A pair of smart glasses that tells a visually impaired wearer what their finger is pointing at. A walking aid for the same users that guides them along their route in real time. A device that gives instant feedback so the person performing CPR gets each compression right. Each of these projects won at the Korea Code Fair's software competition, and each went on to earn a Grand Award at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the United States.
For many high school students, coding has moved well beyond a hobby; building software trains problem solving and logical thinking. Fewer realize that Korea has official routes to ISEF, and the Korea Code Fair's software competition is one of them.
What the Korea Code Fair is
The Korea Code Fair (KCF) is a national software competition for young people, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and run by the National Information Society Agency (NIA). It is open to elementary, middle and high school students, or young people of equivalent age, and thousands take part every year.
The fair is not built simply to find the best coders. Its purpose is educational. Students take a problem from daily life, the environment or society and solve it with software, or build software that can contribute to progress in science and technology, developing creativity and teamwork along the way. The seventh edition, in 2025, ran under the theme "A future with AI: coding creative innovation."
Three ways to take part
The Code Fair has three components:
- Software competition. Students plan and build their own software and submit the finished work. The topic comes from a real-life problem or social issue, and the solution has to be their own.
- Hackathon. Teams build software on an assigned theme within a fixed time limit. It tests hands-on skill and the ability to work as a team.
- Online software study room. Online lessons in algorithms, programming and other software fundamentals.
The software competition is the most competitive of the three, and it is the one connected directly to ISEF.
How the competition connects to ISEF
Under the official 2025 rules, in the software competition earn the chance to take part in the selection for Korea's ISEF delegation. The delegation is chosen by interview from among the winners who meet ISEF's own eligibility requirement: students from the third year of middle school through the third year of high school (the equivalent of Grades 9 to 12) at the time of ISEF. The rules add two further points:
