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Are you enthusiastic about programming/coding as a hobby? If your answer is yes, you should participate in the programming competition intended for comprehensive school and upper secondary school pupils. We are currently running a Data Star () informatics competition, and all comprehensive school and upper secondary school pupils in Finland are welcome to participate in its preliminary round online. The preliminary round will continue until 15 October. The finals will be held on 18 January 2018 at Aalto University. It is also possible for the most successful competitors in the Data Star to get a chance to represent Finland in the International Olympiad in Informatics.

From informatics enthusiast to student of computer science

Programming competitions also give excellent starting points for university studies in computer science, and you can continue your hobby by participating in competitions between universities.

‘Aalto and the University of Helsinki organise a variety of activities related to competitive programming, where also upper secondary school pupils and even younger children are always welcome. It is great that competitive coding brings together people interested in algorithms, from comprehensive school pupils to professors,’ says Postdoctoral Researcher Antti Laaksonen, who is involved in the Data Star as an organiser and coach.

Henrik Lievonen won the Data Star competition a few years ago and is now a second-year student of physics at Aalto. Currently, Henrik acts as assistant on our competitive coding course.

‘Competitive coding is fun and useful! With the help of coding, I have been able to challenge myself and develop my programme-solving skills, which has also been an advantage in my studies. Competitions have taken me to many wonderful places, and I have found a lot of new friends,’ Henrik points out.

The Data Star competition is organised by the Aalto University Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the University of Helsinki Department of Computer Science in collaboration with the Finnish Association for Teachers of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Informatics (MAOL).

If you have any questions about the Data Star competition, feel free to send e-mail to the address info@datatahti.fi.

Further information:

Nordic Collegiate Programming Contest, , organised on 7 October 2017.