Aims

The UK Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge introduces computer science to students. It is designed to get students excited about computing and computational thinking.

Audience

There are four competitions. Unlike many other competitions this is suitable for students of all abilities:
England and Wales:
 Elite: Years 12 & 13
 Higher: Years 10 & 11
 Intermediate: Years 8 & 9
 Junior: Years 6 & 7
 Castors: Years 4 & 5 (pilot year)
 Kits: Years 2 & 3 (pilot year)
Scotland:
 Elite Years S5 & S6
 Higher: Years S3 & S4
 Intermediate: S1 & S2
 Junior: Years P6 & P7
 Castors: Years P4 & P5 (pilot year)
 Kits: Years P2 & P3 (pilot year)

Dates

Any 45 minute period during the week of November 10th, 2014.

Format

The contest is completed online in schools under the supervision of teachers. More information for teachers is available. 
  • For Elite, Higher, Intermediate and Juniors there are 15 multiple-choice questions to be attempted in 45 minutes.
  • Castors will have 10 questions to attempt in 45 minutes.
  • Kits will have 6 questions to attempt in 45 minutes

Changes for 2014

A few changes have been made to the competition this year based on feedback from teachers who entered students in the 2013 Pilot. The main ones are these:
  • Two new age categories are being piloted this year – Castors and Kits
  • The scoring system is going to penalise less so that the less able students get higher marks – This will not affect the top scorers so much and comparisons with previous years will still be possible because a question by question and student by student breakdown is still supplied.
  • The time allowed is reduced to 45 minutes for 15 questions – This is to bring us into line with other countries, add a bit more time pressure and allow for easier administration.
  • The Hall of Fame will now consist of the top 25 Best in School students in each age category – only one student from each school will be able to feature in each age category. This is to discourage students from attempting to collaborate within a school!


Content

UK Bebras is a problem solving contest with a focus on computational and logical thinking. Questions are inspired by topics in computer science but only require some basic reasoning ability. Connections to Computer Science are described in the solutions to all past contests.

Registration

Registration for this year is now open! School coordinators should register online. Please re-enter your details if you were in the competition last year so we can check the information we already hold for you. 
The deadline is 31st October, 2014. 

Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors the competition is FREE to enter for all schools. 

In last year's pilot it was found that allowing schools to register after this date did not allow the school enough time to thoroughly test their systems. This is not very difficult and basically comes down to testing students have the permissions necessary to allow all school student accounts to access the competition site from within the school and sometimes entails adding the site address to an allowed list. Details of how to do this are given to School Coordinators on registration.

Contest Preparation

The BCC exposes students to a new subject and way of thinking so there isn't a need to prepare for the contest. However, you can get a feel for the style of the problems by viewing past contests and sample questions.

Results

School Coordinators will be able to access their students results online in the following week.

Awards

We emphasise participation but also recognise top performing students.
There will be the following types of certificates available:
  • Certificate of Participation
  • Certificate of Distinction
  • Best in School

In addition, we will publish the top 25 Best in School students in each age category on this website (this is a change to the Pilot Year).

Quick Links

bebras.org
computingatschool.org.uk
sample questions
hall of fame

contacts