Python level-based challenges

Looking through various Python tutorials that are online for kids, I can kind of see why some of the initial rewards can seem ‘boring’ to kids who are being lured by the pretty graphics and animations of modern tablets. Coding challenges and Capture The Flag (CTF) team competitions have always seemed a bit more exciting than talking about text-adventures sometimes.

Although we’re probably not up to CTFs or the Google coding challenges that are running, I came across a fun level-based Python challenge, written by Nadav Sanet, that just happens to align quite well with our Code Club activities. ;) The idea behind this particular challenge is:

• solve the problem by writing a Python script
• get to the next level web page
• solve the next problem

…and so on.

I reckon this will be loads more fun because writing the script actually leads to progression in the game itself! It also lends itself to teamwork, and I can drop clues as we go. Hopefully this will be tons more satisfying to work through from week to week, and will also get us thinking a lot more to solve a problem and see how far we can get. Last year we had some good competition building up between groups working on the robots, and with our quiz. This may help tap into that energy again, while showing how various components work together.

So before we start, here’s a screenshot:

I’ll let you know how it goes… :)