CodeChef

CodeChef is an online educational and competitive programming platform. CodeChef started as an educational initiative in 2009 by Directi, an Indian software company. In 2020, it was purchased by Unacademy.

After failing to reach profitability, Unacademy said it would retain a 30% stake in CodeChef while returning the remaining equity to the company's founding team to grow further.

Along with monthly coding contests, CodeChef has initiatives for schools, colleges and women in competitive programming. It hosted the India regionals of the ICPC for college students, as well as for the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), for school students in India.

Most parts of CodeChef are available without charge, but the more advanced features require a monthly subscription. CodeChef competes with similar Ed-Tech companies like LeetCode, HackerRank, SPOJ, PrepInsta Prime, Topcoder, GeeksforGeeks, etc.

History
In 2010, Directi launched Code-Chef to help programmers improve their problem-solving skills through active participation in programming contests. The goal was to strengthen problem-solving skills by fostering friendly competition and community engagement. In July, the organization launched the "Go for Gold" initiative, enabling Indian teams to excel at the world finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (formerly known as ACM-ICPC).

In July 2013, Directi launched the "Code-Chef for Schools" program to encourage school students to participate in programming. The initiative hopes to enable Indian students to excel at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). The competition requires contestants to show necessary IT skills such as problem analysis, algorithm and data structure design, programming, and testing.

In November 2017, the first Code-Chef Certification exam was conducted. By 2018, the organization launched CodeChef for Business to target technology enterprises.

In 2020, its ownership was changed from Directi to Unacademy.

Starting 2023, CodeChef operates as an independent company owned and run by its independent management team and employees.