Google Code-in has kicked off, a 7 week coding contest for young kids

To celebrate Computer Science Education Week, Google started Google Code-in last week. It is a 7-week bootcamp for pre-university students aged 13-17, allowing them to to get some hands-on Computer Science experience by working on open source projects.

The camp kicked off last week on 7th December, but anyone can join in any time. The event will continue till January 25th, 2016. During these 7 weeks, kids will have the liberty to choose the task that most appeals to them. They will have over a hundred tasks to choose from, created by 14 open source organizations. All these tasks encompass many fields: health care for developing countries, learning activities for elementary students, desktop and portable computing, the encouragement of young women in computer science, game development, to operating systems used in satellites and robots.

Once they have picked a task a mentor will be assigned to every participant. The mentor will not only review their work but also provide any guidance needed. The children will work on the whole software development process: documentation, coding, training, research, quality assurance, user interface and outreach tasks.

The main aim of the contest is to encourage students to find a coding community that they enjoy working with and hopefully become an active contributor for years to come.

Google Code-in has been held for over 5 years now and 2,233 students have participated from 87 countries. Together they have completed 12, 495 open source tasks.

If you’re interested in Computers and Coding, or would like your kids or young siblings to take part, apply now. May the source be with you!