The Oracle Dev Gym offers an active learning experience, via a gym workout paradigm. After all, you can’t get stronger just by watching a video on weightlifting. The same with coding. Dev Gym workouts keep your knowledge fresh and your thinking sharp.

At the Dev Gym, you can take individual quizzes - multiple choice questions. Or you can "step it up" and take a workout, which usually consists of a video or article, followed by quizzes that help you validate and reinforce what you just learned. And with over 2,400 quizzes on SQL, PL/SQL, database design and more, there's no shortage of "gym equipment". We also offer an expanding list of "mini-MOOC" classes.

At the Oracle Dev Gym, you develop your expertise through exercise - so let's get going!

Use our multiple choice quizzes to deepen your expertise in various Oracle technologies. The home page offers several featured quizzes that are hand-picked by experts from the Dev Gym's library of over 2,000 quizzes.

Looking for something in particular? Enter a keyword or two in the search bar and we'll show you what we've got on that topic.

After submitting your answer, you can explore the quiz's topic in more detail, with full verification code scripts, links to related resources and other quizzes, and discussion on the quiz.

You accumulate points for all the quizzes you answer, but your performance on these quizzes is not ranked. To play competitively against other developers, check out our weekly tournaments.

Sometimes you just want to learn, and other times you want to test that knowledge against other developers. Let's face it: lots of humans like to compete, and we make it easy for you to do that with our weekly tournaments.

Each Saturday, we publish a brand-new quiz on SQL, PL/SQL, or database design and logic. You have until the following Friday to submit your answer. And if you don't want to compete but still want to tackle those brand-new quizzes, we let you opt-out of ranking.

But for those of you who like to compete, you can check your rankings on the Leaderboard to see how you did the previous week, month, quarter and year. And if you finish the year ranked in the top 50 in a particular technology, you are then eligible to compete in the annual championship.

Note that we do not show the results of your submission for a tournament until that week is over. Since the quiz is competitive, we don't want to make it easy for players to share results with others who may not yet have taken the quiz. And since the quiz is competitive, we also have rules against cheating. Read Competition Integrity for a description of what constitutes cheating at the Oracle Dev Gym.

When a calendar year is completed and the year number ticks over, the top fifty ranked players in the weekly tournaments qualify to compete in our annual championships.

Unlike the weeklies or the general training quizzes, everyone takes the five advanced quizzes in their technology at the same time around the world. Players have up to 35-45 minutes (determined by the quiz master for that technology) to submit their answers.

The Dev Gym then published the rankings and hands out awards for top-10 placements.

Instructions for Taking the Championship

Unlike weekly tournament quizzes, you have a limited amount of time to answer championship quizzes. The time limit is displayed on the launch page. Once you start playing, the countdown timer will tell you how much time you have left (if the timer is not displayed on the main page, open the right-hand sidebar to see it there).

Since this competition has more than one quiz in it, you must answer each quiz before you can submit your answer as a whole; until you submit the answers, you can change any answer to an individual quiz. You can answer the quizzes in the order they are presented by clicking on Next button after selecting the choices you believe are correct. You can also go directly to a quiz by clicking on the "Quiz N" link at the top of the page.

If you have answered that quiz, the circle above the "Quiz N" link will have a check in it.

Each time you navigate between quizzes in the competition, your selections will be saved. If you lose your connection or you run out of time, answers to the individual quizzes will be preserved.

Ranking is  determined using the standard scoring algorithm: correctness and time to answer are both a factor in your ranking.

Shortly after the championship is completed, you will receive an email inviting you to review quizzes for any possible mistakes. Once any objections are resolved, you will receive an email to review rankings. Assuming no objections on ranking, we will then publish the results.

A workout typically consists of a video or article followed by several quizzes. But a workout could also consist simply of a set of instant quizzes. Either way, go through the exercises of the workout and you will find yourself better able to tackle your real world programming challenges. Build your own custom workout, pick from available workouts, and set up daily workouts (single quiz workouts).

Here are some "good to knows" for taking workouts at the Dev Gym:

• When you click on a non-quiz exercise (video, link to blog post, etc.), we will automatically record that exercise as completed.
• You will see your grades on quizzes only after completing all exercises for the workout - and submitting your quiz answers.
• If you would like to improve your grade on your quizzes, press the Retake Quizzes button at the bottom of the page.
• You can take the same workout more than once. When viewing a completed workout, press the Take Again button to reinforce your newfound knowledge.

Classes at the Dev Gym are like "mini-MOOCs" (Massive Open Online Classes). They are online, they are open to everyone, but they're not so massive. You don't have to commit to 5 hours of study a week. Instead, our classes consist of a series of workouts: usually a video followed by a few quizzes). We offer both scheduled classes with release dates for new segments of the class, or make them available for you to take anytime, 24x7, at your own pace. When you complete all exercises in all modules, press the Print Certificate button to obtain a PDF certificate of completion or excellence (awarded by an overall grade >= 90%).

Most Gym members will take quizzes, but some of us also write the quizzes that others take. Thanks so much for your contribution to the community!

To submit a quiz, click on your name on the top right corner of the page. Then click on "Submit Quiz." Here are some resources to help you write great quizzes:

Submit a Quiz

Submit a Quiz Using a Template

Adding Images to a Quiz

At the core of the Dev Gym are quizzes: thousands of quizzes on SQL, PL/SQL, database design, logic, Application Express, and more. Most of these quizzes are packed full of code - and you know what that means: high probably of bugs. But quizzes cannot have bugs, or players will get very unhappy. So authors of quizzes rely heavily on their reviewers to catch the bugs and help us offer accurate, problem-free, engaging quizzes.

After you change your Oracle Profile (single sign-on) email address, you will need toi synchronize your new email address/account with the Dev Gym activity associated with the previous account.

To do this, click on your name in the top right of the page, select Settings. Then click on the Merge Accounts. Type in the previous email address and press Synchronize.

Then follow the instructions in the email you will receive at the previous address to complete the synchronization process.

If you encounter any problems (for example, that prior email address is no longer available to you), click on Feedback, report your issue, and we will fix things up for you!

Click on your name in the top right, then choose My Dashboard to see a dashboard of your activity on the Dev Gym.

You can then quickly drill down to quizzes you've taken, quizzes you've authored, and even weekly tournament quizzes you missed.

The Oracle Dev Gym offers a way for developers to establish or improve their reputations as Oracle Database developers. It is serious stuff, in other words. And that means that it is possible someone will try to cheat or "game the system" to improve their chances of ranking high in our weekly tournaments, and even qualify for our annual championships.

We have given lots of thought to the ways that people could cheat. We have taken several measures to minimize the chance of successful cheating. And we have decided on the following consequences.

If you violate any of the rules of the Dev Gym or cheat in the process of submitting your answer, then you will lose all your points for the current month (any previously submitted and any others submitted for the rest of the month). If this occurs a second time, your account will be closed and all accumulated points lost.

Here are what we consider to be examples of cheating (this list is by no means exhaustive; if you find another way to cheat and it is not on this list, you will still be penalized when - not if - you are discovered):

• Creating multiple accounts: you may only create one account for yourself in the Dev Gym.
• You take the quiz in one account, taking your time to look up the answer, study the code, etc. Once you are sure of the answer, you log into your "real" account and submit your answer quickly, to game the timing algorithm.
• You copy the contents of the quiz page into the clipboard, paste it into your PL/SQL environment and run the code. Two notes regarding this: 1. You should not be able to copy and paste; most quizzes present code as an image; 2. It is not cheating to type the code yourself and execute it to determine the result. This is a great way to learn and the time it takes to write the code will diminish your score.
• You receive the quiz from someone else, study and determine the correct answer, and submit your answer quickly, to game the timing algorithm.
• You initiate or participate in any sort of discussion forum/thread/SMS on the quiz during the day in which the quiz is active. Feel free to discuss the question and answers after once that quiz is "history." While people can still answer it, however, please refrain from publishing information or discussion about it.
• You use any kind of a "bot" to submit your answer or answers.
• You use a software algorithm to solve Logic quizzes. The whole point of this domain is to strengthen your own mind's ability to think logically. Having a computer do this for you violates the whole point of these quizzes.
• If you violate any of the rules of the Dev Gym or cheat in the process of submitting your answer, then you will lose all your points for the current month (any previously submitted and any others submitted for the rest of the month). If this occurs a second time, your account will be closed and all accumulated points lost.

January 2020 - Release 20.1

Yes, that's right. With the latest release of the Dev Gym, we are switching to Oracle Database's annual release numbering scheme and also adopting the Redwood theme. Hope you like it!

• New "skin": that's the main change in 20.1. No more orange, improved use of screen real estate
• Streamlined access to quizzes, workouts and classes: we've reduced the navigation steps needed to get past quizzes and workouts and different filters of the same.
• Home page dashboard showing your aggregate stats on the Dev Gym
• Redesign of player profile pages
• Search by date range for past tournaments

June 2018 - Release 3.1

• Trophies, trophies, trophies! We've added dozens of new trophies to reflect your accomplishments on the Dev Gym, and along with that a new dashboard, Trophy Progress page and more. Click on your name or trophy icons at the top of the page to visit your dashboard, and go exploring from there.
• Easier access to quiz verification code
• Fixed order of display of modules in classes

April 2018 - Release 3.0.1

• Orange theme: all that red was hurting our eyes, but the main reason to switch to orange was to make it visually clear that this site, as with AskTOM, is part of the broader Oracle Developer initiative.
• Site search: type in a keyword, such as "FORALL" or "listagg" in the search bar on the home page, and we will find all quizzes, workouts and classes that match your criteria. You can further hone your search on the results page.
• The tournament quizzes are now offered on the home page; no need to click on the Tournaments tab to see them. These quizzes are produced fresh each week, and often focus on the latest features in SQL, PL/SQL and Oracle Database.
• Your recent activity on the site is available on the home page so that you can more easily continue your workout or class, or check the results of a recently-completed quiz.
• Improved performance on the Tournament Archive (formerly Library) page, the Quizzes Taken page and more.
• Redesigned workouts and classes page to make it easier to find and take these exercises at the gym.
• The Trivadis class (which consisted of a single workout) is now a workout. All classes on the Dev Gym henceforth will consist of multiple modules. If you were in the middle of taking that class, visit the Workouts page to continue via the workout.

December 2017 - Release 2.3.17

• New Submit Quiz makes it easier than ever to create and submit a new quiz, including immediately adding it to a workout

November 2017 - Release 2.3.14

• Find a Workout: make it easier to search across all available workouts

October 2017 - Release 2.2

• Enhanced workouts: create custom workouts; request daily single-quiz workouts (formerly known as PL/SQL Challenge auto-tunes)
• Redesigned home page showcasing featured quizzes and search
• Faster, better quiz search using Oracle Text

August 2017 - Release 2.1

• New monthly, quarterly and annual awards given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd rankings in each weekly tournament.

July 2017

• Players can now skip answering a question (requested from users who found that they had no idea about the topic and didn't want to simply guess).