# What is to stop anyone from using a tutorial

**URL:** <https://community.drivendata.org/t/what-is-to-stop-anyone-from-using-a-tutorial/2478>\
**Category:** Warm Up: Predict Blood Donations\
**Created:** [July 9, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/what-is-to-stop-anyone-from-using-a-tutorial/2478 "2018-07-09T00:06:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paulgureghian](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.drivendata.org/paulgureghian/32/724_2.png) [@paulgureghian](https://community.drivendata.org/u/paulgureghian)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/what-is-to-stop-anyone-from-using-a-tutorial/2478/1 "2018-07-09T00:06:42Z")

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from DataCamp or wherever to generate a submission ?

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**Author:** ![isms](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.drivendata.org/isms/32/9_2.png) [@isms](https://community.drivendata.org/u/isms)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/what-is-to-stop-anyone-from-using-a-tutorial/2478/2 "2018-07-16T17:28:34Z")

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@paulgureghian What is your concern?

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**Author:** ![paulgureghian](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.drivendata.org/paulgureghian/32/724_2.png) [@paulgureghian](https://community.drivendata.org/u/paulgureghian)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/what-is-to-stop-anyone-from-using-a-tutorial/2478/3 "2018-07-16T18:18:27Z")

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in other words, how do you know if a users submission to the competition is all their own work from scratch and how much of it was just copied and pasted from data camp or some other source ?

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**Author:** ![isms](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.drivendata.org/isms/32/9_2.png) [@isms](https://community.drivendata.org/u/isms)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/what-is-to-stop-anyone-from-using-a-tutorial/2478/4 "2018-07-17T17:37:41Z")

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Submissions have to be reproducible to be eligible for a prize. This is verified before prizes are awarded. In competitions without a prize there is no real incentive to cheat.

That being said, tutorials that teach people the skills to make a reasonable submission are not objectionable. If there is an actual submission file being downloaded and submitted that would be odd but you’d also see the submitters of such a file have the same score.

Per the rules, using outside resources is fine as long as they are openly available. Are you worried about a paid course or something that gives people (good) answers for a particular competition?

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**Author:** ![dpcarballo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@dpcarballo](https://community.drivendata.org/u/dpcarballo)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 10:19am UTC](https://community.drivendata.org/t/what-is-to-stop-anyone-from-using-a-tutorial/2478/5 "2018-11-19T10:19:45Z")

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You are free to use methods explained in tutorials, but I doubt you will get below 0.40

For better results, you will have to combine that knowledge with your own data science skills