Terms of Service
Last updated: April 26, 2026
1. Acceptance of Terms
By accessing or using AlgoArena ("the Platform"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the Platform. We may update these Terms at any time; your continued use of the Platform constitutes acceptance of any changes.
2. Description of Service
AlgoArena is a competitive programming, classroom, and assessment platform that includes:
- Real-time 1v1 coding battles (ranked and unranked)
- Practice problems and interview preparation
- ELO-based ranking, matchmaking, and leaderboards
- Puzzle Rush, daily challenges, streaks, quests, and achievements
- Tournaments and Arena Credits (virtual currency)
- AI-powered code analysis, AI chat tutor, and AI mock interviews
- Classroom Mode for live, interactive CS education, including the host debrief
- Online Assessment (OA) mode for technical hiring, including candidate invitations, explain videos, and company / institution administration
- Agentic Builder and "Vibe" AI workspace
- Community features: friends, challenge links, social leaderboards
- Free and premium subscription tiers, including company and institution plans
3. User Accounts
3.1 Account Creation
You must create an account to use most features. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to keep it up to date.
3.2 Account Security
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use.
3.3 Age Requirements
You must be at least 13 years old to use the Platform. If you are under 18, you represent that you have your parent or guardian's permission. Educators using Classroom Mode with students under 13 are responsible for obtaining appropriate parental consent and complying with applicable laws in their jurisdiction.
3.4 Guest Classroom Access
Students joining a classroom quiz may participate without creating a full account, using anonymous (guest) authentication and a display name chosen by the student or teacher. Guest access is session-scoped and is governed by these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
4. User Conduct
You agree NOT to:
- Use the Platform for any illegal or unauthorized purpose
- Violate any laws in your jurisdiction
- Cheat or use unauthorized tools during battles, assessments, or quizzes
- Harass, abuse, threaten, or harm other users
- Share your account credentials with others
- Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Platform or to other accounts
- Interfere with or disrupt the Platform's servers or networks
- Upload or transmit viruses or malicious code
- Collect or harvest personal information of other users
- Use bots, scripts, or automated tools to access the Platform
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Platform
- Create multiple accounts to manipulate rankings or matchmaking
- Re-publish or resell Platform content, questions, or AI-generated outputs without our consent
5. Fair Play and Anti-Cheat
5.1 Anti-Cheat Measures and Data Collection
During all coding activities (including battles, practice, puzzles, interviews, classroom quizzes, and online assessments), we implement monitoring and data collection such as:
- Keystroke timing and typing-pattern analysis
- Periodic code snapshots
- Window focus and tab-switch detection
- UI-level copy-paste prevention
- Typing burst detection
- Test-run frequency and pattern analysis
By using the coding environment, you explicitly consent to this detailed monitoring and data collection. This data is linked to your account and may be used for anti-cheat detection, platform improvement, and research. See our Privacy Policy for complete details.
5.2 Prohibited Behavior
The following is strictly prohibited:
- Using external code, notes, or resources during battles or assessments where disallowed
- Copying and pasting code from external sources
- Using outside AI assistants (for example ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Cursor outside our Builder) during battles or assessments
- Maintaining multiple accounts to manipulate rankings, matchmaking, or referrals
- Collaborating with others during solo battles or assessments
- Deliberately losing matches to manipulate ELO
- Using automated tools, bots, or scripted input
5.3 Violations and Penalties
Violations may result in:
- Immediate match forfeit and automatic loss
- ELO rating penalty or reset
- Temporary suspension (typically 3 to 30 days)
- Permanent account termination
- Removal from competitive features and tournaments
- Loss of subscription benefits and Arena Credits without refund
- Notification to the administering company / institution for assessment or classroom integrity violations
6. Third-Party Services and APIs
The Platform integrates with multiple third-party services. By using the Platform, you agree to their respective terms and privacy policies:
- Firebase / Google Cloud: authentication (including anonymous/guest), Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage, Cloud Messaging, Analytics.
- Stripe: payment processing for subscriptions.
- SendGrid (Twilio): transactional and marketing email delivery.
- DeepSeek AI: AI-powered code analysis, AI chat, classroom quiz generation, OA grading, interviewer reasoning.
- OpenAI: chat completions for selected models, Whisper speech-to-text, and text-to-speech.
- Anthropic: chat completions and grading for selected models.
- Google Generative Language (Gemini): chat completions for selected models and speech-to-text for OA explain videos.
- Cartesia: text-to-speech for the AI interviewer.
- Tavily: web search tool for AI features.
- Google Cloud Vision: automated image moderation.
- OneCompiler (via RapidAPI): code execution engine (replaces earlier Judge0 integration).
- GitHub OAuth: optional sign-in and linking.
- Redis: realtime matchmaking and Puzzle Rush queues.
- Vercel: hosting and analytics.
Your code submissions may be processed by these providers. We are not responsible for their actions, policies, or practices beyond our own use.
7. Intellectual Property
7.1 Platform Content
The Platform and its original content, features, and functionality are owned by AlgoArena and are protected by international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.
7.2 User Content and Code Submissions
You retain ownership of the code you submit. By submitting content to the Platform, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, reproduce, modify, analyze, and display your content for the purpose of operating and improving the Platform, including:
- Running your code through our code-execution vendor (OneCompiler via RapidAPI)
- Analyzing your code with AI services (DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini) for feedback and grading
- Storing your code and keystroke patterns for anti-cheat and research
- Displaying your code in battle comparisons, leaderboards, and classroom/OA debriefs visible to the relevant host or company administrator
- Using anonymized coding patterns for platform improvements
7.3 Problem Sources
Problems are authored and maintained by AlgoArena. Some problems may be inspired by common competitive programming patterns and concepts. We do not intend to copy or republish third-party problem statements; where a specific third-party source is referenced or credited, we do so where available and as appropriate. If you believe content on the Platform infringes your rights, contact us at contact@algoarena.net and we will review and address the issue.
8. Classroom Mode
Classroom Mode lets an educator host live quizzes and review a post-session debrief containing the roster, per-question responses, submitted code, and scoring. When you use Classroom Mode:
- The host is responsible for the classroom session they run, including the questions used and any display names collected from students.
- Each session's data (roster, submissions, code, answers, timing) is visible only to the host of that session and to the student for their own submissions.
- Educators using Classroom Mode with students under 13 are responsible for obtaining appropriate parental consent and complying with applicable laws (for example, COPPA and FERPA in the United States).
- Hosts may export a session report as CSV or PDF, and may delete a session from the debrief page at any time.
- Students agree that their display name, answers, and submitted code for a given session are shared with the session host for grading and feedback.
- Classroom questions may include algorithms, coding, or drawing prompts. Drawing submissions may be sent to an AI grader if the host enables auto-grading.
9. Tournaments and Arena Credits
9.1 Nature of Credits
Arena Credits and similar in-platform balances are a virtual currency. They have no cash value, cannot be redeemed for money, and are not transferable outside the Platform. Arena Credits are a limited, revocable license to use in-Platform features.
9.2 Tournaments
Tournaments may have buy-ins paid in Arena Credits and prize pools distributed as Arena Credits to top finishers. Tournament rules, brackets, and scheduling are posted with each tournament and may be modified for operational reasons. We reserve the right to forfeit Arena Credits earned or held in connection with cheating, abuse, or violations of these Terms.
9.3 No Real-Money Gambling
The Platform is not a real-money gaming or gambling service. You may not engage in any real-money exchange related to Arena Credits, match outcomes, or tournament results, except through official AlgoArena subscription purchases handled by Stripe.
10. Referral Program
AlgoArena may offer a referral program under which existing users earn time-limited platform benefits after a threshold of eligible referrals. Referrals must be genuine new users; self-referrals, referrals from the same IP address, and other forms of abuse are prohibited and will be rejected. We may change, suspend, or terminate the referral program at any time.
11. Premium Subscriptions
11.1 Subscription Terms
Premium subscriptions (including individual, company, and institution plans) provide access to additional features. Subscriptions are billed on a recurring basis (monthly or annually) until canceled. Team and institution plans may be administered on your behalf by your employer, school, or organization.
11.2 Payment
All payments are processed securely through Stripe. You authorize us to charge your payment method for all subscription fees. All fees are non-refundable except as required by law.
11.3 Cancellation
You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period.
11.4 Price Changes
We reserve the right to modify subscription pricing. Price changes will be communicated in advance and will apply to subsequent billing periods.
12. Termination
We may terminate or suspend your account and access to the Platform immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason, including:
- Breach of these Terms
- Violation of fair-play rules
- Fraudulent activity or payment chargebacks
- Harassment of other users
- Legal requirements
Upon termination, your right to use the Platform will immediately cease. We are not liable for any loss or damage resulting from termination, including the forfeiture of Arena Credits or unused subscription time.
13. Disclaimers
THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO:
- Warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement
- Warranties that the Platform will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free
- Warranties regarding the accuracy or reliability of content, including AI-generated content
14. Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT SHALL ALGOARENA, ITS DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE THE PLATFORM.
15. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless AlgoArena and its affiliates from any claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses arising from your use of the Platform or violation of these Terms.
16. Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising from these Terms or your use of the Platform shall be resolved in the courts of competent jurisdiction.
17. Changes to Terms
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will provide notice of material changes by posting the new Terms on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Your continued use of the Platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.
18. Severability
If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that these Terms will otherwise remain in full force and effect.
19. Contact Information
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us:
Email: contact@algoarena.net
Website: https://algoarena.net
By creating an account, joining a classroom quiz, or otherwise using AlgoArena, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.