Popular coding challenge announces 2024 updates

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A long-standing favourite of students across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, the NCSS Challenge is back for 2024 – and it has a series of exciting updates for teachers, new coders and experienced programmers

FROM THE smartphones in our pockets to the algorithms shaping our online experiences, technology is present in every aspect of our lives. For young people, the ability to understand and navigate this world is essential, and learning digital skills early has never been more important. A long-time favourite among Australian students is Grok Academy’s National Computer Science School (NCSS) Challenge, which has been running since 2005. The Challenge teaches students to program as they progress through the competition, and it’s been increasing in popularity every year. Now, in 2024, the NCSS Challenge has announced a series of exciting updates. According to Grok Academy senior educator Dugald Sydney-Jones, these updates aim to cater to a wider range of students, from complete beginners through to confident coders. The content has also been updated to remain relevant in today’s education environment; however, the core aspects of the Challenge remain the same, and participants will be able to tackle real-world coding challenges.

Grok Academy is an Australian educational not-for-profit. Our mission is to educate all learners in transformative computing skills, knowledge and dispositions, empowering them to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the future. We work with teachers, schools and students, providing online and unplugged teaching and learning resources. Grok Academy offers online coding, cybersecurity and digital literacy activities for students, unplugged activities, and professional development for teachers. We also provide curriculum guidance and advocacy to teachers and government, with deep curriculum authoring expertise in the team.

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“These [updated] challenges have been designed to support students in a clear progression ... Advanced Python will challenge and motivate keen and dedicated coders to really showcase their learning and skills”

Dugald Sydney-Jones, Grok Academy

The 2024 NCSS Challenge is set to launch on 29 July. One of the key additions to this year’s Challenge is the primer module, which will be released for all challenges before the competition begins. It’s designed to familiarise students with the content and help them determine which challenge is right for them.

Sydney-Jones notes that not all students are “born coders”, and so the 2024 Challenge has added several beginner challenges that include more scaffolding for students who feel less confident. These include Newbies, which aligns with the primary curriculum, and Beginners Blockly, which covers largely the same concepts as the Beginner Python Challenge but with greater support and guidance. “The teaching content and problems have been thoroughly reviewed to further align with curriculum concepts and support proven coding teaching pedagogy,” Sydney-Jones says. “The ongoing emphasis to engage students in their learning has been maintained.” The Intermediate Python Challenge has also been updated and now includes a module on ‘Errors and Debugging’. This

aims to make the coding experience more realistic, and to help students develop resilience and problem-solving skills. Finally, the Advanced Python Challenge has been rewritten to be a natural progression from the Intermediate Challenge. In the final week, it will feature challenging and complex problems that allow students to fully utilise the skills they have learned throughout the challenge. “These challenges have been designed to support students in a clear progression from upper primary through to senior high school computing,” Sydney-Jones explains. “Advanced Python will challenge and motivate keen and dedicated coders to really showcase their learning and skills.”

As students take part in the Challenge, they’ll be able to accumulate points and climb the leaderboard, competing with their peers across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. This brings a new level of excitement and motivation to participants, all while teaching them curriculum-aligned skills and knowledge. Grok Academy has taken care to ensure that its Challenge is aligned with the Digital Technologies curriculum standards for Australia and New Zealand, and this year’s Challenge will also include enhanced resources for teachers. Grok Academy will provide notes to assist educators with introducing coding concepts into the classroom effectively, and Sydney-Jones says this has been done in response to direct teacher feedback. For teachers, the NCSS Challenge has already proved to be an excellent addition to the school year. One teacher describes the Challenge as “one of the best and most rewarding extra-curricular activities

available for students who love programming and who really want to grow their skills and knowledge in that area”.

“The NCSS Challenge engages young people in technology with its ‘learn as you go’ approach,” Sydney-Jones says. “It is interactive, immersive and an excellent classroom-ready resource for teachers of digital technologies.” The July/August Challenge will continue to be supported by intelligent auto-marking, instant feedback and online support from expert industry tutors from Grok Academy. Sponsor organisations include Atlassian, Australian Signals Directorate, CommBank, Macquarie, NAB, Optiver, Telstra and platinum sponsor WiseTech Global. To find out more about the 2024 NCSS Challenge and to register, click here.

NCSS Challenge: What’s changing?

A win-win for students and teachers

Published 22 Jul 2024

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“The NCSS Challenge engages young people in technology with its ‘learn as you go’ approach. It is interactive, immersive and an excellent classroom-ready resource for teachers of digital technologies”

Dugald Sydney-Jones, Grok Academy

When it comes to results, the figures speak for themselves. Of those who participated in last year's Challenge, 73% said they felt more confident about programming, and the majority said that the best part of the Challenge was learning to code, followed by the fact that it was fun. “You are able to test yourself, but you aren’t expected to already know everything,” a 2023 participant says. “I love how the problems are so creative and entertaining to read. The tutors are also really friendly and respond quickly to queries.” Another 2023 participant noted that as a first-time coder, they saw the Challenge as a great opportunity to step out of their comfort zone and try out a new skill. More experienced coders also praised the Challenge as a great opportunity to ramp up their skills, and to think seriously about whether it’s a career path they would like to pursue.

Students ran 997,813 problems in the last NCSS Challenge

Over 500,000 students have been engaged in courses on Grok’s platform

NCSS Challenge in numbers

Benefit from intelligent auto-marking and instant feedback

Learn as you go along

Compete with students across Australia and New Zealand

Solve real-world problems

Key features of the NCSS Challenge