TopCoder Announces NSA Participation in

2006 TopCoder Open in Las Vegas

U.S. National Security Agency Returns as Patron of World Championship of

Programming Scheduled for May 3rd - 5th at Aladdin Resort and Casino

GLASTONBURY, Conn., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- TopCoder(R), Inc., the
leader in online programming competition, skills assessment and
competitive software development, today announced additional details
of its 2006 TopCoder Open (TCO06) which include the continued support
of the National Security Agency as an event patron. The TCO06 will
bring thousands of the world's finest programmers together in
competition over the course of ten weeks for international ranking,
notoriety and a share of the $150,000 prize purse for Algorithm,
Component Design and Development categories. Details and rules are
provided at: http://www.topcoder.com/tco06 .

Beginning January 19th, registrants for the TCO06 Design and
Development tracks will compete in five weeks of online tournaments
for qualification and advancement to the online Championship rounds
beginning March 16th. Algorithm contest registration will run February
13th through February 28th, with four online qualification rounds
ending March 22nd. Through these series of online elimination rounds,
the field of thousands will be narrowed to 64 final competitors by
April 20th, comprised of 48 Algorithm and 16 Component competitors.
These finalists will compete in face-to-face competition at the
Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas from May 3rd - 5th to determine
the winners of all competitions.

"The TopCoder member base is seen as dynamic, intelligent and
unsurpassed in its ability to dissect and solve the most difficult
algorithmic problems imaginable," said Rob Hughes, President and COO
of TopCoder. "TopCoder tournaments provide an attractive platform for
organizations such as NSA as they seek out the best and the brightest
code makers, breakers and problem solvers in the field of computer
science."

About National Security Agency

The National Security Agency is America's cryptologic organization. It
coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to
protect U.S. government information systems and produce foreign
signals intelligence information. A high technology organization, NSA
is on the frontiers of communications and data processing, dedicated
to developing and recruiting the best and the brightest
computer/electrical engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians,
linguists, cryptanalysts, and signals analysts in the world. For more
information visit:

http://www.nsa.gov .

About TopCoder, Inc.

TopCoder is the recognized leader in identifying, evaluating and
mobilizing effective software development resources. Through its
proprietary programming competitions and rating system, TopCoder
recognizes and promotes the abilities of the best programmers around
the world. TopCoder Software harnesses the talent of these developers
to design, develop and deploy software through its revolutionary
competitive development methodology. TopCoder's methodology emphasizes
thorough specification and design, distributed development using
reusable components, and a rigorous quality assurance review process
and results in higher quality, lower cost software solutions than
traditional software development methodologies. For more information
about sponsoring TopCoder Events, recruiting TopCoder members and
utilizing TopCoder Software, visit http://www.topcoder.com. TopCoder
is a registered trademark of TopCoder, Inc. in the United States and
other countries. All other product and company names herein may be
trademarks

of their respective owners.

Jim McKeown

TopCoder, Inc.

860.633.5540

jmckeown@topcoder.com SOURCE TopCoder, Inc.