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So basically they are asking people to build them an algorithm that will be a critical part of their business, in exchange for a free service that will be based on this algorithm. Right...

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Sorry if this was unclear. You own any code that you write for this competition.

The prize is that we'll use your algorithm to validate any matches that you go on. If that doesn't seem worthwhile to you, feel free to pass on this contest.

Do you allow closed source entries? Rewriting an algorithm implemented in someone else's code to avoid copyright infringement is trivial not to mention inevitable given the performance requirement differences between a contest and a production site.

Sure, just take a row as your input and return a boolean.

So you won't use the winning solution in your product?

Yep, basically.

EDIT: ah fuck it might hack on this dataset anyways--if i get a beer and a date out of it ill help fiddle while rome burns

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