Bebras Challenge Practice (USA 2026): Format, Scoring, Puzzles

In short

The USA Bebras Computing Challenge is a free, 45-minute online contest in computational thinking for students aged 6 to 18, held in schools; in 2026 it runs from November 9 to 20. A teacher or homeschool parent signs up as coordinator. No study is required, but puzzle practice builds the thinking it rewards. Our live online course, Problem Solving and Computational Thinking for Kids, teaches exactly that, with a group of 15 to 20 or one to one, and a free trial lesson.

Thinking, then code

Three courses that grow the thinking Bebras rewards

Each one teaches children to break a problem down, spot the pattern and plan the steps before acting.

BCP / 01

Problem solving and computational thinking

Logic, patterns and algorithms for ages 8 to 14.

Open the syllabus →

Reasoning and Readiness for Young Thinkers (Ages 6 to 9) course thumbnail

BCP / 02

Young thinkers, 6 to 9

For Kits and Castors: patterns and spatial play.

Open the syllabus →

BCP / 03

Python and AI for kids

Turn the puzzle ideas into real programs.

Open the syllabus →

Bebras USA

What is the Bebras Computing Challenge in the USA?

It is a short, free online challenge of computational thinking tasks, taken at school under a teacher's supervision. It is part of an international initiative; bebras.org describes its organization as the "organizer of the International Challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinking".

From the US organizer

For this year the US organizer gives a two-week window, November 9 to 20, 2026, and its home page stresses two things: entry costs nothing, and children need no special preparation or study to tackle the tasks.

Students aged 6 to 18 get 45 minutes "to complete as many tasks as they can, they are not expected to finish them all." The site adds that the worldwide Bebras week for task solving "occurs during the second week of November."

What computational thinking means here

The organizer describes computational thinking as problem-solving skills that software engineers apply in programming, and lists "breaking down complex tasks, algorithm design, pattern recognition, generalization, and abstraction".

No coding is needed to take part. The tasks are short puzzles that use those ideas, which is why a child who has never programmed can still do well.

How to take part in Bebras USA (bebraschallenge.org Students, Teachers and Registration pages, read 31 October 2026)
Step	Who	What the organizer says
1. Register	Teacher or homeschool parent	Register as a coordinator; approval "may take 1-3 business days"
2. Enter students	Coordinator	Creates a log-in for each student
3. Set up devices	School	An internet connection and computers or tablets with Windows, Mac or Linux
4. Run the challenge	Teacher supervises	On one of the ten school days of the challenge weeks; 45 minutes each
5. Results	Coordinator	Downloads certificates with each score; solutions go online afterward

Homeschool families can take part: the registration page asks a homeschool teacher to "select a distinctive name for your homeschool (e.g., Home School [initials], Home School [number], etc.)". Students cannot register themselves; their teacher or parent coordinator does it.

Sources: USA Bebras Computing Challenge (home, Students, Teachers, Registration and Examples pages) and bebras.org, read 31 October 2026. Bebras is a registered trademark of its owner. Modern Age Coders is not connected with Bebras USA, the international Bebras organization or any school.

Age groups

Which Bebras age group is my child in, and how many tasks are there?

Bebras USA has six age categories, each with its own tasks split into easy, medium and hard. The youngest groups get fewer tasks in the same 45 minutes.

The six Bebras USA groups, youngest first, with the task mix the organizer lists for each (bebraschallenge.org home page, read 31 October 2026)
Bebras group	Age band	Task mix by difficulty	Typical US grades (our rough guide)
Kits	Ages 6 to 8	Three easy, three medium, three hard	Grades 1 to 2
Castors	Ages 8 to 10	Four of each difficulty	Grades 3 to 4
Benjamins	Ages 10 to 12	Five of each difficulty	Grades 5 to 6
Cadets	Ages 12 to 14	Five of each difficulty	Grades 7 to 8
Juniors	Ages 14 to 16	Five of each difficulty	Grades 9 to 10
Seniors	Ages 16 to 18	Five of each difficulty	Grades 11 to 12

Reading the table

From Benjamins up, the students page describes the familiar format: "You get 15 multiple-choice questions and the maximum score is 180." The Kits and Castors groups have fewer tasks, so there is more time for each one.

Ages overlap at the edges (8 appears for both Kits and Castors). The coordinator places each student; when in doubt, ask the teacher which group they chose.

On the day

The students page says "You will participate online in your own school building. A teacher will supervise and it will take 45 minutes." It also says "you can use pen, paper and any calculator you want".

That pen-and-paper permission matters. Many tasks become easy once you draw the situation, and children who sketch tend to make fewer slips.

Scoring

How is the Bebras Challenge scored, and should you guess?

Every student starts with 45 points. Right answers add points, wrong answers take some away, and a blank costs nothing. That design changes how a sensible student should treat a question she cannot solve.

Bebras USA scoring rules (bebraschallenge.org Students page, read 31 October 2026)
Category	Tasks	Correct	No answer	Incorrect
A (easier)	5	+6	0	-2
B (medium)	5	+9	0	-3
C (harder)	5	+12	0	-4
Starting score		45

Why start at 45? (our arithmetic)

If a student answered all 15 questions wrongly she would lose 5 x 2 + 5 x 3 + 5 x 4 = 10 + 15 + 20 = 45 points. Starting at 45 means the lowest possible score is exactly 0, never negative. The published maximum is 180.

In each category the penalty is one third of the reward: 2 of 6, 3 of 9, 4 of 12. That ratio is what makes the guessing question interesting.

To guess or not (our arithmetic)

Suppose a question has four choices and you have no idea. A blind guess in category A is right one time in four: on average 6 / 4 - 2 x 3 / 4 = 1.5 - 1.5 = 0. Guessing blind gains nothing on average, in every category.

Now rule out one choice. With three left, category A averages 6 / 3 - 2 x 2 / 3 = 2/3 of a point, B averages 1 point, and C averages 4/3. So: skip what you cannot touch, but guess once you can eliminate even one answer.

Scoring rules from the Bebras USA Students page, read 31 October 2026. The four-choice assumption and the averages are our own calculations, checked with exact fractions in Python; the number of choices can differ from task to task.

A puzzle

What does a computational thinking puzzle look like? A worked example

Here is an original puzzle of ours about a stack, one of the most useful ideas in computer science. It is not a Bebras task and does not imitate one; it simply uses the same kind of thinking.

The puzzle (ours)

Three rail cars, numbered 1, 2 and 3, arrive from the right in that order. Each car can either roll straight on to the left track or back into a short dead-end siding. A car can only leave the siding if it is the one nearest the exit, so the last car in is the first car out.

The left track must end up with the cars in a chosen order. Which of the six possible orders can be made? One of them cannot. Which, and why?

The reasoning

Try 3, 1, 2. To send car 3 first, cars 1 and 2 must both wait in the siding, with car 2 nearest the exit. The next car out of the siding must therefore be 2, not 1. So 3, 1, 2 is impossible.

Every other order works. For 2, 3, 1: park 1, send 2, send 3, then release 1. Five of the six orders are possible. Our Python check below confirms it, and for four cars it finds 14 possible orders out of 24.

siding.py (ours)Python

# siding.py (ours): which orders can three rail cars leave in, using one dead-end siding?
from itertools import permutations

def possible(order, n):
    siding, next_car = [], 1
    for wanted in order:
        # push cars into the siding until the wanted car is on top
        while (not siding or siding[-1] != wanted) and next_car <= n:
            siding.append(next_car)
            next_car += 1
        if siding and siding[-1] == wanted:
            siding.pop()          # the top car leaves first: last in, first out
        else:
            return False
    return True

for order in permutations([1, 2, 3]):
    print(order, possible(order, 3))

Run by us with Python 3: every order prints True except (3, 1, 2), which prints False.

Draw it. Sketch the tracks and move numbered scraps of paper. A puzzle that is hard in your head is often easy on paper.
Name the rule. "Last in, first out" is the whole puzzle. Computer scientists call a structure with this rule a stack.
Look for the blocker. An order fails when a smaller car is trapped behind a bigger one that has to leave later.
Generalize. Ask what happens with four cars. Generalization is one of the skills the organizer names.

Practice

How can my child practice for Bebras without drilling?

Try the organizer's own practice challenge once to meet the format, then spend the rest of the time on varied puzzles and a little code. The Examples page itself says there is "no need to prepare", only to get a feel for the style.

Five original practice puzzles with answers (ours; answers checked in Python)
Puzzle	Idea	Answer
Five lamps are worth 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1. Which lamps are on to show 13?	Binary: biggest first	8, 4 and 1
Shapes go circle, square, square, circle, square, square ... What is the 20th?	Pattern of length 3; 20 leaves remainder 2	Square
Roads: A to B 2, B to C 1, C to D 2, A to C 4, B to D 5. Shortest A to D?	Compare every route	5, via B and C
Cards read 3, 1, 2. Swapping only neighbors, fewest swaps to reach 1, 2, 3?	Count pairs out of order	2
With four rail cars and one siding, how many leaving orders are possible?	The stack rule again	14 of 24

Weeks 1 to 2 (ours). Patterns and sequences: repeating shapes, number patterns, spotting the rule.
Weeks 3 to 4. Algorithms: following and writing step-by-step instructions, shortest routes, sorting cards by hand.
Week 5. Data and abstraction: binary lamps, maps that keep only what matters, stacks and queues.
Week 6. Try the official practice challenge from the Examples page once, timed, then talk through what was hard. Rest before the real day.

Taking Bebras in another country? See our UK Bebras guide or our Bebras Australia guide. For the whole US season of contests, see the US competitions calendar.

Where your child is

Four stages of puzzle thinking

Our own description of how children grow as problem solvers.

Stages of solving a logic puzzle (ours)
Stage	What it looks like
1. Guesses	Picks the answer that looks right without testing it
2. Tries cases	Tests choices one at a time until one works
3. Finds the rule	Spots the constraint that rules choices out quickly
4. Explains and extends	Can say why an answer must be right, and what happens with bigger cases

For parents

Stage 2 is a fine place to be at age 8. The step to stage 3 comes from talking about puzzles, not from doing more of them silently.

Ask "how do you know?" more often than "what is the answer?".

For students

If a puzzle feels stuck, draw it, or try the smallest version first: two cars before three.

A blank costs nothing in Bebras. Come back to hard questions at the end.

The catalogue

Thinking, math and coding courses for ages 6 to 18

Live courses that build logic first and code second, for every Bebras age group.

I

Kits and Castors

Ages 6 to 10

BCP / K / 01

Reasoning and readiness

Patterns and spatial play.

Open the syllabus

BCP / K / 02

Scratch coding

Algorithms in blocks.

Open the syllabus

BCP / K / 03

Mental math

Quick number sense.

Open the syllabus

II

Benjamins and Cadets

Ages 10 to 14

BCP / B / 01

Problem solving

Logic and algorithms.

Open the syllabus

BCP / B / 02

Math through coding

Puzzles in Python.

Open the syllabus

BCP / B / 03

Math competitions

MATHCOUNTS and AMC 8.

Open the syllabus

III

Juniors and Seniors

Ages 14 to 18

BCP / S / 01

Python for teens

Beginner to advanced.

Open the syllabus

BCP / S / 02

Java for teens

Classes and data structures.

Open the syllabus

BCP / S / 03

Olympiad math

AMC and beyond.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Live problem-solving lessons, any time of the school year

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

Weekdays

After school, one puzzle theme per lesson.

Weekends

Longer sessions mixing puzzles and code.

1-on-1

For a child who wants more stretch.

Think aloud

Students explain, not just answer.

Draw first

Sketching is taught as a skill.

Puzzles we wrote

Never copied contest tasks.

Then code it

Ideas become small programs.

No prize promises

We teach thinking; results are theirs.

Batch or private

Fifteen to twenty, or one to one.

Student work

What our young problem solvers build

Puzzle games and first programs made in our classes. More in student labs.

AI and ML

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Misti

A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

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GuardianX

An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online.

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Web app

SkyCast

A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.

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Fees

Problem-solving lessons are billed monthly with nothing locked in, so a family can try a term of puzzles around challenge season and carry on only if it is useful.

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Fifteen to twenty learners
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One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

A private teacher
Paced to your child
Flexible scheduling

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Questions from families

Bebras Challenge practice: questions answered

When is the Bebras Challenge 2026 in the USA?

The USA Bebras site says the 2026 challenge is scheduled for November 9 to 20, 2026. Schools choose one of the ten school days in that window to run it.

How do you prepare for the Bebras Challenge?

The organizer says no preparation or studying is needed. The useful step is trying the official practice challenge once to meet the format, plus regular logic puzzles that build pattern spotting, step-by-step planning and abstraction.

How long is the Bebras Challenge?

It lasts 45 minutes. Students try as many tasks as they can, and the organizer says they are not expected to finish them all.

How is Bebras scored?

Every student starts with 45 points. Easier A tasks give 6 points for a right answer and take 2 for a wrong one, B tasks give 9 or take 3, C tasks give 12 or take 4, and a blank scores 0. The students page gives a maximum of 180.

Should my child guess on Bebras?

By our own calculation, a blind guess among four choices gains nothing on average because of the penalty. Once one choice can be ruled out, guessing becomes worthwhile on average, so leave blanks only where nothing can be eliminated.

Is the Bebras Challenge free?

Yes. The USA Bebras site says participating in the challenge is free.

Can homeschoolers take part in Bebras?

Yes. A homeschool parent registers as a coordinator, and the registration page asks for a distinctive name such as Home School followed by your initials. Approval may take 1 to 3 business days.

Which Bebras group is for a 9-year-old?

Bebras USA lists Castors for ages 8 to 10, with four easy, four medium and four hard tasks. The coordinator makes the final placement.

What times are your classes?

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

Are you connected with Bebras?

No. We are an independent online school with no link to Bebras USA or the international Bebras organization. Our puzzles are our own, and we never reproduce Bebras tasks.

Elsewhere on this site

Related pages

More contests and thinking skills for US students.

US competitions calendar

Every 2026 to 2027 date in one place.

Coding competitions for middle school

What comes after Bebras.

Math Kangaroo USA

Another friendly first contest.

Computer science extracurriculars

Clubs, contests and projects.

Coding for elementary students

Algorithms for young learners.

Bebras in the UK

The UK challenge and its follow-on round.

Related pages in this guide

Part of the guide: US math and coding competitions guide

Coding and robotics

Math contests

Projects and next steps

More guides: US state math tests by state · US gifted and selective school tests · US math placement and college readiness tests · Homeschool and school math curricula guide

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Tell us your child's age and which Bebras group they are in. The teacher will start with a puzzle at the right level and see how they think.

You may want to look at the way we teach or the full course list first.

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Book a priority demo

Three courses that grow the thinking Bebras rewards

Problem solving and computational thinking

Young thinkers, 6 to 9

Python and AI for kids

What is the Bebras Computing Challenge in the USA?

From the US organizer

What computational thinking means here

Which Bebras age group is my child in, and how many tasks are there?

Reading the table

On the day

How is the Bebras Challenge scored, and should you guess?

Why start at 45? (our arithmetic)

To guess or not (our arithmetic)

What does a computational thinking puzzle look like? A worked example

The puzzle (ours)

The reasoning

How can my child practice for Bebras without drilling?

Four stages of puzzle thinking

For parents

For students

Thinking, math and coding courses for ages 6 to 18

Kits and Castors

Reasoning and readiness

Scratch coding

Mental math

Benjamins and Cadets

Problem solving

Math through coding

Math competitions

Juniors and Seniors

Python for teens

Java for teens

Olympiad math

Live problem-solving lessons, any time of the school year

Think aloud

Draw first

Puzzles we wrote

Then code it

No prize promises

Batch or private

What our young problem solvers build

NutriLife

Misti

GuardianX

SkyCast

Fees

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

Bebras Challenge practice: questions answered

When is the Bebras Challenge 2026 in the USA?

How do you prepare for the Bebras Challenge?

How long is the Bebras Challenge?

How is Bebras scored?

Should my child guess on Bebras?

Is the Bebras Challenge free?

Can homeschoolers take part in Bebras?

Which Bebras group is for a 9-year-old?

What times are your classes?

Are you connected with Bebras?

Related pages

US competitions calendar

Coding competitions for middle school

Math Kangaroo USA

Computer science extracurriculars

Coding for elementary students

Bebras in the UK

Related pages in this guide

Coding and robotics

Math contests

Projects and next steps

Book a free problem-solving class

Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

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