ICOA Australia Camp Selection 2026
This program is part of Australia’s national selection pathway for ICOA (International Cyber Olympiad in AI).
Selection Details
Eligibility
This selection is open to:
● Students in Years 7-12
● Year 6 students with strong interest in cybersecurity are also welcome to apply
Important Dates
● Contest Date: May 16 2026 ● Registration Opens from April 24, 2026 to May 15, 2026 ● Selection Contest: A 90 Mins open competition conducted at home (specific rules will be announced 30 minutes before the contest) ● National Training Camp: TBC
Selection Process
The top performers from this additional selection round were invited to join the National Training Camp for the 2026 season. The camp provided intensive training and served as part of Australia’s broader ICOA talent development pathway.
ICOA 2026 National Selection — Handbook
ICOA 2026 National Selection — Handbook
Student Notice · Organizer Handbook · Printable Appendices · v0.91 · 2026-04-23
Student Exam Notice
General guidance. Your exam centre's local rules take precedence.
Who & what. K–12 student, under 19 on 1 July 2026. You receive a 10-character token from your invigilator — your personal key. Laptop is ready; bring nothing technical. Don't share the token, don't photograph the screen.
Why a command line? The ICOA syllabus — From Computational Thinking to AI Agent Thinking (160 pages) — treats the terminal as the working surface for modern AI engineering: pipelines, logs, scripts, agents. Practise where AI actually gets built.
Getting started
- The dark screen is a terminal — type, press Enter, it replies. If no menu appears, type
icoa. - Use
↑↓and Enter to navigate. Pick Demo first (nothing counts). - Demo draws 10 questions from a pool of 30 — run it at least twice. Different questions each time; it materially helps on exam day.
- Pick Take the selection exam — or shortcut
exam <your-token>from theicoa>prompt. Read the briefing, press Enter to start.
Your personal 90 minutes begins the moment you press Enter — not when the group starts. Late by a minute? You still get the full 90 minutes.
Key commands
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
A B C D · type flag ICOA{...} |
answer MCQ · practical |
next · prev · exam q 5 · mark |
move · jump · flag |
exam review · submit |
see progress · finish |
help · hint a/b/c · ai4ctf · ctf4ai |
assistance (limited budgets) |
menu · lang zh · lang si · lang |
back to menu · switch / list 22 languages |
DOs and DON'Ts
- Practise Demo twice or more — 10-from-30 pool; each run differs.
- Unsure what to type? Type
menu— works almost everywhere. - Scroll the terminal window up (mouse wheel / trackpad) to re-read earlier screens; some deserve a second look.
- Freeze / crash / time nearly up? Raise your hand; or type
submit(server auto-finalises at the deadline anyway). - Do not exit during the exam — no Ctrl+C, no
exit, noquit. If the terminal does close, runicoaagain and re-enter the same token; timer and answers are preserved server-side. - Do not cheat. Token is single-use, single-device. Sharing, photographing the screen, copying answers → permanent disqualification from ICOA. Pass/fail shown on screen; numeric scores go privately to your national exam centre.