Prepare (OUCC)

As with the Bebras challenge, the most effective way to prepare for the OUCC is to practice by attempting past tasks. Tasks from previous challenges spanning two different years are readily available for practice without the need for registration or logging in. Simply select your age group to access tasks. However, we also strongly recommend some additional preparation, as detailed in the notes below.

STUDENTS: PRACTICE

Juniors and Intermediates:

While Juniors and Intermediate students may have some familiarity with Blockly, it's important to note that we incorporate custom blocks and systems. We recommend that students carefully work through the full set of Blockly tutorials to prepare effectively.

Seniors and Elite:

Senior and Elite students may possess strong programming skills, but it's crucial that they also understand how to manage input and output in their programs to ensure compatibility with our testing server. We highly recommend that students work through the code submission tutorials to avoid any issues during the timed challenge.

SVI students:

Senior and Elite SVI students will participate in the same challenges as sighted students, so the preparation remains consistent with the above sections. Junior and Intermediate SVI students will engage in a beta coding challenge using any one of our 11 supported text-based programming languages. While using the same platform as Senior and Elite students, they'll tackle more age-appropriate tasks. Preparation remains the same, but we suggest focusing on the easier tasks from past Senior challenges, available in the Challenges tab of this site.

OUCC syllabus

Tasks are designed around a syllabus with two areas of learning.

Learning Area One:

Learning Area Two:

Older Challenges

Tasks from previous challenges are accessible to registered teachers, who have the ability to assign them as quizzes for their students.

Model answers

Model answers for previous challenges are available to registered teachers and can be found in the documents section of the admin part of the site. Please note that answers are provided in Blockly and Python only. However, since all tasks have algorithmic solutions, it should be possible to use the Python code provided to develop a solution in your preferred programming language.