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Ethyca Technical Challenge -- Open Source Engineer (Python)

User Story

As a keen noughts and crosses (/tic-tac-toe) player (and aspiring champion), I need a web service that allows me to play against a computer via a REST API. The API must allow me to create a new game, make the next move in a game, and list all games previously played.

Noughts and Crosses (Tic-tac-toe)

Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses (British English) is a game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. The player who succeeds in placing three of their marks in a diagonal, horizontal, or vertical row is the winner. It is a solved game with a forced draw assuming best play from both players.

An example game series can be represented as:

# A blank board
[
    [".", ".", "."],
    [".", ".", "."],
    [".", ".", "."],
]

# First move
[
    [".", ".", "."],
    [".", "X", "."],
    [".", ".", "."],
]

# Second move
[
    [".", ".", "."],
    [".", "X", "."],
    [".", ".", "O"],
]

# Third move
[
    [".", ".", "X"],
    [".", "X", "."],
    ["O", ".", "O"],
]

...and so forth

Your Task

Use Python (any flavour) to develop a REST API that:

  • Allows me to create a new game of Noughts and Crosses, and returns the game ID.
  • Allows me to make the next move by specifying the co-ordinates I wish to move on. e.g. {"x": 1, "y": 1} would denote a move to the middle square by the requesting player, and returns the new state of the board after the computer has made its move in turn. Note: There is no need to create an AI opponent, random moves are fine
  • Allows me to view all moves in a game, chronologically ordered.
  • Allows me to view all games I have played, chronologically ordered.
  • Surprise us! Use your inherent style and panache to sprinkle that extra bit of gee-whizz atop your solution.

Notes

  • Please work independently without code review by others.
  • It's our intention that you spend between 3 and 4 hours on this task.
  • This challenge is deliberately vague on detail to give candidates the opportunity for a wide range of solutions. That being said, feel free to reach out and ask questions as needed.
  • There is no 100% correct solution, be creative! We are just as interested in your approach to problem solving as we are in your actual solution.
  • Remember that we'll schedule a debrief interview with you afterwards to discuss the code and ask questions, so you'll be able to explain what you've done!
  • Code style, comments, and general code hygiene matter despite this being a test!

Delivery

  • Once completed, please create a README file describing:
    • How to run your project (or where it is hosted),
    • How much time you spent building the project,
    • Any assumptions you made,
    • Any trade-offs you made,
    • Any special/unique features you added,
    • Anything else you want us to know about,
    • Any feedback you have on this technical challenge -- we care deeply about our hiring process here at Ethyca, and about the engineers who go through it (that's you!) -- we wholeheartedly promise any feedback will be met with a warm thank you!
  • The assignment can be published and shared with us via any code sharing platform such as Github, Gitlab, or sent as a .zip file to the Ethyca employee who sent you this task.
  • We'll review your submission in advance of your debrief interview, and look forward to talking to you about it!