Hackathon Raptors has wrapped up its QA Bug Hunters Challenge 2024, bringing together hundreds of QA professionals and coding enthusiasts from diverse technical backgrounds. Over three days (November 29 to December 2), participants worked tirelessly to uncover 25 intentionally planted bugs in a simulated “dev” environment while comparing those results against a “release” environment designed to function without defects. Ultimately, 29 teams submitted final projects, showcasing various approaches—from manual testing to advanced automated solutions.
Two Environments, One Database
A core innovation of the challenge was running both the “dev” and “release” environments on the same underlying database. This design required testers to send requests to different base URLs, with the environment’s behavior toggled via a header named X-Task-Id. Each Task ID (like API-1, API, etc.) mapped directly to a specific bug, ensuring participants knew exactly which endpoint to probe.
However, the shared database also introduced server load challenges:
- /setup Endpoint Overuse: Some teams placed the /setup call inside loops, creating a surge in repeated requests and saturating system resources.
- Intermittent 500 Errors: Spikes in traffic occasionally trigger server-side failures. The organizing team addressed issues promptly by restarting the database and scaling resources on the fly.
Despite these bumps, nearly everyone successfully worked through the environment to pinpoint API inconsistencies. Some subtle bugs emerged under specific request scenarios, such as CSV vs. JSON response formats.
Discord Community & Real-Time Support
Much of the hackathon’s success can be attributed to the active Discord channel, where participants exchanged troubleshooting tips, clarifications on the Task ID mechanism, and best practices for tools like Postman or REST Assured. Here are a few representative highlights:
- Header Misconfigurations: Many newcomers tried appending X-Task-Id in query parameters instead of HTTP headers. Fellow testers jumped in with quick code snippets to correct the approach.
- File Upload & Content-Type: Several encountered 400 or 500 errors when uploading avatars or large JSON payloads. Others provided real-time guidance on multipart/form-data vs. application/json.
- Offset and Limit Glitches: A hidden bug in the “List Payments” endpoint (Task API-20) confused multiple teams, particularly when requesting CSV rather than JSON. This re-emphasized the importance of testing all output formats.
This cooperative environment helped newcomers accelerate their learning curve, enabling experienced QA professionals to refine their frameworks.
Judges: Experienced QA Experts
Submissions were assessed by a panel of judges known for their deep experience in test automation, DevOps, and QA management. They reviewed each team’s approach and code quality and documented findings. Among the panel were:
- Aleksei Koledachkin (Poland): A QA specialist with over six years of industry experience, having led 14+ projects and trained over 1,000 students. He values evidence-based testing strategies and continuously updates his methods to keep pace with evolving industry standards.
- Artsiom Rusau: A high-skilled QA Engineer focused on functional and web application testing, proficient in Azure DevOps Test Plan, databases, and various automation tools. He is also a prolific speaker and tutorial author, sharing his knowledge on YouTube and rusau.net.
- Nikita Klimov (United States): A certified Scrum Master and SAFe Agilist, Klimov brings extensive QA/QC expertise from ADP and Restaurant Brands International roles. A proponent of agile QA and automation, he actively contributes to multiple professional communities.
- Aleksandr Privalov (Serbia): Known for building testing processes from the ground up at top companies such as Yandex and Tinkoff. Privalov focuses on test documentation and shift-left methodologies, mentoring junior engineers and driving higher coverage.
- Mukhammadshakhzod Boidadaev (Netherlands): Specializing in Cloud Infrastructure and IoT Security, Boidadaev has broad hands-on experience with Git, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and AWS. He paid particular attention to teams’ CI/CD integrations and the maintainability of test frameworks.
This judging team dedicated time to reviewing logs, test reports, and the logic behind each bug discovered. They also considered how participants handled edge cases that went beyond basic JSON testing.
Standout Results
Team Open Community scored the top spot by identifying all 25 defects and achieving strong marks in code organization. ClulessCoder took second place, impressing the judges with meticulous bug documentation and a well-structured test-report pipeline. Regina_S also caught every bug in the third, demonstrating a clear comparison strategy between dev and release. Additional top-five finishes included onchain.jr and doingmybest, each discovering nearly all hidden bugs while delivering well-designed automation frameworks or thorough manual efforts.
Outside the podium, Natalia Morgunova received a special “Manual Testing Excellence” mention for finding 22 bugs without automation. Her systematic approach—reviewing logs, verifying edge cases, and producing precise steps for replication—caught the judges’ attention.
Looking Forward
With the QA Bug Hunters Challenge 2024 completed Hackathon Raptors has signaled that future QA-themed hackathons are on the horizon. They plan to keep both the dev and release environments online, allowing testers to refine their solutions and investigate any missed cases. Many participants say they will continue expanding their frameworks or testing additional response formats.
From the organizer’s perspective, the success of the challenge rests on three main pillars:
- Real-World Complexity: Planting subtle bugs in a shared database environment forced participants to address concurrency, data state issues, and varied content types.
- Community-Led Learning: The Discord channel fostered a collaborative atmosphere, with testers sharing breakthroughs and roadblocks openly.
- Top-Tier Judges: The panel’s detailed scrutiny ensured that code quality, reporting standards, and creative testing approaches were rewarded, elevating the level of competition.
As the 2024 challenge concludes, Hackathon Raptors extends its gratitude to every participant, sponsor, volunteer, and judge for advancing the field of Quality Assurance. This event has concretely shown how engineering-focused QA strategies, collaborative teamwork, and a purpose-built testing environment can uncover intricate product flaws. Looking forward, Hackathon Raptors aims to make the QA Bug Hunters Challenge a recurring staple—potentially an annual gathering that continues to push the boundaries of software testing and stands out as one of the premier hackathons in the QA domain.
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