# What is “Contest”?

A contest is a scored challenge inside a tournament that accepts participant submissions within defined rules and awards points on approval, quantity or day-based scoring.

Also called: programme contest, scored challenge

SSociana team·19 Oct 2026·2 min read

## Contest in detail

A contest is the working unit of a recurring programme. It has a theme and a time window, rules about who may enter and what counts, and a scoring method: points per approved submission, points by quantity, or points by day. Participants enter by submitting something, such as a KPI update, a photo of an ethical decision, a completed action or a form, and reviewers approve or reject the entries before they count. Contests sit inside tournaments, which hold the series and combine results into period leaderboards. Because contests run in the same engine as everything else, their points feed the unified leaderboard and can credit wallet points where configured. Good contest design names the single behaviour being rewarded, caps repeated gaming through limits, and publishes the rules in the app. Programme owners can watch submissions and review turnaround from mobile dashboards, which Sociana reports for every programme.

## How Sociana uses it

Contests are configured inside tournaments with eligibility, window, scoring method and approval flow. Reports show submissions and review turnaround per contest.

## Example

A compliance programme used monthly contests where ambassadors submitted actions that reviewers approved before points counted.

## Questions

How are contest entries scored?

By approved submission, by quantity or by day-based scoring, depending on the method the organiser sets for that contest. A contest is a scored challenge inside a tournament that accepts participant submissions within defined rules and awards points on approval, quantity or day-based scoring.

Do entries need approval?

They can. Reviewers approve or reject submissions before points count, which keeps the leaderboard fair and gives programme owners a turnaround metric. Participants enter by submitting something, such as a KPI update, a photo of an ethical decision, a completed action or a form, and reviewers approve or reject the entries before they count.

How is a contest different from a competition?

A contest is a scored challenge inside a tournament. A competition is a sign-up event with registration, group eligibility and capacity limits. Contests are configured inside tournaments with eligibility, window, scoring method and approval flow. A contest is the working unit of a recurring programme.

## Keep reading

[Unified leaderboard & team boards](https://sociana.in/features/unified-leaderboard/)[Recurring employee programmes](https://sociana.in/event-types/employee-programmes/)[Tournament](https://sociana.in/glossary/tournament/)[Submission](https://sociana.in/glossary/submission/)[Competition](https://sociana.in/glossary/competition/)[Run tournaments, contests and submissions](https://sociana.in/help/organisers/run-tournaments-contests-and-submissions/)

[Back to Glossary](https://sociana.in/glossary/)

## Want points that people chase?

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Canonical: https://sociana.in/glossary/contest/
Publisher: Sociana by Alien Brains Private Limited (https://sociana.in/)