Enhancing Computational Thinking Skills Through Competitions - Aidil's Coding Journey

May 5
3 min read

Last term we saw six of our girls participating in the Technovation Girls Challenge, where Zahra won Coder of the Term (CoTT). This term, while many of our girls are still participating, we have since seen the addition of boys for the IDE Code Series competition. In this interview we talk to one of our boys, Aidil, who finished second in this term's CoTT!

Hi Aidil! Let’s start from the beginning - how did you get shortlisted for the competition?

Teacher Fairus recommended me to join as he noticed that I had potential on it.

Aidil is a very enthusiastic student. Less than halfway through his Scratch class he was already thinking of ways of how he could create his own projects, which he even tries at home. I admire his patience and a commitment to producing quality work.

~ Teacher Fairus, who taught him Scratch

Did you know?

At Lyza Education, teachers conduct a detailed end-of-course evaluation for every student. This evaluation helps parents understand their child's progress in class, including strengths in logic, creativity, and problem‑solving. Based on this feedback, Lyza Education identifies and cherry‑picks top‑performing students, such as Aidil and Ashlyn, who placed second and third in this term’s Coder of the Term, and directly nominates them for advanced competitions like the IDE Code Series.

It does sound impressive that one year ago, you barely know much about coding! Have you learnt coding in school?

Yes, I learnt about robotics in school, where I have tried out Lego robots.

And how has the training for the competition been going so far?

So far it has been a new experience for me unlike my usual lessons. I am still trying to adapt, but I find it interesting that I do get to meet classmates of different dynamics. It is also special to participate with my friend Xencia, where I only later learnt that she does coding too!

Xencia the "coding competition senior" to Aidil, who only started competitions in 2026!

We heard you are trying out more than 20 coding challenges on Scratch. Has that been challenging?

Some of it were challenging, especially those that involve heavily in Math. I got to learn new concepts though, such as more operators to command my sprites well, and more sensing blocks.

Did you know?

The IDE Code Series is a coding competition featuring multiple questions on Scratch and Python. Students write code to solve a series of computing-based problems, some of which involve concepts as advanced as basic university-level computing.

Though it is a competition with rules and guidelines to follow, we heard you added some of your little touches to your project. Can you describe more about it?

It actually came as a surprise. I finished fast, and I was bored, so I created a colourful ricochet. I find it interesting that I get to use my creativity, where the rectangles and colours reminded me of Mario.

Who says coding has to be boring and serious? We got to learn that Aidil is actually a quirky boy, often liking to add his personal touch occassionally into his projects, showing strong confidence in mastering more complex concepts!

Let's talk about the future, is there anything you would like to code in the future?

I do like tinkering with Scratch outside of class, where I create animations and games. I do like role-playing games, so I would like to try creating a game like Undertale.