# Getting julia support to Kaggle

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** statistics\
**Created:** [February 15, 2017, 4:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121 "2017-02-15T16:57:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kevbonham](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kevbonham/32/216165_2.png) [@kevbonham](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kevbonham)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 4:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/1 "2017-02-15T16:57:53Z")

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Not precisely where this discussion should sit, but this seems a good place to start.

[Kaggle.com](http://kaggle.com) is a neat site for data science, hosting competitions in data analysis and machine learning, as well as instructional material and learning resources. Users can also post code and descriptive text in jupyter notebooks and run them as “kernels” on Kaggle’s servers.

The site hosts predominantly python and R code, but in principle it supports julia code. That said, it’s clear this isn’t actively supported, since the jupyter notebooks don’t give a julia option, and even scripts that run their example code fail out with an error when `using DataFrames` ([see here](https://www.kaggle.com/product-feedback/28409#post159596) for kaggle discussion).

I’m wondering if it would be worth it for someone at julia computing or someone with more knowledge than me to reach out to Kaggle and offer some support - they don’t currently have the user demand to work hard on their end, but it seems like it could be a useful avenue to increase interest among users in using julia for data science.

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**Author:** ![felix](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/felix/32/604_2.png) [@felix](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/felix)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 8:51am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/2 "2017-02-16T08:51:29Z")

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Just went on [Contact Kaggle Support](http://kaggle.com/contact) and sent this

> Dear Kaggle team,

> What can the Julia community do to support you in making Julia available as a language for playing with your amazing data sets in your wonderful competitions?

> Julia is a young language taking aim at a lot of the strengths of python, matlab and R, with a focus on fast, simple technical computing. It supports notebooks, too!

> Any answer welcome, including here [Getting julia support to Kaggle](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/1). Julia would love to be part of kaggle!

> Best  
> Felix

I don’t think I would know enough to support them directly, but hopefully someone here would – and would be cool if they reply!

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**Author:** ![kevbonham](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kevbonham/32/216165_2.png) [@kevbonham](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kevbonham)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/3 "2017-02-16T14:05:37Z")

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That’s great, thanks! Someone (looks like from jupyter) also responded in that Kaggle thread suggesting that they file an issue about their issues with notebooks, so they’re getting hit from multiple fronts 🙂

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**Author:** ![felix](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/felix/32/604_2.png) [@felix](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/felix)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 6:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/4 "2017-02-16T18:36:42Z")

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> Hi,

> Thanks for your feedback. I have passed this on to our engineering team to look into. Also, you may be interested in posting this on our feedback forum, as others may like to chime in as well.

> [Product Feedback | Kaggle](https://www.kaggle.com/product-feedback)

> Kind regards,  
> Kaggle Support

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**Author:** ![jballanc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jballanc/32/328_2.png) [@jballanc](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jballanc)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/5 "2017-02-19T17:25:35Z")

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For what it’s worth, there is a “Getting Started” competition titled [“First Steps With Julia”](https://www.kaggle.com/c/street-view-getting-started-with-julia). However, as I recall, even when I went through it a year or so ago (around the time of the Julia v0.4), their tutorials weren’t exactly “canonical” Julia. If someone wanted to provide an updated version of this tutorial, that might be a good place to start.

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**Author:** ![felipenoris](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/felipenoris/32/553_2.png) [@felipenoris](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/felipenoris)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/6 "2018-01-16T19:29:27Z")

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Time is passing. No updates on this?

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**Author:** ![kevbonham](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kevbonham/32/216165_2.png) [@kevbonham](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kevbonham)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/7 "2018-11-05T14:17:11Z")

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Now that Julia 1.0 is out, maybe it would be worth revisiting this? Is there anyone at JC that is responsible for this kind of outreach effort?

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**Author:** ![Orcinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Orcinus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Orcinus)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 9:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/8 "2019-01-24T09:55:06Z")

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I think Kaggle will be a place for the promotion of Julia in ML community, too.

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**Author:** ![RoyiAvital](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/royiavital/32/571_2.png) [@RoyiAvital](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/RoyiAvital)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/9 "2019-01-24T14:09:17Z")

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Maybe the way to do it is up vote the following:

> **[Jupyter Notebook Support for Julia | Kaggle](https://www.kaggle.com/discussions/product-feedback/32765)**
>
> Jupyter Notebook Support for Julia.

If they see massive support maybe they will reconsider.

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**Author:** ![Nosferican](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nosferican/32/9275_2.png) [@Nosferican](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nosferican)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 6:01am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/10 "2019-03-16T06:01:21Z")

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Definitely not a priority which is really sad since it goes back to the chicken/egg problem.

> **[Will kaggle include Julia? | Kaggle](https://www.kaggle.com/discussions/product-feedback/83644)**
>
> Will kaggle include Julia?.

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**Author:** ![tk3369](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tk3369/32/2824_2.png) [@tk3369](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tk3369)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 6:54am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/11 "2019-03-16T06:54:24Z")

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OK, I’ve posted a reply. Just upvote mine or add your own 🙂

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**Author:** ![Nosferican](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nosferican/32/9275_2.png) [@Nosferican](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nosferican)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/12 "2019-10-13T21:43:25Z")

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Would be nice to have more people comment on that post.

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**Author:** ![aaowens](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aaowens/32/12101_2.png) [@aaowens](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aaowens)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 5:04pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/13 "2020-01-10T17:04:13Z")

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I posted. Hope they add it, though I’m sure the backend infrastructure for this is challenging.

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**Author:** ![kevbonham](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kevbonham/32/216165_2.png) [@kevbonham](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kevbonham)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/14 "2020-01-10T18:40:35Z")

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> [@aaowens](#):
>
> though I’m sure the backend infrastructure for this is challenging

Given that it’s jupyter based, (and julia put the ju in jupyter) I’d think it would be pretty easy actually 🤷

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**Author:** ![aaowens](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aaowens/32/12101_2.png) [@aaowens](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aaowens)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/15 "2020-01-10T18:53:09Z")

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I think some work would need to be done to make the user experience as smooth as the Python version and not spend so much time on compilation, like using PackageCompiler(X) to bake the standard packages into the sysimg. But what’s standard, and how would it handle using different package versions? There might be other reasons I’m missing. The Kaggle team member did post “Supporting multiple languages adds a lot of work for us,” in that thread.

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**Author:** ![Albert\_Zevelev](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/albert_zevelev/32/11844_2.png) [@Albert\_Zevelev](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Albert_Zevelev)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/16 "2020-01-11T00:46:59Z")

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I’d wait until Julia has a major ML interface. MLJ looks promising, as soon as MLJ incorporates Knet, Flux, and options for hyper-parameter tuning I expect a lot more widespread use of Julia fro ML. Kaggle support will naturally follow.

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**Author:** ![fipelle](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/fipelle/32/4772_2.png) [@fipelle](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/fipelle)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 2:22am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/17 "2020-01-11T02:22:09Z")

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What if Julia Computing were to host a ML competition on Kaggle? Maybe that could work.

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**Author:** ![kevbonham](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kevbonham/32/216165_2.png) [@kevbonham](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kevbonham)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/18 "2020-01-11T13:43:38Z")

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I think that would be cool, but not sure it’s something julia computing is in a position to spend money on. Might be cheaper to offer a year of free support or something to the kaggle Dev ops team or something…

Or maybe a company using julia (invenia, looking at you!) could sponsor a competition?

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**Author:** ![viralbshah](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/viralbshah/32/54_2.png) [@viralbshah](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/viralbshah)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/19 "2020-02-18T23:55:19Z")

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It would be good if we can get as many people as possible to chime in on the thread here:

> **[Will kaggle include Julia? | Kaggle](https://www.kaggle.com/discussions/product-feedback/83644)**
>
> Will kaggle include Julia?.

I met the Kaggle CEO - Anthony Goldbloom - last year and he reiterated what the Kaggle staff said in that thread. They did not see sufficient Julia usage when they had support. After their acquisition by Google, they had to redo a lot of their infrastructure and ended up dropping Julia. When the time is right, and there is significant community demand, he said they would certainly revisit it.

A lot has changed in the last 2 years and the Julia community is at least 4-5x larger now.

From what I know, there are quite a few folks there who champion Julia. So it would greatly help for folks here to chime in there. Ideally with a somewhat detailed comment on why you would like to see Julia on Kaggle. Certainly upvote the topic and other comments you agree with at the very least.

-viral

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nosferican](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nosferican/32/9275_2.png) [@Nosferican](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nosferican)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121/20 "2021-10-01T21:23:19Z")

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The 2021 Kaggle Machine Learning and Data Science survey will close on Monday. It would be great for Julia users to mention their use of Julia in that survey. The latest Stack Overflow survey had the size of the Julia community about a fourth of that of R. If Kaggle sees a trend of the size of the Julia community approaching that of R, it might be a good argument towards including it in the future.

[Next page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/getting-julia-support-to-kaggle/2121.md?page=2)