Updated 17 October 2026.
Until 2023, a family in Abu Dhabi or Al Ain who wanted their child to compete in Code Battle faced a long drive to Dubai. In May 2023 we set out to change that. iCodejr announced a partnership with 42 Abu Dhabi to bring our free inter-school hackathon to the capital for the first time, giving schools across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain a chapter of their own.
The partnership was reported in English by Zawya, and in Arabic by the UAE’s national news agency WAM and by Al Etihad. You’ll find every link at the end of this post.
The partnership at a glance
| Announced | 16–17 May 2023 |
| Partner | 42 Abu Dhabi, the coding school in Mina Zayed |
| Who it was for | Schools across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, Grades 1–12 |
| Planned dates | 30 Sep 2023 (Grades 9–12) and 1 Oct 2023 (Grades 1–8), on the 42 Abu Dhabi campus |
| What happened | The chapter ran online on 21 January 2024, with 42 Abu Dhabi |
| What it led to | The UAE national final at DTEC, Dubai, on 27 January 2024 |
| Entry | Free |
Why Abu Dhabi
Code Battle started in Dubai, and it grew quickly. The first edition in February 2022 drew 256 students. A year later, in February 2023, 311 students in 108 teams from 22 schools took part. Families and teachers in the capital kept asking when it would come to them.
“As coding continues to gain momentum across the UAE and the region, we wanted to make our Code Battle accessible beyond Dubai, where we are based. Hackathons like Code Battle are great for these young coders to stretch their imagination and explore their own capabilities and what their coding knowledge can help them accomplish.” — Hannan Moti, Founder and CEO, iCodejr
About 42 Abu Dhabi
42 Abu Dhabi opened in 2020 as an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) and the Ghadan 21 accelerator programme. It’s part of the global 42 network, and it teaches coding in an unusual way: no classrooms and no teachers, just peer-to-peer, project-based learning, on a campus in Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed district.
How the Abu Dhabi chapter worked
The chapter followed the same format as every Code Battle. Students competed in three grade groups: Cadet (Grades 1–4), Captain (Grades 5–8) and Colonel (Grades 9–12). Teams of two or three got a theme on the day, built a project in two hours and pitched it to the judges.
The plan was to hold it on the 42 Abu Dhabi campus over two days in late September and early October 2023. In the end, the chapter ran online on 21 January 2024, which let schools from across the emirate take part without travelling. Its winning teams went straight on to the national final in Dubai six days later, alongside the winners of the Dubai and Sharjah chapters.
See who won the national titles: Code Battle 2023: Three Chapters, One National Final.
What came next
Abu Dhabi schools have been part of Code Battle ever since. In Code Battle 2024, 450+ students from five emirates, including Abu Dhabi, competed at DTEC. Code Battle 2026 takes place on 21 November 2026 at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, and schools from every emirate can register on codebattle.tech.
If you’re in the capital and want your child coding before the next Code Battle, see our guide to coding classes for kids in Abu Dhabi.
In the news
- Zawya, May 2023: iCodejr partners with 42 Abu Dhabi for Abu Dhabi chapter of Code Battle
- WAM (Emirates News Agency, Arabic), May 2023: شراكة بين iCodejr و42 أبوظبي لاستضافة مسابقة برمجة
- Al Etihad (Arabic), 17 May 2023: شراكة بين «iCodejr» و«42 أبوظبي» لاستضافة مسابقة برمجة لطلبة المدارس
- My Startup World, 17 May 2023: iCodejr partners with 42 Abu Dhabi to host Abu Dhabi chapter of Code Battle
- mid-east.info, 17 May 2023: iCodejr partners with 42 Abu Dhabi for Abu Dhabi Chapter of Code Battle
- ME News 247, 16 May 2023: iCodejr partners with 42 Abu Dhabi for the Abu Dhabi Chapter of Code Battle
- Eye of Arabia, 18 May 2023: iCodejr partners with 42 Abu Dhabi for Abu Dhabi Chapter of Code Battle
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, wherever you live in the UAE.
