Sri Lanka’s premier coding competition SLIIT CODEFEST 2024 draws over 4,000 participants

Tuesday, 8 April 2025 01:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

SLIIT’s Faculty of Computing successfully hosted its flagship national software competition, CODEFEST 2024, on 24 January at the SLIIT premises. Now in its 13th consecutive year, the event attracted over 4,000 participants from across the country, reaffirming its status as Sri Lanka’s premier platform for nurturing coding talent and capacity building in technology. The competition showcased innovative software design across both school and tertiary categories.

CODEFEST 2024, themed ‘Innovating the Future with Coding’, brought together 1,660 students from more than 300 schools and 2,616 university students representing over 26 state and non-state universities nationwide. The competition was structured across 12 varied categories, comprising school and tertiary levels, showcasing the wealth of innovative software design talent among students.

Participants in the tertiary category included students from the SLIIT, University of Moratuwa, UCSC, the University of Kelaniya, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, NSBM, IIT, KDU, and several other institutions.

CODEFEST has grown tremendously since its inception in 2012, reflecting the rising interest in technology education across Sri Lanka. The competition directly supports Sri Lanka’s aspiration to become Asia’s knowledge hub by identifying and nurturing technological talent from an early age.

The School Category featured five competitions: Coding Primary, up to Grade 5, won by Sumedha College Gampaha; Coding Junior, Grades 6-10, won by Trinity College Kandy and Coding Senior, Grades 11-13, won by C.W.W. Kannangara College Mathugama. The ICT Quiz was won by Maliyadeva College Kurunegala and the AI prize was presented to Ranabima Royal College, Kandy.

In the highly competitive Undergraduate Category, University of Moratuwa demonstrated exceptional performance securing victories in four out of seven categories with teams DevQuest, Algothon, Datathon, and CTF emerging victorious. Other winners included NSBM – AI Sprint, IIT – Designathon, and SLIIT - NetCom were also impressive.

The awards ceremony was graced by Ministry of Digital Economy, Sri Lanka Acting Secretary Waruna Sri Dhanapala as the Chief Guest. Distinguished Guests of Honour included Prof. Bas Baskaran from Deakin University, Vasana Edirisuriya from the Ministry of Education, and GIC, Sri Lanka Managing Director Rasika Karunathilake.

SLIIT awarded more than one million rupees in cash prizes, with support from sponsors including Deakin University, Sysco Labs, 99X, GTN, Wiley, Bank of Ceylon, Eduscope Ltd., Connex Vectra Ltd., and IEEE Computer Society SL Chapter.

SLIIT Faculty of Computing Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. Nuwan Kodagoda, and Dean Prof. Pradeep Abeygunawardhana, provided leadership and guidance for the successful execution of the event, which continues to set benchmarks for technology competitions in Sri Lanka. SLIIT Faculty of Computing Head of the Department of Information Technology Dr. Samantha Rajapaksha, was the coordinator of CODEFEST 2024.

At SLIIT, our focus remains on capacity building for Sri Lankan youth, nurturing local talent, and equipping them with the skills needed to thrive in the global digital landscape.

For more information, please contact [email protected] or Tel +94 11 2345678

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