The Coding Challenge (UKCC)

Four difficulty levels: A(Novice), B(Explorer), C(Navigator), D(Trailblazer)

Suitable for Grade 1-12 students

No requirements for programming language in Level A and B

Date: May 10, 2026 (Sun.)

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Introduction

The Coding Challenge (UKCC) powered by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, offering a fully upgraded program focused on fostering students' computational thinking skills. The UKCC is divided into four levels based on difficulty, catering to students from Grades 1 to 12. Participants in Grades 1-8 can join without prior programming knowledge, while Grades 9-12 require programming experience. The challenge aims to enhance students' skills, build their confidence, and inspire them to develop programming solutions using computational thinking in the future.

The Coding Challenge (UKCC), along with British Informatics Olympiad (BIO), stands as part of the United Kingdom Computational Thinking Challenges (UKCT Challenges), an organization dedicated to advancing computational thinking and programming education in the UK. Official Website: https://ukctchallenges.org.

 

Challenge Rules

Language

Level A (Novice): Grade 1-6, Chinese & English

Level B (Explorer): Grade 7-8, Chinese & English

Level C (Navigator): Grade 9-10, English

Level D (Trailblazer): Grade 11, English

Date
  • May. 10, 2026 (Sun.)

Level A/B: 14:00-14:45 (45mins)

Level C/D: 15:00-15:45 (45mins)

Location

Online (Computers and mobile devices with cameras required)

Age group

Level A: Grade 1 - 6
Level B: Grade 7 - 8
Level C: Grade 9 - 10
Level D: Grade 11

Note: Lower levels can participate in higher levels, but higher levels cannot participate in lower levels.

Programming Language

Level A/B: All tasks are block-based drag-and-drop (no prior programming experience required)

Level C/D: All tasks are text-based (programming language required)

* Block-based tasks use visual code blocks (no programming language needed), focusing on developing computational thinking for younger students. Text-based tasks further enhance computational thinking while practicing programming language skills.

* Supported programming languages for Levels C/D: https://www.bebras.uk/index.php?action=content&id=136

Awards

Ranked by different levels
• Perfect Score
• High Distinction: Top 10%
• Distinction: Top 25%
• Merit: Top 50%

Content

Category Level A (Novice) Level B (Explorer) Level C (Navigator) Level D (Trailblazer)
Grade Grades 1-6 Grades 7-8 Grades 9-10 Grades 11-12
Technique Block-based Text-based
Programming Level New to block-based programming Block-based New to text-based programming Experienced text-based programming
Methods Introduction - Block-based: Use visual blocks to combine program logic, eliminating the need for manual code input.
- Text-based: Input code manually using traditional programming languages such as Python, C#,Java, and VB.
Duration 45 mins
Question Distribution 7 questions (4 marks each), 3 questions (8 marks each)
Math Skills - Simple geometry
- Shapes
- Angles
- Coordinates		 - Rounding to n places
- Substituting numbers in simple equations		 - Substituting numbers in simple equations

- Arithmetic operators

- Modulo to test divisibility

- Counters and running totals

 - Calculating differences and averages
Programming Constructs - Sequence
- Selection: IF blocks
- Iteration: COUNT		 - Selection: IF – ELIF – ELSE blocks
- Iterating through characters in a string
- Iterating through a list
- Nested loops
- Functions		 - Sequence
- Selection: IF – ELSE IF – ELSE
- Iteration: Simple COUNT and CONDITION controlled loops
- Nested loops
- Iterating over a string of characters- Using Logical operators ( AND, OR, NOT )

- Applying multiple rules to validate data

- Condition-controlled loops

- Repeating until a condition is met

 - Function
- Recursion
- Nested loops- Storing and updating state across iterations
Input/Output - Displaying text blocks - Reading input
- Converting data types (e.g. string to integer)
- Producing output matching a given specification		 - Reading structured input (multiple values / lines)
String Handling - String length - String length
- Accessing and extracting parts of a string
- Joining strings together
- Checking for specific characters or patterns		 - Reordering characters based on position
Data Types / Structures - Strings
- Integers
- 8 mark only questions: Variables		 - Real numbers
- Variables		 - Strings
- Integers
- Real numbers (decimal/float)
- Boolean values
- Casting between data types (e.g string to integer)
- Variables- Accessing list items by position
- Finding list length
- Iterating through a list		 - Arrays/lists (multi-dimensional)
- Dictionaries- Comparing neighbouring values in a list
- Tracking patterns across a sequence
- 2D data: rows & columns / coordinates / grid boundaries
- SQL: SELECT / WHERE / ORDER BY

Age group differences

Level A

Level A

All tasks will be e block-based drag-and-drop (no prior programming experience required).
Level B
Level B
All tasks will be block-based drag-and-drop (no prior programming experience required).
Level C

Level C

All tasks will be text-based (programming language required).
Level D
Level D
All tasks will be text-based (programming language required).

Requirements

Deadline

  • Apr. 28, 2026

Computer

  • Candidates must bring their own computer for programming competition.

ASDAN EPQ Scholarship

3000RMB/std

Perfect Score&Gold

2000RMB/std

Silver

1000RMB/std

Bronze

Noted: The ASDAN Scholarship is only available to Year 10, 11 and 12 students for participating ASDAN Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). EPQ is recommended by the G5 group and many leading universities as a competitive academic experience. Scholarships cannot be exchanged for cash. For further details see: http://www.seedasdan.org/epq/。

FAQ

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