Clemson Cadence Challenge
Welcome to the Clemson Cadence Challenge!
As part of Cadence Design Systems’ mission to foster a strong relationship with Clemson University, we are excited to announce a campus-wide competition, open to all students eager to join. Participating students will have the chance to win a 2026 paid summer internship with Cadence in Silicon Valley, as well as Cadence merchandise and the opportunity to gain valuable experience using Cadence software.
Please note that this competition is being offered to undergraduate students only. To be eligible for the position, students must not graduate until the internship period has ended.
Information
Section titled “Information”The start date of the 2026 Clemson Cadence Challenge is February 20th.
Sign up using this link! There is no cutoff date for the sign-up form.
Update 2/20: The initial batch of users have been added to the Palmetto Cluster for access to the Linux-based tools. See the “Using Palmetto” section of the Setting Up page for more info, and note that your accounts have already been sponsored. If you are joining in later and need to be added, contact one of us.
Additionally, the method for getting access to the Cadence Academic Network has been streamlined since the initial announcement. See the Setting Up page for instructions if you do not already have access.
Competition Goal Complete as much Cadence training material as possible! The winner of the competition will have completed the greatest amount of Cadence training material.
Each learning module (see the Training Courses page) awards the user with a digital cerificate. Upon completion, points corresponding to the expected time needed to complete the challenge will be awarded to the contestant.
For instance, submitting the badge for the Allegro Design Entry HDL Basics course, which is expected to take 8 hours, will net the user 8 points towads their overall score. These scores will be tracked over the next month, and the winner will have the highest score.
Courses with badges will appear on the Cadence learning map with the ribbon symbol shown below.
Submissions
Section titled “Submissions”All badges must be submitted using the badge submission form. Valid submissions must contain two items:
- Proof of the badge. Submissions must contain the name of the recipient, date earned, and the name of the badge. This can take either of the following forms:
The PDF Certificate given upon the completion of the course.
OR a screenshot of the badge on your Credly page. To view this with your name and the date, select the 3 bars in the top right corner then choose “Profile”. From here select the badge you wish to submit from the “badge portfolio” tab and it should pop up with a similar window to the one below.
- A zip/tar file containing all of the files completed for the course’s labs (if there are any). We will be checking the edits made to these, so please save your changes. If you have problems with a lab activity, please contact one of us.
Note: Badges must have been earned between the start date of the competition (February 20th) and the end date (March 15th at 11:59pm). Repeat badge submissions for different versions of the same software (ex: Virtuoso Basics 22.1 and Virtuoso Basics 17.4) will only be counted as a single submission. In the event of a tie, preference will be given to the contestant with the overall number of badges.
Awards
Section titled “Awards”The winner of the 2026 Cadence Challenge will interview for a paid summer internship with Cadence Design Systems in San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley). Note that the past two challenges have sent five Clemson students to this program. For more information on intern and new grad positions, see Opportunities.
Additionally, everyone will be able to win merchandise for earning a raw number of badges.
5 Badges: Rontondo Cadence Mug
10 Badges: Wireless Charging Pad
15 Badges: Bluetooth Speaker
And more!
Cadence Support
Section titled “Cadence Support”Access to the Cadence Support website will be an invaluable resource for this competition. This website can be used to download software, access manuals, use training resources, etc… It is highly recommended that you request an account as soon as possible, steps for which can be found on our Getting Started page.
Questions
Section titled “Questions”Please contact the following students with questions about the Cadence Challenge. Good luck!
Ian Scogin - iscogin@clemson.edu
Caroline Cadena - ccadena@clemson.edu
Ella Reece - enreece@clemson.edu