If your child has ever asked whether their Scratch game is actually any good, imagine them finding out in front of real software engineers. That’s what happened at Dtec in Dubai Silicon Oasis on Saturday 26 February 2022, when iCodejr ran the very first Code Battle. At the time, 263 students in 102 teams from 16 Dubai schools signed up to take part.
The day was run with Dtec, the tech hub of Dubai Silicon Oasis, as part of UAE Innovates 2022, the month-long national innovation festival. It was iCodejr’s first inter-school coding competition, and the start of the free inter-school hackathon we’ve run every year since.
The first Code Battle at a glance
| Date | Saturday 26 February 2022 |
| Venue | Dtec, Dubai Silicon Oasis (Technohub 1 and Building A5, Dubai Digital Park) |
| Part of | UAE Innovates 2022 |
| Partners | Dtec and Dubai Silicon Oasis |
| Sign-ups | 263 students in 102 teams from 16 Dubai schools (at the time) |
| Divisions | Cadet (Grades 1–4), Captain (Grades 5–8), Colonel (Grades 9–12) |
| Build time | 90 minutes, on a theme revealed on the day |
| Entry | Free |
How the day worked
Students came in school uniform and competed in teams of two or three. The youngest coders, in the Cadet division, worked in Dtec’s Building A5, while the Captain and Colonel teams were next door in Technohub 1.
After the opening at 10am, each division was given two themes to choose from. Teams then had 90 minutes to build their project. Cadet teams used block-based tools such as Scratch; the older divisions could choose blocks or text-based code. Every team then had two to three minutes to present its project to the judges, and the awards closed the day in the early afternoon.
How projects were judged
Five judges, from tech companies, schools and universities, scored every project on five equal criteria: code, creativity, originality, user interface and presentation. The panel was:
- Almas Q.
- Naiyarah H.
- Yasmine F.
- Maria D.
- Ali K.
The winners
| Division | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cadet (Grades 1–4) | Lambda, Ambassador School | Creative Minds, GEMS Modern Academy | Coding Kids, JSS Private School |
| Captain (Grades 5–8) | Delta, Regent International School | Alpha, GEMS Wellington Academy | CIS Jr.coders1, Cambridge International School, Dubai |
| Colonel (Grades 9–12) | DC1, Dubai College | DC2, Dubai College | CIS Sr.Coders1, Cambridge International School, Dubai |
Dubai College took both top places in the oldest division, and Cambridge International School, Dubai reached the podium in two divisions.
The calibre of their capabilities
“We were overwhelmed not only by the number of schools and students that participated but by the calibre of their capabilities. I am sure that with strong support and guidance, these students will go on to do much more exciting things in future.” — Hannan Moti, Founder and CEO, iCodejr
Before the day, Dtec’s Hans Christensen, Senior Director, Technology & Entrepreneurship, explained why the campus wanted to host it: “Coding is at the core of technology innovation and advancement.” Hannan said iCodejr hoped to “expand this to other Emirates and around the GCC”.
Thank you
Thank you to Dtec and Dubai Silicon Oasis for hosting us, to UAE Innovates 2022 for making the competition part of the festival, to our five judges, and to every teacher who brought a team. Above all, thank you to the students who came to code on a Saturday.
What came next
Updated 17 October 2026.
That hope to go beyond Dubai came true. In November 2022, Code Battle ran a Sharjah and Northern Emirates chapter with Sheraa. In 2023 it added Abu Dhabi and a national final, which you can read about in Code Battle 2023. Code Battle 2024 brought in 450+ students from five emirates, and at Code Battle 2025, Dubai College won the Grades 9–12 title again.
Code Battle 2026 takes place on 21 November 2026 at Heriot-Watt University Dubai. Entry is still free, and teachers can register their school on codebattle.tech. If you’re thinking about running a hackathon of your own, read our guide to hackathons in the UAE for schools.
In the news
- Market Buzz, 28 February 2022: Inaugural Inter-school coding competition attracts 263 students in 102 teams from16 schools (the results release)
- Zawya, 25 February 2022: iCodejr and Dtec to host inter-school coding competition in Dubai (the announcement)
- Khaleej Times, 11 March 2022: Star Tech: Coding made fun, thanks to iCodejr.com, by Joydeep Sengupta (a profile of iCodejr that mentions its first hackathon for Dubai students)
- Season page: Code Battle 2022 on codebattle.tech
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