Computer Science Competitions for High School Students
EC Finder currently lists 56 computer science competitions for high school students. Of these, 33 are free to participate in and 38 offer virtual participation. Examples include 2026 U.S. Innovator Challenge, Advanced Vertical Robotics (AVR) Competition, and Aerospace Jam - High School Aerospace Robotics Competition.
- 56
- listed
- 33
- free
- 38
- virtual
- 56
- with a listed deadline
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are computer science competitions for high school students?
- Computer Science Competitions for High School Students are curated extracurricular listings for high school students interested in computer science. Each listing includes eligibility, cost, and deadline details where known, so you can compare options and find the right fit for your college application profile.
- Are any of these competitions free?
- Yes — 33 of the 56 competitions listed here are free to participate in.
- Can I participate virtually?
- Yes — 38 of the 56 competitions listed here offer virtual or online participation.
- Are computer science competitions good for a college application?
- Yes — computer science competitions are a common way for high schoolers to show sustained interest and initiative in computer science on college applications.
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2026 U.S. Innovator Challenge
The U.S. Innovator Challenge is an invitation-only national innovation competition hosted by Innovation World where top K-12 inventors from across the United States present their inventions virtually, with winners advancing to a global innovation event.
Advanced Vertical Robotics (AVR) Competition
National HS competition using UAVs and ground vehicles in realistic mission scenarios like search and rescue. Focus on robotics systems integration.
Aerospace Jam - High School Aerospace Robotics Competition
Robotics competition centered on space exploration and aerospace-themed robot challenges. Summer event with awards and recognition.
Aerospace Robotics Competition (ARC - Drone-Based)
Drone robotics competition where HS students design, code, and operate autonomous UAVs to complete missions. National event with scholarship opportunities.
American Computer Science League (ACSL)
Team-based competition with programming challenges and written tests covering Boolean algebra, digital electronics, algorithms, and data structures. Four divisions based on skill level.
Apex High School AI Championship
National AI competition where students solve STEM and AI challenges through interactive experiences. Prizes include $50K+ in scholarships.
Bay Area Cyber League Competitions
Year-round regional competitions for high school and community college students in the greater Bay Area. Includes fall and spring competitions with Discord community support.
Bay Area Programming Contest (BAPC)
ICPC-style programming contest hosted by Gunn High School's Competitive Programming Club featuring 8-13 algorithmic problems ranging from USACO Bronze to Platinum difficulty.
Botball Educational Robotics Program (KIPR)
A team robotics competition for middle and high schoolers who design, build, and program fully autonomous robots (no remote control) using a standardized kit to complete timed tasks at regional and international tournaments.
CALICO (California Informatics Competition)
Programming competition hosted by UC Berkeley students featuring 6-13 algorithmic problems to solve in 3 hours. Held twice yearly (Fall and Spring) with in-person and online options.
California Cyber Innovation Challenge (Mission Apgaritum)
An annual free state-level cyber competition for CA high school teams organized by Cal Poly CCI. Students solve a simulated cyber-crime scenario involving digital forensics and puzzles. The event usually runs virtually in early October with awards for top teams.
Code/Art Game Design Competition for Girls
A national game design competition for female-identifying and gender non-binary students in grades 3-12. Participants design and build an original browser-based game (Scratch, GameLab, p5.js, or MakeCode Arcade) and submit a written reflection, competing for cash prizes by grade division.
ColoradoFIRST – FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
Colorado's affiliate of FIRST Robotics, organizing the Denver Regional and supporting FRC teams across the state. High schoolers join a team to design, build, and program a competition robot to solve the season's challenge (2026 challenge: 'REBUILT'). Denver Regional held annually at the University of Denver.
ColoradoFIRST – FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)
Colorado's affiliate of FIRST Tech Challenge, supporting teams of up to 15 students in grades 7-12 who design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in an alliance-format floor game. No prior technical experience required; teams need two adult coaches. Colorado FTC Kickoff held at Chatfield High School and Grand Junction High School.
Congressional App Challenge
Annual nationwide competition where students create original apps and submit to their congressional district. Winning apps are displayed in the U.S. Capitol.
Conrad Challenge (Cyber-Technology & Security Category)
Annual multi-phase innovation and entrepreneurship competition with a dedicated Cyber-Technology & Security category for tech solutions.
CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition
The Air Force Association's flagship youth cyber competition, the world's largest cybersecurity contest for teens. High school teams defend virtual networks by finding and fixing security flaws in Windows, Linux, and Cisco images. Runs fall–spring with online qualifiers and National Finals.
Diamond Challenge (Tech/Business Innovation Track)
Global entrepreneurship competition where students develop tech-based business or social innovation solutions. $100,000 in total prizes.
DVHS Robotics (Dougherty Valley HS - VEX Focused)
Student-run high school robotics program in San Ramon with competitive VEX teams and novice pipelines.
Esporterz Esports & Coding Camp
An in-person esports and coding camp based in Larkspur (Marin County, Bay Area) where teens play competitive and casual video games on pro-gaming PCs, learn basic coding and robotics, and take part in outdoor STEM activities during weeklong summer sessions.
FIRST Robotics - San Francisco Regional (FRC)
One of the main NorCal FRC regionals held in San Francisco. Great target event for Bay Area teams competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition.
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
Flagship varsity high school robotics competition where teams build 120 lb robots to play a new game each year. Most prestigious robotics competition with pathways to substantial scholarships.
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) - California
Smaller robots (18" cube) with metal extrusion kits and Android-based control. Popular in NorCal leagues with accessible entry point for robotics teams.
Girls Go CyberStart
An online gamified cybersecurity competition by SANS Institute designed for U.S. high school girls to explore cyber careers. Participants solve fun puzzles in cryptography, forensics, and web exploitation. High scorers earn prizes and scholarships.
High School Esports League (HSEL / Generation Esports)
One of the largest and longest-running scholastic esports organizations in North America, now operating under Generation Esports/PlayVS. High schoolers compete online in regional, conference, and national tournaments across titles like Rocket League, Valorant, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with scholarships awarded to top performers at HSEL Nationals.
Independent Innovator Challenge (IIC) - 2026
The Independent Innovator Challenge (IIC) is an annual national innovation competition that lets K–12 students from anywhere in the U.S. submit invention/innovation projects directly, serving as a pathway into the U.S. National Innovator Challenge (NIC) for students who do not have another qualifying organization. Students develop inventions, create logbooks, pitch videos, slides, and prototypes. Top innovators receive awards including invitations to the U.S. National Innovator Challenge.
International Invitational Math Optimization Challenge (IIMOC)
A free, virtual international team competition in which high school and college students tackle algorithmic optimization problems over a multi-week window, submitting solutions to a leaderboard for ranking — introducing techniques used in operations research and computer science.
Lockheed Martin Code Quest
Annual programming competition where teams of 2-3 students solve 20-30 algorithmic problems in 2.5 hours using Java, Python, C#, or C++.
NASEF Scholastic Esports Clubs
A national nonprofit offering free scholastic esports clubs, tournaments (including the Minecraft-based Farmcraft and Beyond the Game Challenges), STEM/social-emotional-learning curriculum, and career pathways for middle and high schoolers. Broader than and distinct from its California-specific CIF Esports Initiative partnership.
National Cyber League (NCL)
An annual online cybersecurity challenge for high school and college students. NCL presents realistic tasks in forensics, pentesting, cryptography, and more to develop cyber skills. Runs in Fall (regular season) and Spring (all-star game) on the Cyber Skyline platform.
National Cyber League (NCL) High School Division
Biannual competition with real-world challenges: forensic analysis, packet capture analysis, password cracking, and ransomware recovery. Performance-based scouting reports provided.
NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing
National recognition program celebrating women and gender-expansive students for their computing accomplishments and career aspirations.
NorCalCyber Mayors Cup
Regional competition for students in Greater Sacramento and Far North California. Features team-based learning and digital forensics challenges.
NSA Codebreaker Challenge
A free annual online coding and cyber puzzle challenge by the U.S. National Security Agency. Students solve mission-oriented tasks in reverse engineering, cryptography, vulnerability research, and scripting in a fictional intelligence scenario. Top performers receive NSA certificates.
NSA Stokes Educational Scholarship Program
A competitive scholarship with summer internships for U.S. high school juniors intending to study cyber, computer science, engineering, or math. Covers full tuition plus stipend and requires service commitment after college. Includes NSA internships in later summers.
NYU CSAW High School Forensics Challenge (HSF)
A cybersecurity competition by NYU's CSAW for U.S. high school teams. In the online qualifier, teams solve a cyber forensics mystery (network analysis, mobile forensics, steganography) to earn points. Top teams advance to live Finals in US, France, and UAE.
picoCTF
A free, online capture-the-flag cybersecurity contest created by Carnegie Mellon for middle and high schoolers. Players solve interactive puzzles in reverse engineering, cryptography, web hacking, and forensics to collect flags. Annual contest runs March–April.
picoCTF by Carnegie Mellon University
The largest free cybersecurity hacking competition globally. Solve capture-the-flag challenges in web exploitation, cryptography, forensics, and reverse engineering.
Pioneers in Engineering Robotics Competition (UC Berkeley PiE)
Berkeley student-run competition providing low-cost robot kits, control system, and mentoring to Bay Area high schools. Very NorCal-specific and robotics-focused.
PlayVS High School Esports - California
PlayVS is the CIF-recognized platform powering official California high school esports leagues. Students compete on their school's varsity/JV teams across seasonal titles such as League of Legends, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Madden NFL.
Presentation High School Robotics (FRC 2135, all-girls)
San Jose all-girls FRC team, strongly focused on hands-on robot build and leadership development.
Regeneron STS / ISEF (Computer Science Category)
Nation's most prestigious pre-college science competitions with dedicated computer science categories for original research projects.
RoboCupJunior USA
A student robotics competition open to teams up to age 19 who design, build, and program fully autonomous robots to compete in soccer, rescue, or theatrical performance (OnStage) leagues, with top teams advancing to the international RoboCup.
SANS Holiday Hack Challenge
A free online cybersecurity CTF by SANS Institute held every December. Open to participants worldwide including high school teams. Each year's challenge is holiday-themed with diverse challenges over ~2 weeks. Leaderboards and prizes for top scorers.
Space Grand Challenge (California Cybersecurity Institute)
Gamified satellite cybersecurity competition designed by Cal Poly for middle and high schoolers. Features space-themed challenges in a Unity WebGL platform.
Swift Student Challenge (Apple)
Apple's annual challenge for students to showcase creativity and coding capabilities through app playgrounds built with Swift.
Technovation Girls Challenge
Global technology entrepreneurship competition where girls and non-binary students build mobile apps to solve community problems using coding and app development skills.
TSA Board Game Design
A Technology Student Association high school competitive event in which participants develop, build, and package an original board game with instructions, pieces, and cards, then demonstrate and explain their design process to judges in a semifinal interview round.
U.S. Cyber Challenge (Cyber Quests & Camps)
A national STEM initiative to identify cyber talent. High school students compete in Cyber Quests (online CTF-style rounds) to qualify for free week-long Cyber Camps at federal cyber centers. Camps include lodging and are by invitation.
US Cyber Challenge - Cyber Quests
Online cybersecurity competition serving as a qualifier for virtual Cyber Camps. Challenges include forensic analysis, packet capture analysis, and vulnerability assessment.
US Cyber Challenge Cyber Quests
Online qualifier for virtual Cyber Camps. Challenges include forensic analysis, packet capture analysis, and vulnerability assessment. Pathway to summer camps and scholarships.
USA Bebras Computing Challenge
A free, low-stakes national computational thinking competition where students in grades 5-12 solve short informatics puzzles in a 45-minute online session, designed to build interest in computer science regardless of prior coding experience.
USA Computing Olympiad (USACO)
The most prestigious algorithmic programming competition in the U.S., serving as the pathway to the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). Four divisions (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) allow students to progress based on performance.
VEX V5 Robotics Competition (VRC - HS Division)
Largest global competitive robotics program for middle and high school students. Teams design and build V5 robots for a yearly game with extensive competition opportunities.
Zero Robotics
MIT/NASA competition where students program SPHERES/Astrobee satellites aboard the International Space Station using C-like programming.
Zero Robotics High School Program (Astrobee on ISS)
Robotics programming competition using real robots aboard the International Space Station, focused on autonomous behavior. Extremely strong prestige.
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