Competitive Programming Certification

The Competitive Programming Certification is a free advanced-level, 25-minute skill test from Science of Apps. It tests competitive programming at olympiad level — time and memory complexity and input limits, fast I/O, sorting and binary search on answers, two pointers and sliding windows, prefix sums and difference arrays, greedy proofs, dynamic programming including knapsack, LIS, bitmask and interval DP, graph algorithms such as BFS, DFS, Dijkstra, Bellman–Ford, Floyd–Warshall and topological sort, union-find, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths and flows, trees with LCA and binary lifting, segment trees and Fenwick trees, string algorithms like KMP, Z-function and hashing, number theory with modular arithmetic, sieves and modular inverses, combinatorics, geometry basics, and contest strategy for ICPC and IOI — written to the CSES Handbook and cp-algorithms for 2026 and 2027. Score 70% or more on its 25 questions to earn a verifiable Competitive Programming certificate (SOA-COMP). Every question is based on published standards and research — including Algorithms for competitive programming (cp-algorithms.com), Competitive Programmer's Handbook (Antti Laaksonen (CSES)), ICPC rules and regional contest information (International Collegiate Programming Contest) — and each answer is explained with its source.

Science of Apps offers a free Competitive Programming Certification, written for 2026 and 2027. It tests complexity and basics, dynamic programming, graphs, data structures and trees and strings, maths and strategy with 25 original scenario questions in all, each naming its published source; you get an instant score and a verifiable certificate with a credential ID you can add to LinkedIn.

Read the five skill areas on this page, then take the 25-minute test online — no fee, course or sign-up. You see every answer explained when you finish. Score 70% or more and you get a Competitive Programming certificate straight away, on screen, as a PDF and by email, with a credential ID anyone can verify.

Yes. The questions are original scenarios written by Science of Apps, and each one is based on a public source you can read: Algorithms for competitive programming (cp-algorithms.com); Competitive Programmer's Handbook (Antti Laaksonen (CSES)); ICPC rules and regional contest information (International Collegiate Programming Contest). The source is shown under each question and linked in the answer review. Science of Apps doesn't copy questions from other tests.

Five skill areas with five questions each, drawn from a bank of 10 per area so a retake brings new questions: Complexity and Basics (Complexity analysis, Sorting and searching and Prefix sums and two pointers); Dynamic Programming (DP fundamentals, Classic problems and Advanced DP); Graphs (Traversal and shortest paths, Union-find and spanning trees and Advanced graphs); Data Structures and Trees (Range queries, Trees and LCA and Special structures); Strings, Maths and Strategy (String algorithms, Number theory and combinatorics and Contest strategy). Every question is an original scenario written to the 2026–2027 standard, with the published source named under it.

Olympiad or ICPC competitor, Software engineer preparing for coding interviews, Computer science student, Coach of a programming team and Algorithms enthusiast. It suits students at leading universities, career switchers and experienced professionals who want quick, verifiable proof of Competitive Programming knowledge in 2026 and 2027.

CS and AI students at MIT, Stanford, CMU, Berkeley, IITs, Tsinghua and ETH are hired on depth beyond tool use: model internals, systems and hardware. Passing earns a founder-signed Science of Apps certificate with a credential ID and QR code that recruiters can verify.

Roughly 10^8 simple operations run in about a second. With n up to 10^5 you typically need O(n log n); with n up to 20, exponential O(2^n · n) approaches like bitmask DP may fit.

A Fenwick (binary indexed) tree supports prefix sums and point updates in O(log n), making it ideal for problems that need many range-sum queries with updates.

Yes. The test is online, in English and free everywhere — people take it from India, the US, the UK, Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Your certificate is dated with your own local date and can be verified from anywhere at scienceofapps.com/certification/verify/.

25 questions — 5 from each of 5 skill areas — with a 25-minute limit. You need 70% (18 of 25) to pass and 90% for distinction.

We rate it Advanced: assumes years in the role or deep specialist knowledge. It has 25 scenario questions — 5 from each of 5 skill areas — and a 25-minute limit. You need 70% (18 of 25) to pass and 90% for distinction.

Nothing. There is no fee to take a test, to receive the certificate, to have it emailed or to verify it, and no sign-up.

On our server, not in your browser. The answers never reach the page until you submit, so a certificate can only be earned by passing. Each certificate gets a unique credential ID stored by Science of Apps.

You see your score for each area and every question with the correct answer and why, with the published source behind it. You can retake after 30 minutes, and the retake draws questions you haven't seen yet.

No. Every certificate is dated, so it always shows when you passed. Retake a test any time for a newer date or a higher score.

Yes. After you pass, Add to LinkedIn opens the Licenses & certifications form with the certificate name, Science of Apps as the issuer, the issue date, your credential ID and the verification link filled in. You can also download it as a PDF or PNG, and it's emailed to you as a PDF.

Every certificate has a credential ID and a QR code. Scanning it, or entering the ID at scienceofapps.com/certification/verify/, shows the holder's name, the certification, the score and the issue date from our records.

No. They are Science of Apps' own assessments of applied skill. They aren't issued by a university or standards body, and they work best alongside a portfolio that shows the skills in real work.