The Meeting of Games and Coding... The Coding Passion of Youths Blossoms at Nexon NYPC

Supporting the Growth of Coding Skills in Youth 'NYPC'
Adding Fun through Various Game IPs

"We will continue to explore good ways for outstanding coding talents to communicate with the world and contribute to society."

On the 29th, Choi Yeon-jin, team leader of Nexon’s Social Contribution Team, emphasized the social value of the 9th ‘Nexon Youth Programming Challenge (NYPC)’ by making this statement.

At the final competition held on the 26th at Nexon’s Pangyo headquarters, 81 youths who passed the online preliminaries of ‘Round 1’ and ‘Round 2’ showcased their ideas and coding skills, creatively solving the given problems.

Started in 2016 to open up the joy and possibilities of programming to young people, NYPC has been increasing interest and participation in coding every year. Team Leader Choi explained the background of the competition, saying, “NYPC was planned to provide a platform where youths could easily experience coding through interesting problems using game IPs (intellectual property) at a time when the importance of coding was emerging.”

This year’s competition was organized as a festival where participants and their companions could enjoy together. On the 1st and 3rd floors of the Nexon headquarters, activities such as ‘Mini Bouquet Making’ and the ‘Nexon Game ZONE’ were prepared for companions to enjoy the competition atmosphere. At the ‘Nexda Plus’ caf?, real-time scoreboard broadcasts allowed spectators to follow participants’ problem-solving progress.

Choi Yeon-jin, head of Nexon's Social Contribution Team, explained the purpose of the competition at the Nexon Youth Programming Challenge (NYPC) held on the 26th. Photo by Nexon

Team Leader Choi said, “NYPC was designed so that the competition process could be enjoyed like a festival, and for this purpose, we also prepared a talk concert, a networking program for awardees, and an educational program linked with BIKO.”

This year, coding problems were created to help students discover the fun of programming and their own potential. Kim Jin-ho, chair of the NYPC problem-setting committee, explained this year’s preliminary competition: “We lowered the overall difficulty to make it easier for participants to challenge themselves and evenly distributed problems of various difficulty levels to evaluate a wide range of skills.”

He added, “Especially this year, through the ‘Round 1 Level-Up Event’ and the ‘My Page’ feature, students could check their own progress and feel a sense of accomplishment to experience their growth.”

Kim Jin-ho, the chief problem setter of NYPC, explained the direction and intent of the problems at the Nexon Youth Programming Challenge (NYPC) held on the 26th. Photo by Nexon

NYPC added familiarity for participants by combining problems with Nexon’s representative IPs such as ‘MapleStory’ and ‘Dave the Diver.’ Chair Kim said, “When familiar game IPs appear in problems, participants feel a sense of closeness and can immerse themselves,” and added, “In post-competition surveys, many positive responses indicated that these problems were particularly memorable.” Problems reflecting the creative ideas of Nexon employees also received great responses from students.

Under the slogan ‘Coding that Changes the World,’ NYPC encourages coding to contribute to creating social value. Team Leader Choi said, “Students who encountered coding through the competition have made positive changes, such as changing their career paths or leading coding projects at school,” and added, “More talents are stepping up to solve social problems through coding.”

He said, “A web entertainment program documenting awardees solving social problems through coding will be released soon,” and added, “We want to continue exploring good ways for the outstanding coding talents gathered through NYPC to contribute to society.”