HT Code-a-thon 2021: The second edition of HT Code-a-thon, India’s largest coding event, kicks off on Tuesday. This immensely popular competition helps school kids to pick up coding basics, and showcase their code writing skills at a national level. The 4-month-programme is divided into three rounds. The learning round is supposed to continue till the last week of November. This is followed by the qualifier round, which will take place in the last week of November and will open the competition. The final, which holds the promise of a battle between whiz kids, is scheduled for the third week of December. For this coding Olympiad, HT has partnered with IBM and SpeEdLabs, an AI-based practice and learning platform which boosts foundational concept-based learning.

Why did HT start a Code-a-thon?

Coding is rapidly becoming part of school curricula. Apart from widening career prospects, learning computer programming language benefits kids in more ways than one. The market is buzzing with ed-tech companies selling online coding courses. HT also offers basic coding courses. Keeping this scenario in mind, Hindustan Times launched its first coding initiative, Code-a-thon in October 2020 along with the government of Delhi. It’s a coding Olympiad for middle and high school students, designed to promote web learning skills among them and provide free access to coding courses for underprivileged children.

Who is qualified to participate in HT Code-a-thon?

Age-appropriate grouping had to be implemented to ensure a smooth learning curve and make the competition truly fair. There are 3 groups:

Students of classes 4 and 5 (aged 9-10 years): They will only learn app development

Students of classes 6 and 7 (aged 11-12 years): They will learn website designing too

Students of classes 8 and 9 (aged 13-14 years): They will learn game development too

Course duration

Each course is self-paced and divided into easy modules:

App development: 12 modules of 20 hours @ 50 minutes per session

Game development: 26 modules of 24 hours @ 60 minutes per session

Web designing: 26 modules of 24 hours @ 60 minutes per session

What are the application criteria?

Registering for the Code-a-thon is simple. All you have to do is register your child here (https://htschool.hindustantimes.com/code-a-thon/) by paying INR 500+GST. Post registration, the participants can access their age-appropriate modules and course materials.

What’s the elimination process?

Competitions of this scale require elimination per round. After completing the learning phase, all students will move on to the qualifier phase at the end of November. The top 600 students from the qualifier round will participate in the final round. Qualified participants will compete for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranks. They will be divided across the country into 2 zones: North and South. Three students from each zone and each cohort will finish in the top 3. So, there will be a total of 18 winners.

What would the winners get?

All Code-a-thon participants will get a certificate. The top three will get exciting prizes along with HT media coverage. Here are the prize details:

1stprize: Laptops

2nd prize: Tablets and Smartwatches

3rd prize: Tablets