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PL/SQL Challenge Website Joining Oracle!

When I (re)joined Oracle in March 2014, the PL/SQL Challenge website was also acquired by Oracle. I'd been thinking that in a few months or so, we'd have it up and running on an Oracle server, re-branded with lots of red.

But then, well, I got kind of busy with all sorts of other stuff. My bad.

But I am very happy to announce that over the coming weekend (13-14 June), PL/SQL Challenge will go offline for hopefully no more than a few days and then resurface as an Oracle website.

And that's why for the first time in five years, we will not offer new, competitive quizzes on SQL or PL/SQL or anything else this coming week (we will still put up some of our "deja vu" quizzes). I don't want to set up quizzes and then not give you sufficient time to take them (and you never quite know what's going to happen so....).

Now, those of you who've been to the website know that we use lots of orange (why? Because it's a pleasant color and also is the thematic color of my Oracle PL/SQL books published by O'Reilly Media):


You are probably also very familiar with Oracle's use of red:


Well, do not worry - we are not going to replace all that orange with red. That would make the website unreadable, an assault on the eyes. But come 15 June, our banner will be transformed as follows:


Chills running down my spine....so exciting!

The site will be largely unchanged from current functioning. You will, however, need to accept the Oracle Terms of Use. In addition, since some players may have been using an email address on the PL/SQL Challenge different from their Oracle Single Sign-on email, we will give you an opportunity to synchronize the two accounts:


The "fine print" asks you to authorize us to transfer profile information from the PL/SQL Challenge to your Oracle Profile. We are asking for this, because the PL/SQL Challenge collected all sorts of profile information, some of which is already in your Oracle Profile, which is the "source of truth" at Oracle. So you will no longer be able to provide your name, country or company in the PL/SQL Challenge. Instead this information is stored in your Oracle Profile.

We plan over time to integrate points on the PL/SQL Challenge with OTN community rankings, but that may take a little while to complete. Do not worry, though! All your hard work and dedication on this site will be recognized.

I look forward to a greatly increased level of quiz-taking activity, as well as a broader array of quizzes offered, and I hope you do, too!

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