Season 2026Engineering Standard Adoption

Season timeline

Twelve fixtures from kick-off to Honours. Weekly challenges open on Monday and close Sunday at 23:59. Nothing is retrospective: a challenge you miss stays missed, but it never costs you a level.

17 SepKick-offNow17–23 SepMatchweek 124–30 SepMatchweek 21–7 OctMatchweek 38–14 OctMatchweek 415–21 OctMatchweek 522–26 OctMatchweek 627–31 OctFinal Week4 NovTest, sitting 15 NovTest, sitting 2from 16 NovRetake window20 NovHonours
Matchweek 1Filled marker: playedGreen: this weekOrange: Final WeekSquare: test day

Fixtures

17 Sep

Kick-off

Portal opens. Field Card issued to everyone.
17–23 Sep

Matchweek 1: Roll Call

Sign in, confirm your department team, and read the Field Card.
Open nowSubmit
24–30 Sep

Matchweek 2: Spot the Pattern

Read a short incident summary and name the anti-pattern behind it.
1–7 Oct

Matchweek 3: Write the Question

Write one test-quality question about a rule in your own section.
8–14 Oct

Matchweek 4: Write a Runbook

Take a system you own and write the runbook that does not exist yet.
15–21 Oct

Matchweek 5: Two-Minute Teacher

Explain one rule to your squad in two minutes. Post the link.
22–26 Oct

Matchweek 6: Standard Bearer

Propose one change to how your squad works, drawn from any rule.
27–31 Oct

Final Week

Five incident challenges, one a day. Finish all five for five bonus minutes in the test.
Five days
4 Nov

Test, sitting 1

45 minutes. Reference cards allowed.
Test
5 Nov

Test, sitting 2

Same paper, same rules, for anyone not in sitting 1.
Test
from 16 Nov

Retake window

A retake looks identical to a first-time pass.
Test
20 Nov

Honours

Legend leaderboard published. Certificates issued.

Final Week

One real incident a day.

Mon

Transfer API connection pool

5 June and 2 September
Tue

Cashier config path

September 2025, 9,009 failed payments
Wed

AcquiringCore race condition

September 2025
Thu

K8S PCI HAProxy

August 2025, 40 minutes to triage
Fri

Money Transfer table

February 2026, 400 million rows unpartitioned

Finish all five and you get five extra minutes in the test.

Test day

45 minutes, plus five if you finish Final Week.
Two sittings, 4 and 5 November. Same paper, same rules.
Retakes open 16 November. A retake pass is recorded exactly like a first-time pass.
Reference cards allowed: the Field Card everyone holds, plus up to three you have earned.
Written answers are marked by your own Department Head. No Department Head sees another team's papers.

Side challenges

Side

Codex Sweep

Read all 33 rules end to end. Unlocks the Category reference card.
Any time
Side

Runbook Review

Review a teammate's runbook and leave two concrete comments.
Any time