Google Kick Start Global Coding Competition 2025: Ready to solve fun, challenging problems? Kick Start hosts online rounds throughout the year, giving participants the opportunity to test and grow their coding abilities while getting better acquainted with competitive programming. Participate in one or join them all!
Google Kick Start is a global online coding competition, consisting of three-hour rounds of a variety of algorithmic challenges designed by Google engineers. Participants can compete in one or all online rounds held throughout the year, and will have the opportunity to develop and grow their programming abilities while getting a glimpse into the technical skills needed for a career at Google (top participants may be invited to interview at Google).
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Google Kick Start Global Coding Competition 2025.
Our rounds are held regularly throughout the year at different times so they are easily accessible to coders everywhere. Each Kick Start Round is open to all participants, no pre-qualification needed, so you can try your hand at one or give them all a shot. In addition to our online rounds, we are hosting several Coding Practice with Kick Start sessions throughout the competition season.
If you are looking for some extra practice, try these low-pressure multi-day practice sessions to learn more about our problems and platform with dedicated Google engineering support to get you ready for the next upcoming Kick Start round.
Join us for Coding Practice with Kick Start sessions listed on our Schedule page! You’ll have the chance to learn more about the platform, utilize starter code to help frame your solutions, and interact with Googlers involved in the competition. We also recommend reviewing resources like our tutorial video and Archive page, should you want to practice and hone your skills when there’s nothing scheduled.
Google Kick Start Global Coding Competition Requirements.
- Kick Start offers coders around the world the chance to develop and hone their programming skills through online-hosted competition rounds. The three-hour rounds feature a variety of algorithmic challenges, all developed by Google engineers so that you get a taste of the technical skills needed for a career at Google (the top competitors from our Kick Start rounds may be invited to interview at Google!).
- The rounds are held regularly throughout the year at different times so they are easily accessible to coders everywhere.
- Each Kick Start Round is open to all participants, no pre-qualification needed, so you can try your hand at one or give them all a shot.
- If you are looking for some extra practice, try these low-pressure multi-day practice sessions to learn more about our problems and platform with dedicated Google engineering support to get you ready for the next upcoming Kick Start round.
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How to Apply for Google Kick Start Global Coding Competition.
Ready to compete? Registration is now open until Nov 12 2025, 06:00 (UTC)
Register for Kick Start once on our website and you’ll be set up to compete in any round you’d like! When each round is open, the three-hour countdown begins and you’ll compete on our website solving algorithmic and mathematical problems. Following the round, you can check out your rankings and the round analysis. If you were a top competitor, you may be contacted by Google for a chance to interview.
Google Kick Start Global Coding Competition FAQS Overview
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I’ve never done Kick Start; what is it?
Kick Start is an online coding competition that offers single rounds throughout the year. In each round, you write code to solve algorithmic problems that have multiple layers of difficulty. Each round starts fresh, so you can participate in one round, or all of them!
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Who is eligible to compete in Kick Start?
See Section 1 (Eligibility) of the Coding Competitions Terms for complete eligibility criteria.
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How does Kick Start work?
- Create a Coding Competitions profile if you don’t have one already. You can do this at any time. Then, when registration for the contest opens up, sign up! You must have or create a profile before you’re able to register for a contest.
- Once the Round starts, a link on the homepage will direct you to the dashboard for that Round.
- On the Round Overview page, you’ll see the problems. They will be listed in approximate order of difficulty, so we recommend starting with the first one.
- Read the problem description:
- The statement describes the problem that you need to write code to solve.
- The Input and Limits sections describe the test sets, which are an ordered list of difficulty targets for your program to hit. These sections make guarantees about the sort of data your code will have to run on for each test set.
- The Output and Sample sections clarify what your code has to do.
- Write a solution that you think can pass at least Test Set 1.
- If you’d like, you can test your solution on test cases of your choice. We strongly encourage you to do this as the provided Samples are not intended to cover all cases and rarely do.
- When you submit a solution, we will first run your code against the provided Sample cases (for non-interactive problems). If it passes those, we will run the code against Test Set 1, and on the next test set if that passes, and so on.
- All Test Sets are “Visible Verdict Test Sets”, which means you will learn during the Round whether your code passed. You can submit as many times as you like, with minor penalties.
- Solve as many test sets for as many problems as you can before the Round ends. The more test sets you solve, the higher your score.
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Will I receive a Kick Start certificate and when are they given out?
As a Kick Start contestant, you will receive a certificate after the first round you participate in, as long as you make one submission. If you participate in more than one round in a year, your certificate will automatically update and display after each round you participate in as well as your rank. Certificates will be available on your Coding Competitions profile and will appear sometime after the round ends. Please note that the Coding Competitions Terms and KS Rules determine how certificates are issued, and you must abide by both to receive a certificate.
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Where can I submit feedback or other questions not answered here?
If you have any questions not addressed in this FAQ or would like to submit feedback to the Kick Start team, please contact us at kickstart@google.com and we will do our best to respond within two (2) business days. When a Round is active, please ask questions directly on the Contest dashboard using the “Ask a Question” button in the top right corner.
