What are coding challenges? How are they related to coding practice?

Coding challenges are tasks or problems that require a programmer or a student to write code to solve them. They are designed to test the student’s ability to think critically, use algorithms and data structures, and write efficient, bug-free code. Coding challenges can be used by students as a form of coding practice, as they offer an opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting.

Coding challenges are related to coding practice for students in that they provide a way to develop and improve their programming skills. By working on beginner coding challenges, students can learn new programming concepts, build their problem-solving abilities, and develop a strong foundation in programming. Students can also put in varied coding practice with different programming languages, libraries, and frameworks, by solving coding problems.

Students can gain coding practice in different forms, such as a timed online test, a take-home assignment, or an on-site exercise. A computer student needs plenty of coding practice to become proficient in coding, and completing online coding challenges such as online quizzes provide productive coding practice. This is because most online coding challenges provide immediate feedback on the work done. Students can test their solutions and see how well they perform against the problem requirements. They can also see how their code compares to other solutions and learn from other programmers’ approaches.

Coding challenges are also used in coding competitions and hackathons to test the skills of participants and provide a fun and competitive environment for learning. The best computer education schools also use coding challenges in their coding courses, to ensure that their students get sufficient coding practice. 

Our coding courses at PurpleTutor provide valuable online coding practice to students, through interesting and innovative coding challenges. These online coding challenges provide our students with coding practice on the design and development of exciting projects such as apps, games, websites, artificial intelligence and machine learning models, and many more. Please read on to learn more about our coding courses.

What are the courses PurpleTutor offers?

PurpleTutor offers coding courses across the following age groups:

• Ages 6-8 years
• Ages 9-11 years
• Ages 12-15 years
• Ages 15+ years

The coding courses in each age group are given below along with a short summary of what students will learn in each course:

Ages 6-8 years (Little Champs Course)

• BASIC PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS – Understanding basic concepts of programming such as commands, sequencing, algorithm, and code through unplugged activities and puzzles. 
• ADVANCED PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS – Exploration of advanced concepts of programming and how to use them in building personalized projects for visual storytelling and games. 
• BASIC ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT– These coding classes cover the basics of UI/UX design and developing simple apps, using the Thunkable interface.
• ADVANCE ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT – Experimenting with the creation of advanced apps such as game apps, quiz apps, etc.  
• SCRATCH AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – Experiencing Scratch programming interface using a movie-making project and a game project. Students are then introduced to the basics of Artificial intelligence and learn how to use the machine learning models to create projects in the Scratch platform.
• SPACE TECHNOLOGY: In these coding classes, students unravel the mysteries of Space by building fascinating games and prototype models based on the concepts of space.

Ages 9-11 Years (Young Learners Course)

• BASIC PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS – Developing an understanding of programming concepts such as commands, sequencing, algorithms, and code through unplugged activities.
• 2D ANIMATION AND GAME DESIGN – Creating beautiful landscapes, and drawings as well as developing animations and interactive games.
• ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT – Designing UI/UX for simple Android apps using Thunkable.
• ADVANCED ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT – Experimenting with the creation of advanced apps such as game apps, quiz apps, etc.
• SCRATCH AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – In this coding course, students learn how to use the Scratch programming interface. The coding classes include  movie-making and game projects. Students are then introduced to the basics of Artificial intelligence and learn how to use the machine learning models to create projects in the Scratch platform.
• INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON PROGRAMMING – Learning Python programming using blocks and gradually shifting to text-based programming. Creating drawings and games using Python Turtle Commands
• 3D ANIMATION AND GAME DESIGN – Learning how to create animations and interactive games in a 2d environment using JavaScript. After exploring the basics of game design using Javascript, students get to work in the 3d environment. Students create 3D terrains, model, and complete game design with a scoreboard using LUA Coding in Roblox Studio
• SPACE TECHNOLOGY – Unravel mysteries of Space by building fascinating games and prototype models based on the concepts of space
• WEB DEVELOPMENT AND CYBER SECURITY – In these coding classes, students will create their own website using HTML commands and style it using CSS. The coding classes in this coding course also explore safe techniques to be followed while working on the internet.
• INTRODUCTION TO DATA SCIENCE – Learn how to run basic math operations to analyze data and represent it using different types of charts and infographics. With Python Pandas library commands students will learn to create tables, insert data in them and print them.

Ages 12-15 years (Early Achievers Course)

• 2D ANIMATION AND GAME DESIGN USING JAVASCRIPT – During these coding classes, the students will learn the drawing commands of JavaScript in the block based environment and then learn how to create sprites, manipulate their properties. They will use events to create animations and interactive games.
• INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON PROGRAMMING – During these coding classes the students will learn the basic concepts of Python and code programs using a text-based editor. All programs are written using the Python Turtle library.
• ADVANCED PYTHON PROGRAMMING – Students will explore advanced Python concepts such as data types, type casting, basic data structures like tuples, lists and dictionaries. 
• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – Students are introduced  to AI and Machine Learning.They will create voice, image and text recognition projects using teachable machines and Scratch. They then explore deeper into how computers visualize images and create various image and video manipulation projects using the CV2 library of Python. They also create a machine learning model for emotion detection, using Python code.
• ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT – The students will explore UI/UX design basics, and design and develop simple apps like language translator, text to speech convertor, color mixer etc, using the Thunkable interface.
• WEB DEVELOPMENT – Students will learn how to create webpages using HTML commands and style them using CSS. They will learn how to make websites interactive. Students will make their own personal website that can be hosted on the internet.
• 3D ANIMATION AND GAME DESIGN – Students will learn the basics of 3d designing in the Roblox studio coding classes. They will create 3d objects, scenes, animations and a maze game, using commands of LUA programming script.
• DATA SCIENCE – PYTHON – Students will work with Google Sheets and Forms to collect and store data. They will learn how to use the Python Numpy module to analyze data. Students will explore the Python Panda library commands to create dataframes. They will learn how to read data from the CSV file and how to visually represent the data using Python Matplotlib library. 
• SPACE TECHNOLOGY – Students will learn to build 3D models and simulations of the functionalities, based on the concepts of space and the technology that is used for it. This coding course offers exposure to Tech-driven projects in 3D.

Ages 15+ years(Young Professionals Course)

• PYTHON BASICS – Students will reinforce their knowledge of the core Python programming concepts, during these coding classes. They will get hands-on experience on activities to apply their understanding of basic data types, conditionals, loops, typecasting, basic data types, functions and variables.
• PYTHON DATA STRUCTURES – I – Students will explore advanced data structures of Python namely lists, dictionaries, tuples, strings, stacks and queues. they will be given practice to write code on how to manipulate data in these data structures using python functions.
• PYTHON DATA STRUCTURES – II – Students will learn how to apply Binary and Linear search algorithms for searching elements. They will also learn how to use Insertion and bubble sort algorithms to sort data.
• DATA SCIENCE FUNDAMENTALS WITH PYTHON – Students will learn how to import and use the math, random and statistics Python libraries that are used in Data Science. In these coding classes, they will also learn about Object Oriented Programming and how to apply it.
• DATA SCIENCE WITH PYTHON -Students will learn to apply statistics module functions on data. They will work to organize and manipulate data in arrays, series and data frames using NumPy. They will also explore the Matplotlib library to represent data using different graphs.
• INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING – Students will be introduced to AI and then explore the applications, limitations, biases, ethics and future of AI. They will gain understanding of the basic AI terms such as supervised learning, unsupervised learning, deep learning and neural networks.

How will a student get ample coding practice from our courses?

All our online coding courses include several coding problems and challenges, the solving of which will give ample online coding practice to students. The courses provide coding practice for beginners, and for intermediate and advanced level students as well.  

Here are some of the coding challenges from some of our courses:

Ages 6-8 years (Little Champs Course)

1. Course name – 2D Animation and Game Design

Coding platform – Block-based coding using code.org

• The Bouncing ball game: Bouncing a ball off a moving bar. 
• Chase the coin game: Collecting coins while avoiding enemies.
• Underwater ride game:   Collecting coins underwater while avoiding crabs.
2. Course name – Scratch and Artificial Intelligence

Coding platform – Scratch

• Movie-making project – Creating the movie characters using sprites, making the movie scenes, coding the movie.
• Food game – Finding the food that is good to eat.
• Emotion detector bot – Making an AI model that can classify emotions.
• Smart room – Creating an online smart room, that responds to voice commands.
3. Course name – Space Technology 

Coding platform – Scratch

• Mars Habitat Challenge – Build a Mars colony using Mars resources and adapting to its environment.

Ages 9-11 Years (Young Learners Course)

1. Course name – Android App Development Course

Coding platform – Thunkable

• Simple Calculator app – Making a calculator app for android mobile phones.
• Calculating planet weight – Finding weight on different planets app.
• Doodle app – Creating a doodle app that lets you draw on your phone.
• Fun with spelling app – An app that teaches small children to spell.
2. Course name – Web Development Course

Coding Platform – HTML and CSS in a web browser

• Mon Jeu – Making your own website with audio, video and web picture gallery.
3. Course name – Advanced Python Programming

Coding Platform – Python in replit

• Ninja Turtle Shooter game – A space shooting game
• Table-Tennis game – A 2 player ball game 
4. Course name – 3D Animation and Game Design  

Coding Platform – JavaScript, Lua Coding in Roblox studio

• Developer’s Challenge – Game involving terrain building, character building and animation.

Ages 12-15 years (Early Achievers Course)

1. Course name – Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Coding Platform – Python and Scratch

• Face Detection – Identifying and marking faces in a picture and video.
• Invisibility cloak – Creating the virtual version of Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.
• PacMan game – Making a machine learning model to play PacMan
2. Course name – Advanced Python Programming

Coding Platform – Python in replit

• Bingo Game – Virtual version of Bingo.
• Who wants to be millionaire – Online version of the popular quiz game.
3. Course name – Space Technology Course

Coding platform – Lua Coding in Roblox studio

• Virtual Rocket – Building a virtual rocket with staging and launching phases.

These are just some of the coding challenges in our courses. We have many more fascinating challenges and projects that will inspire students to innovate and create, gaining invaluable coding practice along the way.  

Course Content, Duration and Certificate

To view the detailed course content for each course, please click on the course name. The number of sessions for each coding course is given in the Duration column. Each session lasts for an hour.

Students will be eligible to get a certificate at the end of each of the given coding courses.

Ages 6-8 years(Little Champs Course)

Age 9-11 years (Young Learners Course)

Ages 12-15 years (Early Achievers Course)

Ages 15+ years(Young Professionals Course)

Course Requirements

• There are no coding prerequisites needed for all our courses except for the Data Science courses. All the courses will start with the very basics before moving on to the core concepts.
• Students should have a laptop or computer with a webcam and a stable internet connection to take our online coding classes.
• To take any of the Data Science coding courses, the student needs to know core Python programming concepts.
• For the 3D Animation and Game Design course and the Space Tech course for the Age group 12-15 years, Please go through Roblox hardware and OS requirements as mentioned here.