Advice Wanted is a fairly straightforward writing contest, but we need a terms page to set out the details. These terms are a binding agreement between you and us. By submitting an entry, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't enter.
Some sections include plain-English notes to make them easier to read. If a note and the formal text ever seem to disagree, the formal text controls.
1. Who runs this
The contest is run by Advice Wanted ("Advice Wanted", "we", "us"). The contest is sponsored by a company we'll name soon (the "Sponsor"), which is funding the prizes.
We run the contest day to day: we take the entries, run the judging, award the prizes, and answer questions. The Sponsor does not administer the contest and isn't responsible for awarding or paying prizes; we are. Questions about the contest go to us at contest@advicewanted.dev, not to the Sponsor.
2. Entry period
The contest opens for entries on November 9, 2026 and closes at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on December 31, 2026 (the "Entry Period"). Entries received after the close won't be considered. Our system's clock is the official clock for the contest.
We don't confirm receipt of entries, and sending your email is not proof that we received your entry.
3. Who can enter
You can enter if, when you submit your entry, you:
- are at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live if that's higher;
- are not a resident of, or located in, a country or region subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions (for example Cuba, Iran, or North Korea), and are not named on any U.S. government sanctions or restricted-party list; and
- are allowed to enter under the laws where you live.
These people can't enter: employees, contractors, officers, and directors of the Sponsor and of Advice Wanted; the judges; anyone else involved in running the contest; and the immediate family members (spouse or partner, parents, children, siblings, and their spouses or partners) and household members of any of them.
The contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law. It's your responsibility to make sure you're eligible and that entering is legal where you live. We may ask any entrant for proof of eligibility at any time.
4. How to enter
Entry is free. You never have to pay or buy anything to enter or to win.
To enter:
- Sign up on the contest page. We'll email you the submission guidelines (the "Guidelines"), which form part of these terms.
- During the Entry Period, email your entry to contest@advicewanted.dev from the address you signed up with, following the Guidelines.
At a minimum, your entry must:
- respond to the prompt on the contest page;
- be no more than 3,000 words;
- be written in English; and
- include your real name, even if you'd like to be credited under a pen name.
One entry per person. Using more than one name, email address, or account to enter more than once disqualifies all of those entries. Each entry must have a single author. Co-written entries aren't allowed.
Once submitted, an entry can't be edited or replaced. You can withdraw your entry at any time before the winners are announced by emailing us. Entries made by bots, scripts, or other automated means are void.
5. Judging
Entries are judged by a very cool and interesting panel of people selected by us, to be announced. Each judge independently ranks the entries by what they believe to be the best piece of writing for scared new grads and junior software engineers to read. Judges see entries without author names. Winning depends on the judges' assessment of skill. Chance plays no part.
The three highest-ranked eligible entries become the potential winners. The final ranking combines the judges' individual rankings using a method, including a tie-break, that we fix before judging starts.
The judges' decisions are final and binding. We don't share individual scores or feedback, and we can't enter into correspondence about judging.
6. Prizes and payment
There are three cash prizes. Each person can win only one prize. Prizes can't be transferred or swapped for something else.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| First | $10,000 USD |
| Second | $1,000 USD |
| Third | $1,000 USD |
We expect to announce the winners in January 2027, though that date may move. Until then, the top-ranked entrants are potential winners.
Before we pay. We'll contact potential winners at the email address they entered with. Before paying, we may ask you to confirm your identity and eligibility, to sign a short declaration that you're eligible and that your entry follows these terms, and to fill out the tax forms we need (a W-9 if you're a U.S. person, a W-8BEN if you're not, or similar). If we can't reach you, or you don't send what we need within 14 days of our first request, the prize may be forfeited and awarded to the next-highest-ranked eligible entrant.
Taxes. You're responsible for any taxes on your prize. Where the law requires it, we'll report the payment to tax authorities (for example on IRS Form 1099-MISC or Form 1042-S) and withhold tax from it. If you're not a U.S. taxpayer, U.S. law may require us to withhold up to 30% of the prize unless a tax treaty reduces that; the W-8BEN is how you claim a treaty rate.
How you get paid. We'll send prize money through the transfer service of our choice (for example Wise or Revolut) to an account in your name. Our total obligation for each prize is the stated USD amount. You'll receive what remains after any tax withholding, currency conversion, and transfer fees. We aren't responsible for exchange rates, conversion losses, or fees charged by your bank or the transfer service.
If we can't pay you. We'll make reasonable efforts to pay every winner. Sending money to some places is difficult or impossible. If a winner can't legally or practically receive payment (for example because of sanctions, banking restrictions, or the law where they live), and we can't resolve it within 60 days, the prize may pass to the next-highest-ranked eligible entrant.
7. Your writing and the license
What you write is yours. You keep full copyright in your entry.
By entering, you grant Advice Wanted and the Sponsor each a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable license to reproduce, publish, distribute, display, and promote your entry, in whole or in excerpts, in any format or medium and for any purpose. That includes online, in print, in audio, in paid print or digital products, and in marketing materials. Advice Wanted and the Sponsor may each sublicense these rights to people who help them publish or distribute your entry, such as publishers, printers, and distribution platforms.
The license covers every entry, whether or not it wins. It doesn't stop you from publishing your work anywhere else once the winners are announced. If you withdraw your entry before the winners are announced, neither we nor the Sponsor will publish it.
Edits. We and the Sponsor may make minor edits for length, formatting, typos, and house style, and may remove material we believe creates legal risk (for example, a real person's name). Neither of us will change the meaning of your entry without your agreement.
Credit. Wherever we or the Sponsor publish your entry, you will be clearly credited as the author, using the name you entered with, unless you ask us to use a pen name or no name at all (we may decline a pen name that's misleading or belongs to someone else). If credit is ever left off by mistake, tell us and it will be corrected where reasonably possible. A mistake like that doesn't end the license.
Payment. For prize winners, the prize is full and final payment for this license. For everyone else, publication credit is the compensation. Neither we nor the Sponsor owe royalties or any other payment for use of your entry within this license. We and the Sponsor each decide which entries to publish, if any. Entering doesn't guarantee publication.
Publicity. If you win, we and the Sponsor may use your entry, and a short bio if you provide one, to announce and promote the results without further payment. It's your choice whether the announcement uses your real name, a pen name, or no name at all. We'll ask you before we announce.
In plain English: you own your work. We and the Sponsor can each publish it anywhere, in any form, including in paid products and marketing, with credit the way you choose. Nobody pays anything beyond the prizes. After the results are out, you can publish it anywhere else too.
8. Originality and your promises
By entering, you promise that:
- the entry is your own original work, and you take full responsibility for everything in it, including any part an AI tool helped with;
- it hasn't been previously published. "Previously published" means published anywhere, in any format or language: in print, online, on a blog, on social media, in a newsletter, on a personal website, or in any other medium. If people could have read it before, it counts as published. Sharing a draft privately with a few people for feedback doesn't count;
- it isn't under consideration by any other contest, publication, or outlet, and you won't publish it or submit it elsewhere until the winners are announced;
- you have the right to grant the license in Section 7, and no employer, client, or anyone else owns or has a claim to the entry (for example, under an employment or IP assignment agreement);
- it doesn't infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
- it doesn't defame anyone, and it isn't obscene, hateful, or otherwise unlawful; and
- it doesn't disclose confidential information or trade secrets, including anything you're required to keep private under an employment agreement, NDA, or similar.
AI tools. We strongly discourage using AI tools to write your entry. Spelling and grammar checkers are fine. The judges are looking for your own voice and experience, and may score an entry lower if it reads as AI-written.
If you write about real people, employers, coworkers, clients, or companies, it's your responsibility to make sure what you say is true and that you're allowed to say it. Changing names and identifying details is a good idea.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Advice Wanted, the Sponsor, and their owners, officers, employees, contractors, judges, and agents from all claims, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these promises.
In plain English: write your own new piece, preferably without AI, and don't put anything in it that could get you or us sued.
9. Disqualification
We may disqualify an entry or entrant at any stage, including after a prize has been awarded, if we believe in good faith that:
- the entry doesn't follow the submission rules or these terms;
- the entrant submitted more than one entry;
- the entry breaks any promise in Section 8;
- the entrant isn't eligible or gave us false information; or
- the entrant tried to tamper with or manipulate the contest or the judging, or harassed or threatened anyone involved in it.
A disqualified entrant who has already been paid must return the prize. Disqualification decisions are at our sole discretion. We act in good faith, but we don't have to give reasons.
10. Changes and cancellation
We fully intend to run this contest to the end and award every prize. The powers in this section are for exceptional situations only.
Changes or cancellation. We may change, suspend, or cancel the contest if something outside our reasonable control makes it impractical to run as described, such as fraud, technical failure, a security breach, a legal requirement, or the loss of prize funding. If we cancel after entries have come in, we'll judge the eligible entries received up to that point and award the prizes from them where we reasonably can. We won't reduce the prizes for entries already submitted except as this section allows. We'll post any update on this site and, where practical, email entrants.
Changes to these terms. We may update these terms. Changes will be posted here with a new "last updated" date. A material change won't apply to entries already submitted unless it's needed to comply with the law or deal with fraud, or you agree to it. Where practical, we'll email entrants about material changes.
11. Release and limitation of liability
In this section, the "Released Parties" are Advice Wanted, the Sponsor, and their owners, officers, employees, contractors, judges, and agents.
Release. By entering, you release the Released Parties from any claims arising from your participation in the contest, the judging, receiving or using a prize, or the use of your entry and name as these terms allow. This doesn't cover claims that can't be released by law, or our own fraud, gross negligence, or willful misconduct.
What we're not responsible for. The Released Parties aren't responsible for entries that are lost, late, incomplete, corrupted, or misdirected; technical failures of any kind; errors in contest materials; or anyone's unauthorized interference with the contest.
Limits. To the maximum extent permitted by law:
- the Released Parties aren't liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages;
- the Released Parties' total liability to you for all claims relating to the contest is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount of any prize awarded to you and not paid; and
- your remedies are limited to money damages, and you waive any right to an injunction or other order stopping the contest or the publication of entries.
Some places don't allow some of these limits. Where that's the case, they apply only as far as the law allows.
12. If something goes wrong
If you have a problem with the contest, email us at contest@advicewanted.dev first and we'll try to sort it out. If we can't, these terms are governed by Delaware law, and any claim has to be brought individually (not as part of a class action) in the courts of Delaware (including small-claims court there), within one year. If you live outside the U.S., this doesn't take away any rights you have under your country's consumer laws.
13. General
Privacy. We handle the personal information you give us as described in our Privacy Policy.
Entire agreement. These terms, the prompt on the contest page, the Guidelines, and our Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the contest. If the contest page or the Guidelines conflict with these terms, these terms control.
Sponsor. The Sponsor may enforce the parts of these terms that benefit it.
Severability. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.
No waiver. If we don't enforce a term, we haven't waived it.
Assignment. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to a successor that takes over running the contest. You can't transfer yours.
No relationship. Entering doesn't make you our employee, partner, or agent, or the Sponsor's.
Language. If these terms are translated, the English version controls.
Last updated: October 26, 2026