Hackers face off in battleships competition

The battleships algorithms will play out in front of a live audience. Image / Thinkstock

Six teams of developers will face off, algorithm against algorithm, in a hacking battleships tournament tomorrow dubbed Hacktivate.

Competition organiser Matty Blomfield said the competitors will gather at the Spark Lab at Britomart's Seafearers building at 1pm and then would have five hours to work on their algorithm.

Each team would be made up of three developers from a range of backgrounds, including C++, Java and PHP, he said.

"Some of them will have easily five, ten-plus years' experience as a developer."

"We've built a simulation of battleships and their algorithm is to compete in that against another algorithm.

"The algorithm plays out in a game of battleships, simulated on a screen for the audience to watch."

Each game would only take five to 10 minutes and would be played in from of a 100-plus audience, Blomfield said.

"Hacktivate's been around for three-and-a-half years and this is the sixth event we've run.

"In the past we've done 'Mile High' which is an air traffic control system where teams had to land planes without crashing."

Hactivate will also host an Asia-Pacific online version of the tournament later this year, Blomfield said.