BEBRAS

BEBRAS is the Lithuanian word for beaver- a hard-working, intelligent, logical and methodical creature. It is also the name of an international Computational Thinking and Informatics competition for school students. Run by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, it is internationally renowned and highly regarded. Students who participate learn skills including abstraction, decomposition, pattern recognition, and algorithmic thinking, which are all skills sought after in higher education and employment.

In addition to learning these skills, taking part in a BEBRAS competition looks excellent on UCAS statements, apprenticeship and higher education applications and personal statements. It also expands the mind and builds confidence in your own abilities, making it useful for all subjects you learn at school.

There are 4 competition categories: 

Juniors - 1st Form

Intermediates - 2nd & 3rd Form

Seniors - 4th & 5th Form

Elites - LVI & UVI Form 

Anyone can participate in the BEBRAS competition, whether you take Computer Science as a subject or not- there are many past competitions you can practice with, to get used to the types of questions that will be asked. Make sure you attempt the questions from your category!

The actual competition runs between 10th - 21st November 2025. Before 10th November everyone at school will be given a BEBRAS login email and you will be able to log into the BEBRAS competition and participate. The competition is 40 minutes long. 

All 1st, 2nd and 3rd Form, GCSE and A-Level CompSci pupils will take the first round of the competition in their Computer Science lessons during that time. For anyone else who wants to take part I will send an email out closer to the time with a form to complete and a lesson time will be allocated in the Computer Science room for you to complete the competition, similarly to how the Mathematics Challenge is run.   

A few weeks after the competition closes all participants will receive a certificate, merit or distinction. Anyone who does particularly well will be invited to participate in an advanced competition run by the Oxford university.

This video sums up how the BEBRAS competition will run.