When comparing Codechef vs Topcoder, the Slant community recommends Topcoder for most people. In the question“What are the best coding challenge sites?” Topcoder is ranked 8th while Codechef is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Topcoder is:
Division 1 upper levels in Topcoder has problems which forces users to think about which is the correct algorithm to use to solve them. A lot of problems will also force developers to use multiple data structures and algorithms to find the solution.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Large number of languages supported
Codechef supports an impressive number of languages in it's platform. More than 35 languages are supported, all with several problems and challenges and contests.
Pro Problems faced will force users to practice their algorithm skills
Division 1 upper levels in Topcoder has problems which forces users to think about which is the correct algorithm to use to solve them. A lot of problems will also force developers to use multiple data structures and algorithms to find the solution.
Pro Great community
There are a lot of top programmers who hang around the Topcoder forums answering questions or giving their insight and their way of solving to different problems.
Cons
Con Interaction inside the community is limited
The Codechef forums are not very active and they are the official way of interacting inside the Codechef community. Other than the forums, the only way of interacting with other members of the community is through the comment sections of different problems.
Con It's young age makes it not popular for recruiters
Codechef is still pretty young especially compared to it's competitors. So it's not very popular with recruiters yet.