High School Competitive Programming
If you are just getting started with coding, please check out the page with useful resources to get started: High School Coding Resources
If you are comfortable with the basics, and are interested in Competitive programming, please check out the list of competitions and resources to prepare for them.
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List of Programming Competitions​
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American Computer Science League (ACSL)
ACSL offers multiple divisions, providing an appropriate challenge for students of varying ages and abilities. An unlimited number of students from a team may compete in each contest.
Each season is divided into four contests, testing students on fundamental concepts in computer science, ranging from Number Systems to Boolean Algebra to Digital Electronics. Each contest also includes a problem to solve by programming.
Contests are administered online. Team advisors facilitate students’ access to the online platform; the platform corrects the submissions and reports the scores to ACSL. Online resources assist advisors to prepare their students for each competition.
At the end of the year, the top students are invited to compete in an online Finals competition.
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Harker Programming Invitational
Harker Programming Club's goal is to educate and inspire students on the topics of contest programming and real-world applications of programming. We host two yearly algorithmic programming contests with invited keynote speakers, and hold lectures and workshops throughout the year.
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Girls Programming League (GPL)
The goal of Girls Programming League (GPL) is to inspire and empower female students in learning computer programming and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
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CodeWars is a first-class computer programming competition for high school students sponsored by Hewlett Packard.
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CodeChef is an educational initiative by Directi, an Indian software company. It is a global programming community that fosters learning and friendly competition, built on top of the world’s largest competitive programming platform.
Codeforces is a website that hosts competitive programming contests.
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HackerRank is a tech company[1] that focuses on competitive programming challenges for both consumers and businesses
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ProCo is a computer programming contest for high school students in the style of the college-level ACM-ICPC. ProCo aims to provide a fun and engaging opportunity for high school students in the Bay Area to explore their passion in computer science.
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Topcoder Open (TCO) is an annual design, software development, data science and competitive programming championship, organized by Topcoder, and hosted in different venues around US.
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USA Computing Olympiad (USACO)
The USACO supports computing education in the USA and worldwide by identifying, motivating, and training high-school computing students at all levels.
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)
The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is an annual competitive programming competition for secondary school students.
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alGIRLithm is a student-led organization working to inspire the next generation of female computer scientists by making competitive programming accessible to high school girls. They host a programming competition for high school girls and have two divisions - Novice and Advanced, so girls with all levels of experience in competitive programming can join. Participants can compete in teams of up to 3 to solve problems with C++, Java, or Python.
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Resources for Competitive Programming
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USACO Training Program Gateway
The USACO on-line training pages provide hundreds of hours of free instruction and practice problems to improve your programming and problem-solving skills.
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The USACO holds periodic web-based contests during the academic year, and in the late Spring conducts the US Open, their "national championship" exam.
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A free collection of curated, high-quality resources to take you from Bronze to Platinum and beyond.
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An Introduction To The USA Computing Olympiad (C++ Version)
This book was written as a comprehensive and up-to-date training resource for the USA Computing Olympiad. It covers all the topics for Bronze and Silver levels.
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An Introduction To The USA Computing Olympiad (Java version)
This book was written as a comprehensive and up-to-date training resource for the USA Computing Olympiad. It covers all the topics for Bronze and Silver levels.
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Descriptions of many algorithms and data structures especially popular in field of competitive programming
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Algo is a web application that supercharges your training for the USACO by randomly generating problems from past contests.
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Over 1650 questions for you to practice. Come and join one of the largest tech communities with hundreds of thousands of active users and participate in our contests to challenge yourself and earn rewards.
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CodeChef is an educational initiative by Directi, an Indian software company. It is a global programming community that fosters learning and friendly competition, built on top of the world’s largest competitive programming platform.
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Codeforces is a website that hosts competitive programming contests.
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HackerRank is a tech company[1] that focuses on competitive programming challenges for both consumers and businesses
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Their mission is to provide free educational resources to anyone interested in learning computer science and math at a higher level.
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VPlanet provides some free courses to help you get started with competitive programming.
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Good Books for Competitive Programming​
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Paid Classes​
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AlphaStar Computer Science Program has year-round courses and winter / summer camps. This Computer Science competition training program aims to train students towards USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) which is the most prestigious pre-college Computer Science competition in the States.
Star League offers computer science and engineering courses such as Scratch, Python, Java (AP), C++, Robotics as well as USACO preparation.
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VPlanet provides classes to take you from USACO Bronze level to USACO Camp.​
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