--- title: How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge description: The Pragmatic Engineer is running an essay competition inviting software engineers and builders to write 3,000-10,000 word first-hand accounts of how AI... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-software-engineering-is-changing-an-essay-challenge-5ij5shwyn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge | daily.dev og:description: The Pragmatic Engineer is running an essay competition inviting software engineers and builders to write 3,000-10,000 word first-hand accounts of how AI... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-software-engineering-is-changing-an-essay-challenge-5ij5shwyn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5Ij5shwYn.png og:image:alt: How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge **[The Pragmatic Engineer](https://daily.dev/sources/pragmaticengineer)** · 6 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Pragmatic Engineer is running an essay competition inviting software engineers and builders to write 3,000-10,000 word first-hand accounts of how AI tooling is changing software engineering practices, culture, and workflows at their companies or open source projects. Prizes include a $10,000 grand prize and $2,500 runner-up awards, with strict rules against AI-generated writing and prior publication before submission. Submissions close midnight October 4 PST, with winners announced by November 3. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#ai-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-software-engineering-is-changing-an-essay-challenge-5ij5shwyn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-software-engineering-is-changing-an-essay-challenge-5ij5shwyn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-software-engineering-is-changing-an-essay-challenge-5ij5shwyn"},"datePublished":"2026-09-01T16:08:06.769Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:48:18.316Z","description":"The Pragmatic Engineer is running an essay competition inviting software engineers and builders to write 3,000-10,000 word first-hand accounts of how AI...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Pragmatic Engineer","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Pragmatic Engineer","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b3ccb8a149434269bda040722d941474","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/pragmaticengineer"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-software-engineering-is-changing-an-essay-challenge-5ij5shwyn","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"career,ai-engineering","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Pragmatic Engineer","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/pragmaticengineer"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How software engineering is changing: an essay challenge"}]} ```