Maths and coding competitions in Germany

Sources, all read on 2 November 2026: bwinf.de (Biber 2026, Termine, Jugendwettbewerb 2026, Bundeswettbewerb, Olympiade 2027); mathe-wettbewerbe.de (Mathematik-Olympiade); mathematik-olympiaden.de; mathe-kaenguru.de; pangea-wettbewerb.de (Termine); jugend-forscht.de (Ablauf auf einen Blick); bw-ki.de. The Jugendwettbewerb Informatik had not yet published its 2027 rounds; in 2026, round 1 ran from 23 February to 8 March 2026 and round 2 from 17 April to 3 May 2026.

Sources: bwinf.de (Biber task counts per Klasse; Jugendwettbewerb levels, recommended Jahrgangsstufen; Bundeswettbewerb eligibility); mathe-wettbewerbe.de (Olympiade rounds by Klassenstufe; Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik for pupils who can reach the Hochschulreife); mathe-kaenguru.de (75 minutes, 24 or 30 problems by Klassenstufe); pangea-wettbewerb.de (Ablauf); jugend-forscht.de (Alterssparten); first-lego-league.org (ages 5 to 16); bw-ki.de (Teilnahmebedingungen). Read 2 November 2026.

The Jugendwettbewerb levels are recommendations, not rules. Since 2026 all three levels are open to everyone in round 1, so a strong pupil in Klasse 6 can try Silber, and a pupil in Klasse 10 who has never programmed can start with Bronze. Only Gold leads on: whoever earns at least an Anerkennung in Gold in round 2 is qualified for round 3, which is the two junior tasks of the Bundeswettbewerb.

Sources: bwinf.de (Biber, Bundeswettbewerb); mathe-kaenguru.de ("ein Einzelwettbewerb"); mathe-wettbewerbe.de (Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik rules on groups and on artificial intelligence); bw-ki.de (team size, documentation, runnable code and video pitch); first-lego-league.org (school teams, classes, clubs or private groups). The grouping into four skills is ours.

Sources: bwinf.de (Biber Teilnehmen, Jugendwettbewerb Für wen, Bundeswettbewerb); mathe-wettbewerbe.de (Mathematik-Olympiade in weiterführenden Schulen; Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik); mathe-kaenguru.de; pangea-wettbewerb.de (Ablauf, Online-Anmeldung); jugend-forscht.de; bw-ki.de; first-lego-league.org. Read 2 November 2026. Rules change from year to year: the organiser's page is the one that counts.

1. Ask the maths or computing teacher in September. The Olympiade school round starts with the school year, and the Biber coordinator registers from September. A teacher who knows a pupil is keen will often pass the first tasks on.
2. If the school does not take part, look at the self-entry routes. The Jugendwettbewerb, the Bundeswettbewerb Informatik, the Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik, Jugend forscht and the BWKI can all be entered by the pupil, with a parent's agreement where the rules ask for it.
3. Note the closing dates, not only the contest days. The Känguru closes registration on 31 January 2027 for a contest on 8 April 2027; Jugend forscht closes on 30 November for a contest in February.
4. Keep the work the pupil's own. Group work is welcome in some rounds and forbidden in others, and the Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik excludes using artificial intelligence to solve the problems or to check a solution.

We are not connected with BWINF, the Mathematik-Olympiaden e.V., Mathematikwettbewerb Känguru e.V., Bildung & Begabung, the Stiftung Jugend forscht, the Tübingen AI Center or any other organiser, and we cannot register anyone for a contest. We teach the thinking behind the tasks; the entry itself goes through the school or the organiser's own site.

# Competition dates for 2026/27, written the German way: day.month.year
termine = [
    ("Mathematik-Olympiade, Regionalrunde", "11.11.2026"),
    ("Informatik-Biber, first day", "09.11.2026"),
    ("Bundeswettbewerb Informatik, round 1 closes", "23.11.2026"),
    ("Jugend forscht, registration closes", "30.11.2026"),
    ("Känguru, registration opens", "01.12.2026"),
    ("Känguru, registration closes", "31.01.2027"),
    ("Pangea, preliminary round opens", "23.02.2027"),
    ("Mathematik-Olympiade, Landesrunde", "26.02.2027"),
    ("Känguru der Mathematik", "08.04.2027"),
    ("Mathematik-Olympiade, Bundesrunde", "30.05.2027"),
    ("Pangea, final", "12.06.2027"),
    ("IOI 2027, Potsdam", "12.09.2027"),
]

for name, datum in sorted(termine, key=lambda t: t[1])[:4]:
    print(datum, name)

An April 2027 contest has jumped ahead of the November 2026 Biber. Nothing crashed and no error appeared, which makes this kind of bug dangerous: the output has the right shape and the wrong order. The fix is to stop sorting text and sort dates. Python's strptime reads the German pattern, day, dot, month, dot, four-digit year, and turns each string into a real date that knows which year it belongs to.

from datetime import datetime

def als_datum(text):
    return datetime.strptime(text, "%d.%m.%Y").date()

for name, datum in sorted(termine, key=lambda t: als_datum(t[1]))[:4]:
    print(datum, name)

daten = sorted(als_datum(d) for _, d in termine)
paare = zip(daten, daten[1:])
a, b = max(paare, key=lambda p: (p[1] - p[0]).days)
print("Longest gap:", (b - a).days, "days, from", a, "to", b)

1. Ages 8 to 10, on paper. Write the twelve dates on cards, shuffle them, and sort them by hand. Then sort them again reading only the first two digits. Which cards move?
2. Ages 10 to 13, Python. Run Version 1 and explain, in one sentence, why 01.12.2026 comes first. Then change the dates to the year-month-day form 2026-12-01 and sort them as text. Why does that order come out right?
3. Ages 13 and up. Add the closing date of every registration to the list and print, for a date you type in, the next three deadlines. Test it with 1 December 2026, a day on which one window opens.

The program, its output and the gap of 92 days are our own work, run with Python 3 on 3 November 2026. The dates come from the organisers named in the first table.

3. A first proof (Klasse 7 and 8). Problem: show that the sum of any five whole numbers in a row is divisible by 5, and decide whether 2026 and 2030 can be written as such a sum. Solution: call the middle number n. The five numbers are n − 2, n − 1, n, n + 1 and n + 2, and the twos and ones cancel, so the sum is 5n, always a multiple of 5. Since 2030 = 5 · 406, it is 404 + 405 + 406 + 407 + 408. And 2026 leaves remainder 1 when divided by 5, so it can never be written this way. What earns the marks: an Olympiade answer of "2030 yes, 2026 no" with no reason scores little. The sentence about 5n is the solution.