A national competition aimed at introducing 12/13-year-old girls to the world of cyber security and inspiring them to consider careers in this industry.
Introduction
The CyberFirst Girls Competition aims to inspire girls interested in technology to pursue a career in cyber security.
The competition is a team event. Each team – consisting of up to four girls in Year 8 (England and Wales), S2 (Scotland) or Year 9 (Northern Ireland) – tackle challenges from cryptography and logic to artificial intelligence and networking for the chance to be crowned cyber security champions.
Every girl from the winning teams will take a brand-new laptop home, and have a chance to win prize money for their school.
Registration open now
This year the online qualifier and final are being brought together so the entire competition is online with the 13 regional and home nation top scoring teams across the UK being invited to a celebratory event (location tbc).
Register now for the CyberFirst Girls Competition 2023/2024
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Registration Open – Now
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Competition Open – 20 November 2023
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Competition Closes – 29 November 2023
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Celebratory event – TBC
Dates are subject to change. Fill out this keep in touch form and we'll keep you updated.
What you need to know
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Teams are made up of up to four girls in Year 8, S2 or Year 9 (Northern Ireland).
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Schools can enter as many teams as they like if they meet the eligibility criteria above.
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Teams need a team guardian. Must be over 18 and appointed by the school.
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Team guardians don’t need to have any cyber knowledge whatsoever. Their role is to register the teams and facilitate access to the competition. See our Teacher Information Pack for useful information, videos and links to help you get started.
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Example challenges are available to check out on the website.
Competition structure
Each team is made of up to four girls from Year 8 in England and Wales, Year 9 in Northern Ireland, and S2 in Scotland.
The content for each category of the competition is consistent with subjects within the Computer Science syllabus from both the National Curriculum and Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.
However, the competition will contain some advanced cyber topics that are not covered in traditional education but will seek to stretch the lateral thinking and additional cyber knowledge of the teams.
Register now for the CyberFirst Girls Competition 2023/2024
Awards
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Top Scoring state newcomer - Highest scoring state school entering the competition for the first time
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Most team entries (three categories: state school, state selective school and independent school) - School with most teams entered (each team must have solved at least 10 challenges)
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Top-scoring team - Highest scoring team
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Top-scoring CyberFirst school - CyberFirst school with the highest collective score
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Top-scoring returning school - Highest scoring school that has entered the competition previously