As a programmer which one of the choices would you prefer? Mailing endless resumes while waiting for that one call, or participating in a live coding challenge to test your skill sets?

That's where competitive programming through contests and challenges can open more doors. The good news is that top tier companies have become enthusiasts. So start tracking these coding challenges for money or jobs and grab that career breakthrough today.

1. HackerRank

Coding Contests from HackerRank

Leading Companies Hiring: Adobe, Booking.com, Dell, LinkedIn, RedHat, Uber

HackerRank boasts of 5 million developers who have sweated over 21 million code challenges so far. The platform assesses skills with a steady stream of contests on algorithms, machine learning, or artificial intelligence.

HackerRank has four core areas: Practice, Compete, Job, and Leaderboard.

Solve the code challenges in the Compete section and apply for jobs via HackerRank.

Just want to have fun? HackerRank also runs regular hackathons with cash prizes along with sponsored competitions from major technology companies.

Bookmark: Upcoming contests on HackerRank

2. TopCoder

Leading Companies Hiring: IBM, Google, eBay, SoftBank, Nvidia

TopCoder is one of the world's leading crowdsourcing platforms for anything related to visual design, code development, and data science projects. The TopCoder community takes on challenges from some of the world's leading brands. The site holds online and local coding contests across multiple cities.

Head to the competitive programming homepage and prepare for your match. Different contests can have different prizes. And there's a good chance that clients who select winners will pick them up for jobs too.

Bookmark: TopCoder Challenges

3. HackerEarth

Coding challenges from HackerEarth

Leading Companies Hiring: ThoughtWorks, Amazon, Accenture, Walmart Labs, IBM, Intuit.

In 2018, HackerEarth hosted the first International Women's Hackathon to grand success. This was a women-only event meant to close the gender gap in the computer sciences. The women developers designed apps and tools around four themes---women's health and safety, economic freedom, social impact, innovation.

If the same event is held this year, then expect the registration to open soon. Last year, the top prize winning team walked away with $2500 and industry recognition. Keep an eye on the link below for this hackathon for women, and other contests through the year too.

Bookmark: HackerEarth Challenges

4. Skillenza

Skillenza activities for developers

Leading Companies Hiring: Amazon, Bosch, ThoughtWorks, Societe Generale.

Skillenza is another competitive programming and hiring platform that has come out of India. Here you can part of a specific community while pitting your skills against the best. Companies can form their own page and tap into these communities to run their coding challenges.

As a coder, you can highlight your achievements in the contests and attract the right company for a job.

Bookmark: Skillenza Challenge

5. Codewars

Choose your programming language at Codewars

Leading Companies Hiring: Apple, Andela, Accenture.

Take on Codewars to crack a few job related "katas". A "kata" is a specific coding exercise to hone your language or framework-specific skills. The "katas" are created by the community of users. Solve these and graduate through the ranks in the community. And maybe, you will catch the eye of a headhunter.

Codewars is free but Codewars Red is a subscription platform with more features and benefits (for instance, go ad-free and get more server resources for your programs) to anyone looking to upskill.

Bookmark: Codewars is a part of Qualified. The latter is a SaaS platform which companies can use to hire the best talent.

6. Coderbyte

Prepare for a coding bootcamp with Coderbyte

Leading Companies Hiring: Deloitte, PWC, HBO, LogMeIn.

Do you have an upcoming job interview or coding bootcamp? Coderbyte gives you coding challenges and modular courses to prepare with. For instance, you can take the 12 tutorials to study programming and algorithm questions asked in previous Google interviews. Then practice the theory with coding challenges that go from easy to difficult.

The coding challenges cover 10 programming languages. In the end, check your answers against the official solutions and also the best solutions from users. This comparison helps you benchmark your skills against the best practices in the industry.

Bookmark: Coderbyte challenges

7. CodeChef

Codechef is an Indian-based competitive programming website

Leading Companies Hiring: AWS, Samsung, Alibaba Cloud.

Codechef is a not-for-profit competitive coding platform from India. But it has fostered a global community of developers who use the practice problems and contests on the site. Codechef runs three contests in a month called Long Challenge, Cook-off, and Lunchtime. Long Challenges run for ten days while the other two are briefer. Use the CodeChef IDE and choose from 35+ programming languages to take part.

Cash prizes for these coding contests go up to $700 for the global community and may include other freebies too. Snackdown 2019 is the global multi-round programming contest you could start preparing for right now.

Bookmark: Upcoming contests

8. CodinGame

Gamify your coding skills with Codingame

Leading Companies Hiring: Warner Bros, EA, Nintendo, Adobe, Bank of America

This could be the most "fun" coding (and hiring) site on this list. Instead of solving coding problems, you get to write code for a game and test it out with other coders. Think of it as a game-based hackathon. Start on an online IDE where you get a mission statement. All solo and multiplayer coding games are turn-based. At every turn, your program gets new inputs and you must code to output the correct action.

Try it out without an account. More than 25+ programming languages are supported. Crack the puzzles or the sponsored puzzles via the link below to land your dream job with the companies that are looking for the high achievers.

Bookmark: Sponsored coding puzzles

A Few More Coding Challenges for Money or Jobs

The eight on this list will keep you busy. But here are a few more to keep you on the cutting edge.

Did you know that you can even earn cash by finding security issues in Android apps?

Be a Warrior and Start to Code

Coding contests are like open markets. Don't think of them only as gladiatorial arenas but also as real-life schools where you can learn from the instant feedback on your mistakes. Companies have adopted these contests as hiring platforms to get the best and save costs. No wonder, big tech names have their own match ups like the annual Code Jam, Microsoft's Imagine Cup, and the Facebook Hacker Cup.

At the end of the day, these challenges give you another way to practice your coding skills. As the last coder standing, you could walk away with a cash bounty, a career, or just more brain cells.

And if you're struggling with your programming job search, check out these tips to get your job hunt back on track. If you're fresh out of college, be sure to craft the perfect resume. You'll find plenty of free CV apps to take care of that. Also, pay attention to these tips to get the perfect job.