Jonathan scoops second place in national computing challenge

A talented Sixth Form student came second in a nationwide computing challenge, held at the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University

Jonathan Ralphs was placed second in his age group in The UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge, on 27 January.

A total of 5,174 students entered the first round of the Elite age group category (years 12 & 13), and 43 top-achieving students took part in the final at Oxford for the Elite age group. Jonathan was presented with his certificate at a prize-giving ceremony at Hertford College.

The UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge, supported by Google, is designed to get students excited about computing and computational thinking. It is a problem-solving contest with questions inspired by topics in computer science.

In the first round, held in their own schools, students solved as many problems as possible in the allotted time. There are six age categories. The highest scoring students from the four oldest age groups (Elite, Senior, Junior and Intermediate) were then invited to Oxford for the finals over two weekends in January and February.