CodeChef PESUECC Chapter Portal 💻🌾

The official web platform and high-performance competitive programming ecosystem for the CodeChef PESUECC Chapter.

This repository houses a modern, edge-optimized application engineered using Next.js, Cloudflare Pages, and Cloudflare D1. It powers our landing page, dynamic student portfolios, a GitOps-driven challenge track, and a live daily contest leaderboard backed by a secure, self-hosted sandboxed code execution microservice.

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🏗️ Technical Architecture & Stack

• Frontend Framework: Next.js (App Router) optimized for Edge runtimes.
• Hosting & CI/CD: Cloudflare Pages integrated directly with GitHub. Every commit to main instantly builds and updates globally via Wrangler pipelines.
• Database (Edge Storage): Cloudflare D1 (Serverless, ultra-low latency SQLite database running natively on Cloudflare's global edge network).
• Content Pipeline (GitOps): Markdown (.md) files with YAML Frontmatter for challenge orchestration.
• Code Judge Sandbox: A self-hosted instance of the Piston Engine / AlgoHunt Base running on an isolated Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Always Free Ampere A1 Compute Instance (Configured at 2 OCPUs / 12 GB RAM).

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📂 Repository Directory Tree

├── .github/workflows/       # CI/CD pipelines (Auto-sync challenges to D1)
├── src/
│   ├── app/                 # Next.js App Router (Pages & Edge API Routes)
│   │   ├── api/             # Edge backends (/api/submit, /api/leaderboard)
│   │   ├── cp-arena/        # Daily challenge engine & live standings
│   │   ├── initiatives/     # Events & Engineered Systems portfolio
│   │   └── team/            # Core and Alumni registry pages
│   ├── components/          # Reusable UI modules (CodeChef Brand System)
│   └── styles/              # Global layout design variables
├── challenges/              # GitOps directory: Active challenge Markdown records
├── migrations/              # Cloudflare D1 SQLite database schemas
├── wrangler.toml             # Cloudflare Pages & D1 binding configurations
└── README.md

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🎨 Official CodeChef Branding Guide

The interface utilizes the formal, premium CodeChef corporate visual palette to match the global platform look and feel:

• Background: #F5F1EB (Clean, Soft Cream Canvas)
• Primary Structural Accent: #5B4638 (Warm Earthy Brown)
• Deep Contrast Typography: #3E2F24 (Dark Chocolate Brown)
• Call-to-Actions / Buttons: #A67C52 (Polished Bronze Accent)
• Body Narrative UI: #1F1F1F (Charcoal)
• Component Panels: #FFFFFF (Pure White Containers)

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📝 Problem Setters' Workflow (GitOps)

Problem setters do not access databases or administrative visual panels directly. To push a new problem to the live site, they utilize standard version-controlled Markdown files inside the /challenges/ directory.

Challenge Schema File Format (/challenges/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md)

---
title: "Minimize the Maximum Difference"
difficulty: "Medium"
points: 100
tags: ["Arrays", "Binary Search", "Greedy"]
date: "2026-07-20"
---

# Minimize the Maximum Difference

Given an integer array `nums` and an integer `p`, find `p` pairs of indices such that the maximum difference between the paired elements is minimized.

## Input Format
- The first line contains the array size and `p`.
- The second line contains the array elements.

## Sample Input
```text
4 1
10 1 2 7
```

## Sample Output
```text
1
```

Automated Sync Mechanics

1. A problem setter pushes a new .md file via a GitHub Pull Request (PR).
2. The core team reviews the formatting, hidden edge cases, and constraints before merging to main.
3. Upon merge, a GitHub Action executes a custom parser script that reads the YAML Frontmatter header, converts the markdown body into standard text/HTML format, and invokes the wrangler d1 execute command to instantly sync the problem parameters into the live Cloudflare D1 database.

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⚙️ Solution Runner & Sandbox Architecture

To prevent execution vulnerabilities (Infinite loops, file-system intrusions, fork bombs), arbitrary user code submitted to the site is entirely isolated from Cloudflare components:

1. Submission Event: A student writes a solution on the portal frontend and clicks Submit.
2. Edge Proxying: The Cloudflare Edge API captures the request, assigns it a secure verification tracking token inside Cloudflare D1, and securely dispatches an HTTP POST payload to the remote Oracle Cloud Linux VPS.
3. Container Sandboxing: The Oracle Cloud VPS runs a fast code runner container. It spins up an ephemeral, isolated container shell, parses the student's script code against hidden validation vectors, tracks time limits, and calculates the response flag (AC (Accepted), WA (Wrong Answer), TLE (Time Limit Exceeded)).
4. Result Callback: The VPS safely relays the status state back to the Cloudflare API endpoint, which updates the live Cloudflare D1 database records and adjusts leaderboard positions in real-time.

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🚀 Local Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18+
• Cloudflare Wrangler CLI installed globally (npm install -g wrangler)

Step-by-Step Installation

1. Clone the codebase:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/codechef-pesuecc-site.git
   cd codechef-pesuecc-site

2. Install project node components:

   npm install

3. Initialize the local Cloudflare D1 SQLite test database instance:

   wrangler d1 migrations apply codechef_db --local

4. Boot up the local Next.js edge simulation server environment:

   npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 inside your browser to see your local instance.

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