What do a murder mystery, a spy challenge and a Test of Genius have in common? They were all part of this year’s FOBISIA Mathematics Code Breaking Competition, organised by British International School, Phuket (BISP) for the fifth consecutive year.

More than 110 schools from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas took part, with students putting their logic, perseverance and problem-solving skills to the test.

Participants worked through seven different code levels, including a Murder Mystery, Spy Challenge, Python Coding Challenge and the particularly difficult Test of Genius. Those who successfully cracked every code within a level earned a place on the leaderboard.

A Week of Code Breaking by the Numbers

The scale of this year’s competition was impressive:

• 110+ schools participating
• 45,000+ unique users
• 50,000 code level completions
• 40,000+ hours spent code breaking
• 2.4 million page views throughout the week

Now in its fifth year, the event has grown into one of Asia’s largest school mathematics competitions and a favourite on many schools’ calendars.

BISP’s Own Code Breakers

At BISP, all Year 5 and Year 6 students took part, with activities coordinated by Sam Lord and the Primary team.

Special congratulations go to Drishya, Phoenix, Ethan and Hayley (Year 5), and Zitong, Woranond, Harry and Lucca (Year 6), who were the first in their respective year groups to crack Level 1A.

In Secondary, the Mathematics department coordinated challenges for Years 7 and 8, as well as the Maths Wizards after-school activity.

Stephan (Year 7) and Aliyah, Chotnarin, Serene and Arsenii (Year 8) were the first to crack Level 3. A special mention also goes to Matvei (Year 10), who successfully cracked every code, including the challenging Level 4 Test of Genius!

More Than Just Cracking Codes

Code breaking and mathematics share many essential skills, from recognising patterns and thinking logically to persevering when the solution isn’t immediately clear.

Through this competition, BISP provides an opportunity for young people around the world to apply their mathematical skills in an engaging, practical way and, hopefully, discover a lasting interest in the subject.

Think you can crack the codes? Although this year’s competition has ended, the challenges are still available to try at schoolcodebreaking.com.