Programming Competitions for Kids in Malaysia

Beaver Computational Competition

The Beaver Computational Thinking Competition is an online competition that introduces computer science concepts and logical problem solving to students. The Beaver Computational Thinking Competition is a part of the international Bebras effort. Bebras competitions have been held in 61 countries and in Malaysia alone there is a total of 6,610 participants took part in the competition.

For this competition, programming knowledge is not required. Students will be challenged with questions that simulate the thinking process of solving programming problems. The competition is open for kids as young as 7 years old to students of 19 years old. Students will take part in 1 of the 6 different categories based on their age.

At the end of competition, students will be presented with certificate based on their score relative to the overall results. The top 10% of participants from each category will receive either a gold, silver or bronze medals.

Malaysian Computing Challenge (MCC)

Malaysian Computing Challenge (MCC) is a programming competition organized by Malaysian Informatics and Programming Society (MIPS) yearly in October.

The competition in carried out online using MCC contest system within a two-day window to solve 4-6 problems. The programming language used is Python, students is recommended to have knowledge of programming but not required. This competition is oped to primary, secondary and pre-university students who are studying in Malaysia or Malaysia citizens studying abroad. Top performers in competition will be invited to participate in Malaysian Computing Olympiad (MCO).

Young Makers Challenge

Young Make Challenge is organized by University Technology Malaysia Centre for Students Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) aiming for secondary students from the B40 group. It is fully sponsored by US Embassy in Malaysia and supported by the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) and Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The competition involved 7 states namely Johor, Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan, Penang, Kedah and Perlis which were coordinated and organized by selected university partners.

In this competition, students learn to build robots using Arduino to solve real problem. Students will be participating a 2-day camp during the holidays to learn about tools and knowledge required for the competition. Followed up with additional technical training and design clinics by partner university. Two of teams from each states will be selected to participate in the national level competition.

MakeX Malaysia

MakeX Malaysia is a Robotics Competition that promotes STEAM Education. This competition is held in more than 60 countries with 45,000 participants. In this competition, students use their creativity and innovative thinking to overcome real-world challenges. As a team competition, they learn to communicate with partners and work together to complete a common goal.

In Malaysia there are two types of competition

• MakeX Starter, for both primary and secondary students
• MakeX Challenge, for students age 11 – 18 years old

On global level, the competition is highly recognized and featured on main stream medias such as Forbes, Bloomberg, and Reuters.