Coding classes in Aberdeenshire

Imagine eight teams in a contest where each pair meets once. That is 28 contests, and with four arenas running at once they could fit into seven rounds. The circle method finds such a schedule. Write the teams round a circle, keep team 1 fixed, pair them across the circle for round one, then rotate everyone else one place and pair them again. After seven rotations every pair has met exactly once. The learner codes it with a list and a slice, and then writes the part that matters more: a checker that confirms every pair appears once and no team is in two contests in the same round.

An odd number of teams needs a trick: add a pretend team called "rest", and whoever is paired with it sits that round out. With seven teams that gives seven rounds, each with one team resting. Here our own first checker failed, reporting that the seven-team schedule was broken. The schedule was fine; the checker had counted the resting team as if it were competing. Testing the tests is part of the job.

Now fairness. In many contests, teams start from one end of the arena or the other, and it is fairer if nobody is stuck at the same end round after round. Scheduling experts call it a break when a team has the same end twice running. The simple circle method gives eight teams 36 breaks; swapping the ends in alternate rounds cuts that to 6, without changing who meets whom. The same schedule becomes much fairer with one extra line of code.

Learning to code in 2026 gives an Aberdeenshire teenager the means to check the work an AI hands back. The longer argument is in why teenagers should still learn to code in 2026.