If your child has ever built a game and then begged you to play it, you know the feeling in the room at Code Battle 2025. Over three weekend days in November, 205 students in 79 teams from more than 53 schools came to DTEC in Dubai Digital Park to build a project in two hours and pitch it to a panel of judges.
Code Battle is iCodejr’s free inter-school hackathon, and 2025 was its fifth year. Khaleej Times covered the finals in December: read the Khaleej Times story.
Code Battle 2025 at a glance
| Dates | 22 Nov (Grades 1–4), 23 Nov (Grades 5–8), 29 Nov 2025 (Grades 9–12) |
| Venue | DTEC, Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis |
| Students | 205 in 79 teams of 2–3 |
| Schools | 53+, from Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and beyond |
| Build time | 2 hours, on a theme revealed on the day |
| Entry | Free |
How the day worked
Each division had its own day. Teams checked in at 9:30, heard the theme at 10:15 and coded from 10:30 to 12:30. In the afternoon every team gave a 2–3 minute pitch with a live demo, then answered the judges’ questions before the awards at 4pm.
The youngest coders, in Grades 1–4 (Cadet), built with block-based tools. Grades 5–8 (Captain) could choose blocks or text, and Grades 9–12 (Colonel) took on advanced programming challenges in game development, app building and web design.
AI was allowed, with rules
Code Battle 2025 ran under a Responsible AI policy. Students could use AI tools to brainstorm ideas, debug and explore concepts, but AI could not write the full code. Teams also had to explain how they used AI and disclose any code they hadn’t written on the day. It’s the same way professional developers are expected to work.
How projects were judged
Five judges scored every project on code quality (25%), creativity (20%), UI/UX (20%), teamwork (20%) and presentation (15%), with allowances for each grade level:
- Dr Judhi Prasetyo, RoboTechX Lab, Middlesex University Dubai
- Mohammed AlMazrouei
- Arsalan Nawazish
- Dr Benita Christopher
- Dr Febin Antony
The winners
The scores were close: the top three Cadet teams finished one point apart.
| Division | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cadet (Grades 1–4) | Team Codezilla, GEMS Millennium School, Sharjah | Minecraft boys, GEMS Founders School, Dubai South | BCA Builders, BC Academy International School |
| Captain (Grades 5–8) | Robokatz, Delhi Private School, Ajman | Wild Coders, GEMS Founders School, Dubai | GMA Tech Titans, GEMS Modern Academy |
| Colonel (Grades 9–12) | Team Alpha, Dubai College | Mawakeb Coders 1, Mawakeb School | Omni-Hackers, GEMS Winchester School Dubai |
Full scores and rankings are on codebattle.tech.
"Age is no barrier to innovation"
“These young coders tackled complex challenges with creativity and confidence, proving that age is no barrier to innovation.” — Hannan Moti, Founder and CEO, iCodejr
Hannan added that the aim is simple: to empower UAE youth for a tech-driven future through hands-on learning that every school can join.
Thank you
Thank you to DTEC for hosting us, to UniHawk for sponsoring the Grades 9–12 category, to our judges, and to every teacher who brought a team. Above all, thank you to the students.
What's next: Code Battle 2026
Updated 17 October 2026.
Code Battle 2026 takes place on 21 November 2026 at Heriot-Watt University Dubai. Entry is free for schools across the UAE, in the same three divisions. Teachers can register their school on codebattle.tech, and anyone thinking about hosting a hackathon can read our guide to hackathons in the UAE for schools.
Want your child coding like this?
Code Battle teams build real projects in two hours. Our live one-to-one classes help children aged 5–18 get there, at their own pace.
