# Source: Southern Utah Code Camp division rules

**Type:** source
**Status:** Useful
**Confidence:** Medium
**Source Type:** official-page
**URL:** https://southernutahcodecamp.com/about/
**Publisher:** Southern Utah Code Camp
**Retrieved:** 2026-08-12
**Raw:** raw/southern-utah-code-camp-divisions-page/2026-08-12-c61ffbf81a7a.txt
**Updated:** 2026-08-12

## Summary

The Southern Utah Code Camp "About" page. It sets out the competition's structure: **five skill
divisions**, the rule that places a team in one, and a **separate axis of project categories** that
cuts across them.

This is the page that makes the event legible as a design rather than a generic hackathon. Two
mechanisms stand out: teams are placed by their **most experienced member**, and a **Day Camp**
division runs a seven-hour daytime track for people who cannot do the overnight.

## Useful Claims

- The event has **five divisions**, and **placement follows the single most experienced participant**
  on a team — the page's own example puts a team of one novice, two collegiate, and one professional
  into the **Industry** division.
- **Industry**: any team containing at least one professional. "Professional" is defined broadly — a
  full-time programmer, designer, or project manager; anyone paid for development work; or anyone who
  has interned, **paid or unpaid, for more than two years**.
- **Intermediate**: participants with real experience who have **never been paid** for it, typically
  late-stage high-school or college students, and explicitly framed as building work to show
  employers.
- **Novice**: some programming exposure, typically high-school or first-year college students.
- **Day Camp**: the same as Novice **except that it is not the full 24 hours** — this track runs
  **8:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Friday only**.
- **Project categories are independent of divisions.** Each team self-selects a category, the top team
  in each category wins a prize, and **a Novice team competes against Industry teams within a
  category**. Named categories include **App** and **Game**, with games required to be entered under
  the game categories rather than as apps.

## Verbatim

> The Division your team competes in is dependent on the individual with the highest level of experience. For example, if your team of four people is a Novice, two Collegiate, and one Industry (professional), then your team competes in the Industry Division.
> — About page, "Code Camp features five divisions"

> A professional is someone that either is currently working full-time as a programmer, designer, project manager; someone who has been paid for their development work, or has been an intern (paid or unpaid) for more than two years.
> — About page, Industry

> Intermediate participants have experience in the industry but have not worked professionally (paid for work).
> — About page, Intermediate

> This Division is similar to the Novice Division with one change. This group is not be participating for the full 24 hours. Their competition runs from 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM on Friday only.
> — About page, Day Camp

> Each team self selects a category for their project. The top team in each category will be awarded a prize. Categories are not limited to divisions. For example, a Novice team creating an app will be competing against an Intermediate or Industry team creating an app.
> — About page, "Project Categories"

## Reliability Notes

Self-reported tier: the organizers' own rules for their own competition. These are **stated rules,
not observed practice** — nothing here shows the divisions are enforced, how disputes are settled, or
how often teams are reclassified.

Two reading cautions:

- **The page says "five divisions" and names four.** Industry, Intermediate, Novice, and Day Camp are
  given headings; the worked example additionally references a **"Collegiate"** level, which is almost
  certainly the fifth but is never defined on the captured page. Do not cite a complete list of five
  from this source.
- **Rules change year to year by the organizers' own account.** The homepage tells participants to
  attend the Pre-Flight meeting specifically "to learn of the up-to-date rules", so this capture
  describes the rules as published in August 2026 and not necessarily as applied in November.

The two-axis structure is the substantive finding and is unusual enough to be worth preserving. Skill
divisions protect beginners from being outclassed, while project categories deliberately **remove**
that protection — a novice team's app is judged against an industry team's app. The design lets the
same event be a safe first hackathon and a real contest at once.

The Day Camp track is the other notable design choice: by ending at 3:00 PM Friday it makes the event
reachable for participants who cannot stay overnight, which for a high-school-aged cohort is the
difference between attending and not.

## Related Pages

- [Southern Utah Code Camp](southern-utah-code-camp.md)
- [Source: Southern Utah Code Camp homepage](southern-utah-code-camp-official-website.md)
- [Source: Southern Utah Code Camp sponsorship page](southern-utah-code-camp-sponsorship-page.md)