RIYADH: More than 38,000 students of 50 nationalities residing in Saudi Arabia recently took part in a Bebras Mawhiba competition.

The Bebras Mawhiba challenge is the gateway to nominating and joining the Saudi team of informatics, and representing Saudi Arabia at the International Informatics Olympics. Bebras was adopted as the main entrance to the International Olympics Talent Program in place of the Mawhoob competition.

Bebras is an international competition aimed at promoting computational informatics and thinking among school students of all ages, using a range of problem-solving skills and techniques. More than 2 million students from over 70 countries take part in challenges.

The Bebras competition consists of a series of short online problems called Bebras missions, which can be solved without prior knowledge, but require logical thinking and answering as many problems as possible within the allotted time.

King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, also known as Mawhiba, will announce the Saudi results during an official ceremony under the patronage of Mawhiba Secretary-General Dr. Amal Al-Hazzaa on Monday.

The director of the competitions department at Mawhiba, Badr Al-Mijthari, said that the competition targets public education students in Saudi Arabia between the third elementary and third secondary classes. A total of 38,041 students, including 34,843 Saudis, registered for this year’s competition from various regions of the Kingdom, he added.

He said that the Bebras Mawhiba competition this year saw the participation of 3,198 Arab and international students within Saudi Arabia.

Al-Mijthari added that 850 Egyptian students in the Kingdom enrolled, followed by 559 Yemeni students, 496 Syrians, 449 Jordanians and 274 Sudanese, among other Arab students.

As for non-Arab students, a total of 61 Pakistani students enrolled, followed by 55 Tunisian students, 46 Palestinians, 34 Indians, 24 Afghans, 23 Lebanese and 21 Americans.