Virtual & Online Competitions Programs for High School Students

These competitions programs are fully online, so students in any town — not just near a major university — can participate.

Virtual programs remove geography from the equation; selectivity and follow-through are all that separate you from applicants in Boston or the Bay Area.

88 verified programs match this page; 25 of the featured listings are completely free.

Featured programs

Browse 30+ curated programs for high school students:

• Presidential AI Challenge — White House Office of Science and Technology Policy: National K-12 AI competition where students build real-world AI solutions for community challenges, with finals at the White House.
• International Youth Math Challenge — IYMC: Join a global math competition for high schoolers to enhance problem-solving skills, boost college applications, and compete for $40k+ in prizes. Free
• Knowledge Matters Virtual Business Challenge — Knowledge Matters: Join this free virtual business competition for high schoolers to manage retail, sports, or restaurant simulations. Build entrepreneurial skills and b
• Kaggle Data Science Competitions — Kaggle/Google: Join exciting online data science competitions for high school students! Build Python coding skills, explore AI, and strengthen your college applicati
• World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth (WAICY) — Ready AI: Join a global AI competition for grades 6-12 to solve real-world problems using artificial intelligence. Build STEM skills, boost college applications
• Davidson Fellows — Davidson Institute: Win $50k, $25k, or $10k scholarships in this elite STEM competition for high-achieving high school students. Boost college applications with hands-on
• Meta Hacker Cup — Meta: Global programming competition for high school students to master algorithms and coding. Build problem-solving skills and boost college applications.
• Mathematical Olympiad for Girls — Mathematical Olympiad Foundation: Elite math competition for high school girls to tackle USAMO-level problems. Boosts problem-solving skills, stands out on college applications, and in
• Mandelbrot Competition — Mandelbrot Competition: Join a dynamic online math competition for grades 6-12 featuring individual and team rounds. Build problem-solving skills, enhance teamwork, and boost
• Canadian Short Screenplay Competition — Canadian Short Screenplay Competition Inc.: An international contest recognizing outstanding short film screenplays, with prizes, promotion, and industry exposure.
• Interactive Fiction Competition (IFComp) — Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation: An annual global competition for creating and playing new works of interactive fiction and text-based games.
• StellarXplorers Space Systems Competition — Air Force Association: Explore orbital mechanics and space systems design in this free, virtual STEM competition for grades 6-12. Boost college applications with hands-on ae
• National Student Production Awards — Broadcast Education Association: Showcase your talent in broadcasting and video production with this national competition for high school students. Build creative skills and boost you
• Purple Comet Math Meet — Purple Comet Math Meet: Free online international team math competition. 25 problems in 90 minutes.
• Google Code Jam to I/O — Google: Algorithm competition with trip to Google I/O for top scorers.
• National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) — National Novel Writing Month: A global challenge each November to draft a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, with special programs supporting teen writers.
• AIcrowd Challenges — AIcrowd: Tackle real-world challenges in AI and data science through free virtual competitions for high schoolers. Boost STEM skills, enhance college apps, and
• Doodle for Google Competition — Google: Showcase your creativity in this national arts competition! Design a Google Doodle for a chance to be featured on Google.com. Perfect for building you
• New York Times STEM Writing Contest — The New York Times: Essay contest explaining the importance of STEM topics.
• Spellman HV Clean Tech Competition — Spellman High Voltage Electronics: Join a global high school competition tackling sustainability and energy challenges. Build innovation skills, boost college applications, and make an
• Voice of Democracy Audio Essay Competition — Veterans of Foreign Wars: Patriotic audio essay competition with scholarships.
• Codeforces Rounds — Codeforces: Participate in free online programming competitions to sharpen algorithmic problem-solving skills. Perfect for STEM-focused high school students and c
• Elie Wiesel Foundation Prize in Ethics Essay Contest — Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity: Join a national ethics essay competition for high school seniors to showcase your writing and critical thinking skills. Boost college applications and
• CAMWS Latin Translation Contest — Classical Association of the Middle West and South: Compete in the CAMWS Latin Translation Contest to sharpen language skills, enhance college applications, and showcase your talent in a free, virtual a
• Optimist International Essay Contest — Optimist International: Compete in a virtual essay competition for high school students (grades 9-12) to sharpen writing skills, build your resume, and boost college applicat
• Math League High School Contests — Math League: Boost your math skills with monthly high school competitions! Perfect for grades 9-12, these virtual contests enhance problem-solving and bolster coll
• TopCoder Algorithm Competitions — TopCoder: Join exciting algorithm competitions to sharpen programming skills, boost college applications, and gain hands-on experience in STEM. Free and open to
• Physics Unlimited Premier Competition — Physics Unlimited: Challenging physics competition testing conceptual understanding and problem-solving
• National English Honor Society Writing Contests — NEHS: Writing competitions for NEHS members. Poetry, prose, creative nonfiction.
• Moody's Mega Math Challenge — Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics: Join a free online math competition for high school students to develop problem-solving and modeling skills, boost college applications, and compete f

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