Udacity Partners HackerEarth to Source Coding Talent for Its Android Nanodegree Scholarship

Provider of massive open online courses that focus on software development Udacity has tied up with competitive coding platform HackerEarth to extend its scholarship program, which offers a full scholarship to its Nanodegree courses in partnership with Google and Tata Trusts.

The cost of the Nanodegree program is Rs. 9,800 per month. Udacity has a cashback scheme where it provides 50 percent back to the student if they complete the Nanodegree program within 12 months.

The Nanodegree program is open to intermediate Java developers with limited experience on mobile platforms to emerge as an Android developer. HackerEarth will be helping Udacity in identifying deserving developers for scholarships, through a programming challenge hosted on its website.

"There are overall a thousand scholarships which they have sponsored, and we have some scholarships left to be given. We identified that HackerEarth has one of the biggest pools of qualified developers who are active in learning and competing - and assessing them would be a much better way to reach out to qualified candidates for these kind of scholarships, than to try and do it in an organic matter," said Vardhan Koshal, Country Manager, India at Udacity in a phone conversation with Gadgets 360.

The program has been running since the last two months, and around 300 slots are still available, Koshal said. "These are to be filled with scholarships for Android students irrespective of whether they come from HackerEarth, or through the direct channels. We are open to filling up all the slots with HackerEarth," he added.

Upon clearing the online test, candidates will then be interviewed by partners appointed by Google. Those who clear those two hurdles will be awarded the scholarships. Judges will select winners based on academic performance, showcase of previous work, a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation, and one-on-one interviews.

"These Nanodegrees are pretty elite and they can help a user to become a full fledged Android developer. The objective is to identify those candidates who have some basic proficiency towards Android programming, and then roll out the degrees to them," said Sachin Gupta, CEO and Founder, HackerEarth. "We are going to target those who we know that are good - but to maintain the standard process and uniformity, we are asking the user to give a small test in Java on our platform. If they qualify, then there is a selection process," he added.

E-commerce major Flipkart had recently made three appointments to its mobile development team from a pool of candidates shortlisted by Udacity.

Founded in 2011, Udacity provides massive open online courses that focus on software development, with its 'Nanodegree' programmes developed in collaboration with tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia.