Bug Smash isn't glamorous and that's what I love about it.

We kicked off DEV's Big Summer Bug Smash on July 14, and I've been waiting to write this post since...

We kicked off DEV's Big Summer Bug Smash on July 14, and I've been waiting to write this post since we started planning it in the Spring.

Most of our challenges start with a blank screen, a new repo, or fresh idea. That's fun, and we'll keep running them, but Bug Smash starts from something that already exists and asks you to make it better, which is what most of us actually do all day.

So we built a challenge around that type of work, the stuff that isn't glamorous but necessary! Clear the Lineup wants your actual PR, the diff, the before and after. Smash Stories wants the story of how and why.

It’s like my favorite DEV thread, with a prize pool attached

Back in the day, @ben asked the community a simple question:

{% embed https://dev.to/ben/what-was-the-worst-bug-youve-ever-written-2cn7 %}

We had someone who wired a doorbell camera to Twilio, hooked into the wrong event, and got roughly 500 texts in a minute. Someone who shipped a migration that also updated every user record and locked the database in production. Someone who kicked off a set of nested loops to brute force a hash, did the math, and worked out that it would finish in the year 2598.

Smash Stories is that thread, except this time there are prizes!!

Need a bug? We got you.

Clear the Lineup works with any existing codebase, and if you don't have your own project on hand, ours is open source. Forem powers DEV, and our open issues labeled bug are sitting right there waiting for someone with an afternoon and a stubborn streak.

Fair warning: new features, typos, and documentation fixes don't count for this one. We want the true bug fixes.

Your odds are good right now

We're a couple of weeks in and submissions are coming in at a steady trickle. All I’ll say is we have 20+ winners across five prize categories.

Category winners get drawn from a smaller pool than the overall pool, so Best Use of Sentry and Best Use of Google AI offer the best chances at winning. Sentry winners also get a super cool limited-edition skateboard.

If you want a head start on the Sentry category, the Sentry team is doing a live demo and Q&A on DEV this Thursday, July 30 at 11am PT / 2pm ET. Post your questions on the article to have them answered live!

{% card %}

Important Dates

• July 30 at 10am PT: Getting started with Sentry, live demo and Q&A
• August 23: Submissions due at 11:59 PM PDT
• September 17: Winners announced {% endcard %}

All the details, prompts, and submission templates are in the announcement post:

{% embed https://dev.to/devteam/devs-big-summer-bug-smash-is-now-live-share-5000-in-cash-prizes-skateboards-and-more-across-57mk %}

Lastly, I want to revive Ben's question from 2018, because it's been eight years and I know we’ve all written some new disasters since then.

What's the worst bug you've ever written? Tell me in the comments. If the answer takes more than a paragraph, that's a Smash Story, and you should go submit it.