The Trophy Funnel: Winning Competitions Playbook

This book is written for two learners at once — and it does not split the chapter structure to serve them separately. The first reader is a Kenyan student or early-career builder: a university student at JKUAT, Strathmore, UoN, MMU, Dedan Kimathi, or Kenyatta, or a bootcamp graduate who has finished a foundation ML or CS path.

This book is written for two learners at once — and it does not split the chapter structure to serve them separately. The first reader is a Kenyan student or early-career builder: a university student at JKUAT, Strathmore, UoN, MMU, Dedan Kimathi, or Kenyatta, or a bootcamp graduate who has finished a foundation ML or CS path.

What this book gives you: By the end, the reader will be able to: (a) enter any ML competition, hackathon, quant tournament, or competitive-programming contest with a rational strategy for the format; (b) reach the medal zone or demo-day placement on at least one platform.

What you will be able to do:

Early (Part I, Chapters 1–4): Level 1.5 — reader-oriented, narrative-heavy, one or two frameworks per chapter. No heavy math.

Peak (Part III and selective Part II Chapter 9): Level 3 — alpha operators, FNC math, quantization internals, harness engineering. Clearly marked stretch sections the reader can skim on first pass.