OUCC

 

About

The Oxford University Computing Challenge is an invitation event which aims to encourage students who have achieved a top 10% score in the UK Bebras Challenge to develop their skills further and produce programmed solutions to computational thinking problems. At the same time, it is hoped that the archived self-marking tasks will provide a useful resource for all school students studying Computer Science.

A pilot challenge took place in March 2017 with developments added each year. The annual challenge is held online, in schools and supervised by teachers. The participants' solutions are auto-marked by our system soon after.

The OUCC Syllabus

Syllabus Area One:

• Strings, Output and Input
• Mathematical and Logical Operators
• Conditionals
• Loops
• Functions
• Lists and Arrays
• File Input/Output*
• Classes and Objects*

Syllabus Area Two:

• Logical Thinking
• Algorithmic Thinking
• Decomposition
• Pattern Identification
• Abstraction
• Evaluation
• De-bugging

* Juniors and Intermediates will not be set problems that require an understanding of this topic.

Programming Languages

Some sections tasks will require participants to be familiar with the Blockly programming language. Other tasks will allow students to program in any programming language using any IDE available on their school computers.

Students can use documentation or tool tips that are built in to their IDE but they may not look up documentation on the internet, search the internet in any way, or use other applications whilst participating in the Challenge.

The Challenge Format

The challenges will be run in schools using the same infrastructure used in the UK Bebras Challenge but with some new task types.

Four age categories: Elite, Seniors, Intermediates and Juniors
Time allowed: 1hour
Aim: To solve as many problems as possible in the time allowed.

Each Challenge will have three sections:

Section 1
5 tasks to solve that test understanding of syllabus area one in a fairly straightforward way.
(4 points each)

Section 2
5 tasks testing understanding of more than one syllabus area one skill. These tasks may, in addition, require the application of the Computational Thinking skills outlined in syllabus area two.
(6 points each)

Section 3
(Note: This is a format change for March 2020.)
2 longer problems that test programming skills and the computational thinking skills outlined in syllabus area two.
(8 points each)

Age group differences:
(Note: Some changes from March 2021.)
Juniors & Intermediates - All tasks will be Blockly tasks
Seniors & Elite - The majority of tasks will be code submission tasks but occassional Blockly tasks may also appear.

 

Statistics

The Oxford University Computing Challenge was piloted in March 2017. The top 10% achieving students in the UK Bebras Challenge were invited to take part.

 

2021 Statistics:
The 2021 OUCC challenge took place during a global pandemic with the majority of students taking part at home. Note that this is the first year we have not awarded Merits and Distinctions based on national percentages. Final statistics for the first round:

Approximately 20 students from each age group are to be invited to the final round:

 

2020 Statistics:
The final statistics for the first round of the 2020 challenge:

* Format changed in 2020 to 5 easier tasks, 5 medium tasks and 2 harder ones.

All students got a participation certificate which they should value as they had to qualify in the top 10% of UK Bebras students to qualify for the pilot Challenge. With students still being eligible from previous years the numbers invited column has now been dropped.

Number of students achieving each award::

 

2019 Statistics:
The final statistics for the first round of the 2019 challenge:

* Maximum score is 66 because students were asked to do five Easy tasks (worth 4 points), five medium tasks (worth 6 points), and choose 1 or 2 from the five difficult tasks (worth 8 points). Please note that the scoring system has been changed for 2018. A very few students managed to tackle more than this and so scored above the maximum.

All students got a participation certificate which they should value as they had to qualify in the top 10% of UK Bebras students to qualify for the pilot Challenge.

Number of students achieving each award::

 

2018 Statistics:
The final statistics for the first round of the 2018 challenge:

* Maximum score is 66 because students were asked to do five Easy tasks (worth 4 points), five medium tasks (worth 6 points), and choose 1 or 2 from the five difficult tasks (worth 8 points). Please note that the scoring system has been changed for 2018. A very few students managed to tackle more than this and so scored above the maximum.

All students got a participation certificate which they should value as they had to qualify in the top 10% of UK Bebras students to qualify for the pilot Challenge.

Number of students achieving each award::

 

2017 Statistics:
The final figures for entries etc:

* Maximum score is 50 because students were asked to do five Easy tasks (worth 2 points), five medium tasks (worth 4 points), and choose 1 or 2 from the five difficult tasks (worth 10 points). Please note that the scoring system has been changed for 2018. A very few students managed to tackle more than this and so scored above the maximum.

All students got a participation certificate which they should value as they had to qualify in the top 10% of UK Bebras students to qualify for the pilot Challenge.

The Distinction certificates were awarded to those that achieved the theoretical maximum (or above). This is expected to be an exclusive award that only very few will achieve but many will aspire to.

Number of students achieving each award::

 

Answers

Answer booklets are now only available to teachers in the Documents section of the admin facility so that tasks form our archive can be used in quizzes within the school.

 

Student FAQs

Can anyone take part?
Only invited students can take part. (The most common route to an invitation is to achieve a score that places the student in the top 10% in the UK Bebras Challenge.)

Why didn't I get an answer to my email?
We have a policy of not collecting students' email addresses or communicating directly with students. If you wish to make an enquiry, please ask your teacher to do so on your behalf.

Are there prizes?
There is a first, second and third prize awarded to the top three finalists in each age group nationally. In 2018, these were:
    First prize: A pi-top
    Second prize: A pi-topCEED
    Third prize: A Raspberry Pi starter kit

In 2021 there will be certificates but no prizes as, due to the Pandemic, supervision requirements have been relaxed considerably and it may not be possible to hold a final round. This year is a great year to take part for the first time. 

Can anyone use or try the past challenges?
Yes. Simply head over to the archive section (no login required)

Is it impossible to complete all the tasks in an hour?
Very few students manage to solve 12 tasks in the hour. Each year students are encouraged to try and beat their previous year's score.

Are the longer tasks most easily solved in Python?
The longer tasks are designed to be algorithmic problems with no specific language in mind. It should be possible to solve them in any of the major programming languages taught in UK Schools.

Are answers provided?
Teachers have access to answers to archived challenges.

Why are answers only provided in Blockly and Python?
It is not possible to provide answers in all the languages taught in UK Schools. However, as the tasks are algorithmic problems, it should be possible to use the code provided to work out a solution in your preferred language.

Will I need to qualify each year by coming in the top 10% of Bebras?
No this is not necessary. Once you have been invited to take part in the Oxford Computing Challenge you will be invited every subsequent year while still of school age.

The area to program in Blockly is too small
The space for your blocks can be increased by collapsing the question menu:

Are there any debugging tools in Blockly?
By right-clicking on a block you can disable it:

This can be useful when trying to find out which part of your code is doing something unexpected or, in Picture module questions, if your partial solution is getting in the way of the shadow image you are trying to produce.

 

Teacher FAQs

Can anyone use the past challenges?
Yes. Simply head over to the archive section (no login required)

Which of my students have been invited?
These can be obtained from the admin site by logging in with your Bebras coordinators username and password.

How do I get my usernames and passwords for my participating students?
These can be obtained from the admin site from January 1st 2022. Please keep an eye out for new posts in the Messages section.

When does this year's challenge take place?
The first round takes place in schools during the week beginning 7th February 2022.

Are answers and the thinking behind each task provided?
Yes, after each official Challenge an answer booklet is provided. These are available in the Documents section of the admin website

Do I need to adjust the age groups of the students from Bebras?
No this is not normally necessary. The age groups are based on school academic years and so the students will be in the same age groups in February as they were in the previous November when they took part in the UK Bebras Challenge. The exception is for those students who are invited due to qualification in a previous year who may need to have their age group changed if they have now crossed one of our two year boundaries.

Will my students need to qualify each year by coming in the top 10% of Bebras?
No this is not necessary. Once a student has been invited to take part in the Oxford University Computing Challenge they will be invited every subsequent year while still of school age.

I am not getting any emails?
School filters are intercepting a large number of emails sent out from our mailing list. As such important information for participants is posted in the Status section found in the left menu after clicking on the  Challenges tab. Important information for teachers will be posted in the Messages section of the bebras admin website.

 

Contacts

For further information about this Challenge, please email: info@oucc.uk

 

Organisers

Oxford University is the Organising Body of the competition. To find out more about Computer Science and courses involving Computer Science please visit their website.
www.cs.ox.ac.uk