win the Hacker Cup trophy. Here’s last year’s trophy.

Facebook held its first-ever Hacker Cup in 2011. First place went to Russian Coder Petr Mitrichev, who also won the Google Code Jam in 2006. Second-place when to Anh Tuan Mitrichev. The third place winner was Tiancheng Lou, a third-year PhD student whose research is focused in combinatorial algorithm design.

Developers, will you register for the 2012 Hacker Cup?