Each group will get 3 sets of 4 tasks. The 3 sets each have a level of difficulty: easy, medium or hard.

Examples

Though there is no need to prepare for the contest,
you might want to get a feel for the style of the tasks.
There are sample questions shown below to do so:

Example 1

Commands

Very easy applications have only a few commands. A command tells something (or someone) what has to be done. Which of these lines could be seen as an easy application

Answers:

A)    What is data?

B)    Come in and close the door!

C)    One plus one is two

D)    Welcome home!

Solution:

B) Command-1 is "come in", Command-2 is "close the door". It works properly, if you start being outside, and the door is open, and you execute the commands sequentially. What happens to you executing the program with the door being closed?

Answer A) is not a program but a question. C) is an equation, but nothing to do. D) is a message for somebody, but it is nothing to do.

 It's Informatics: Commands and data are fundamental principles of informatics. Commands tell the computer what it should do with data, or computers can instruct actuators (things that do something in the real world) to perform an action in the real world. Many commands can be expressed as a program for humans, for robots, for computerised gadgets, etc. To express something, language is needed. It is not yet decided whether the natural human languages, spoken or written, in the long term will be easily useable for programming. People working in Informatics research this problem. So far, logical, and very strictly structured calculuses serve as programming "languages". If you learn to program, you have to learn how to properly transform natural language-based ideas about the what to do into syntactically correct and semantically almost error-free command sequences.

Example 2

Glasses

There are five drinking glasses on the table. One of them is turned upside down.

In this game, you have to get all glasses upright again. But: you have to turn exactly three glasses every turn. How many turns do you need at least to get all the glasses standing upright?

Answers:

A) 2 turns

B) 5 turns

C) 3 turns

 D) it is impossible!

 Solution: C

For example:

Notice that there must be an odd number of turns, since after the first turn, there will be either 2 or 4 glasses which are upside-down. On the next turn, there will be an odd number (1,3,5) of glasses which are upside-down. Thus, we require more than 2 moves and in general we require an odd number of moves. We have shown a solution which uses 3 turns, which must be the minimum. It's Informatics: Following an algorithm, we can keep track of the state of the system or its variables. Reasoning about parity and arguing correctness for an algorithm are important aspects of informatics. One possible way to analyse the solution is to consider either deterministic finite automata (self-operating machines) or to consider a breadth-first search.

Recognition and Reward: Winning or performing well in computational thinking competitions can provide participants with recognition and rewards, such as prizes, scholarships, or opportunities for further education or career advancement. These incentives can motivate individuals to push themselves further and strive for excellence in their computational skills.