Macleans College students lead the way in New Zealand Programming Contest

Macleans College students achieved outstanding results at the 2026 New Zealand Programming Contest (NZPC), with teams placing first and second nationally.

Seventeen Macleans College students took part in the annual team programming contest, which attracted 45 teams from schools across New Zealand. The competition is open to school, tertiary and open competitors and was held simultaneously at six locations around the country. The Auckland contest took place at the University of Auckland.

Year 11 student Zhiyuan Yu (Hillary House) combined with a student from Rangitoto College to win the national title.  A Macleans College team comprising Jason Li (Snell), Yixiang Xu (Rutherford) and Niu Niu Yang (Te Kanawa) finished second nationally.

The five-hour competition challenges teams of up to three contestants to solve as many programming problems as possible using a single computer. Teams can submit solutions in programming languages including C#, C++, Java and Python. Each solution is automatically assessed against a series of test cases, with teams awarded credit when their output matches the expected results.

The strong results reflect the problem-solving and programming skills demonstrated by Macleans College students in a highly competitive national event.