Microsoft and StackOverflow sponsors $15,000 “Apptivate” Windows 8 app contest

Cash and tablet rewards for apps is the strategy Microsoft seems to be pursuing for Windows 8 and this time it’s at the front doors at one of the most popular developer community today, StackOverflow. Having said that, you don’t have to write a single line of code to win this.

The “Apptivate” competition announced last week is a collaboration with Microsoft and StackOverflow to promote developers to develop apps up until and after Windows 8 launches in a month.

The total prize pool worth $15,000 is made up of a $5,000 grand cash prize to the two best judged apps, $500 runner up cash prizes, Windows RT tablets, copies of Windows 8 and shirts (who doesn’t love free clothing).

Different to other pure coding competitions, Apptivate actually rewards participants even if they don’t write a single line of code or actually develop an application.

Building on top of StackOverflow’s community mechanisms, people can enter the contest just by voting on apps, commenting on apps, asking and answering questions about Windows 8 and participate in the chat room (first one in a few hours).

The contest ends December 19, 2012 but app submissions close December 6, 2012. Register here to get started and start voting, commenting or writing code.