2 min

Amazon Web Services is trying to entice developers to build better software with minimal bugs, through the launch of its global AWS BugBust competition. The idea is to get developers to compete to find and fix more than a million software bugs before the end of this year.

The developers who find the most bugs will have a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to AWS re:Invent 2021 in Las Vegas. In a blog post, Martin Beeby, AWS’s Principal Advocate, explained that AWS BugBust takes the concept of a bug bash to a whole new level.

A fun way of working

Beeby said in the blog post that bug bashes are common events at software companies, ran weeks before a new product or service launches. AWS BugBust provides a structure for how to bash bugs, with automated code analysis tools, custom challenges, built-in leaderboards, and rewards.

With this, the company can foster team building and bring friendly competition into efforts to improve quality and performance in code. Among their peers, developers will be able to feel at home, get prizes, achievement badges and learn from each other.

Go ye forth and fix bad code

Winning internal contests is not the only way developers will get recognized for their efforts, they will also have the incentive to help their companies get to the top of the AWS BugBust leaderboard, which is updated every time a developer finds and fixes a bug.

Each developer who reaches a hundred points will win an AWS BugBust t-shirt and those who hit 2,000 points will get an AWS BugBust Varsity Jacket. The top 10 developers in the rankings will get the tickets to go to AWS re:Invent. To encourage the developers more, Beeby said that the costs of using Amazon CodeGuru’s Reviewer and Profiler tools will be waived for 30 days.