The Coding Challenge

The Coding Challenge will run between 24th March and 4th April 2025. 

The Coding Challenge is an event for UK students aged 10-19 who took part in this year's UK Bebras Challenge. It replaces the OUCC as the next step for UK Bebras participants. 

The new challenge has been designed to be accessible to all students aged 10+. There are five challenge groups, and teachers are able to enter students at the most appropriate level regardless of their age. For students who are new to coding, we have practice materials to help them prepare. 

The aim of the 45-minute coding challenge is to enhance skills, build confidence, and inspire students to develop programmed solutions to computational thinking problems. 

Challenge groups

There are five groups:

• Novice and Explorer tasks require Turtle Blockly solutions.
• Navigator, Pathfinder and Trailblazer tasks need to be solved using a text-based programming language. Supported languages include Python, C#, Java, and VB. You can find a full list of supported languages (and versions) here.

The groups are skills-based, not age-based. This approach enables students who are just starting their coding journey to participate at a level suited to their current abilities. The Trailblazer challenge will push the most talented programmers to their limits!

You can find more information about block-based challenges and our text-based challenges here.

How do students enter?

Students are invited to participate via their UK Bebras coordinator (this is usually their teacher). The challenge must be supervised, so the coordinator must be prepared to organise and run the competition in their school. 

Teachers who previously entered students for the 2024 UK Bebras Challenge will find more information in the admin area of the Bebras website. Home educators will be contacted directly by the UK Bebras team. 

How much does it cost to participate?

Supported by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the Coding Challenge is entirely free to enter. We kindly ask that you provide as much information as possible when requested, to help us in evaluating the impact of our efforts.