Cyber Explorers Cup 2026
Cyber City’s brand-new Smart Mall needs your students’ help. Complete cyber security challenges, restore the mall’s corrupted AI system and win up to £2,000 worth of tech vouchers for your school.
The Cyber Explorers Cup returns for its third year as a fun, interactive cyber security competition with challenges based on the Cyber Explorers learning programme content. Students will take on a crucial mission to help the Cyber Squad fix Cyber City’s brand-new Smart Mall. Its advanced AI system, SAM-U.L (Shop Assist Manage Utility), has become corrupted - leaving shelves empty, payments broken, and forcing the mall to close. The teams that restore SAM-U.L to the highest standard and help reopen the mall - achieving the top scores in the fastest time - will be named Cyber Explorers Cup 2026 Champions.Once you have entered your team into the competition, please make sure your competing students are registered on the learning programme.
The competition content is based on the skills learnt through the learning programme, so students will need to work through the learning materials in advance to have the best chance of winning. Entering the competition does not automatically register your students onto the learning programme. Similarly, registering your students for the learning programme does not automatically enter them into the competition.
Enter the competition here and register your students for the learning programme here.
Who can you enter?
- Teachers from UK schools and UK home-school settings can enter students into the competition.
- Students must be aged 11 to 14 years.
- You can enter between 1 to 5 teams made up of 4 to 6 students in each team.
- Home-schooled students may also be entered to compete as individuals.
Eligibility
- We recommend that participating teams complete the majority of the Missions and Challenges in the Cyber Explorers learning programme to ensure they feel confident competing, as the competition puzzles are based on this learning material.
- Students must be registered for the Cyber Explorers learning programme in advance.
How the competition works
- Teams will compete virtually from their own schools.
- Teams will have a timed, one-hour window to complete the competition challenges.
- A teacher from the school will need to be present for each competing team’s competition slot.
- This year’s competition content is focused on Information Security. Students will be able to access the Cyber Explorers learning programme during the competition to identify the correct answers.
- Challenges will include a variety of questions and puzzles based on the Cyber Explorers platform content.
- Each category will include multiple questions, which when answered correctly, will reveal additional challenges.
- When a single team member answers a challenge correctly, it will register as completed to the entire team.
How to win
- The fastest and most accurate teams in each UK nation will be declared winners. There will be a winning team from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
- Home-schooled students will compete in their own category.
Key dates
- Entry deadline: 6 March 2026
- Competition week: The competition runs from 16 March to 20 March 2026; you can select from multiple 1-hour time slots available each day for your students to participate.
- Winners announced: 1 April 2026
Exciting prizes to be won!
Winning teams from each UK nation will receive tech vouchers for their school to purchase IT equipment (£2,000 for winning schools and £1,000 for home schools). Winning schools from each UK nation will also enjoy an exclusive Cyber Explorers assembly delivered at their school, introducing whole year groups to key cyber security essentials.
What Wales’ 2025 winners have to say
“The competition was amazing for us as a school on many fronts. With the prize, we upgraded our classroom with dual screen monitors, helping exam classes work more efficiently while supporting students with additional needs to watch tutorials and complete tasks side by side. We also invested in digital cameras to enhance students’ digital creativity and improve the quality of their coursework. Perhaps most excitingly, we used part of the prize to buy a Nintendo Switch 2, which will help us launch a new lunchtime e-sports club to boost engagement and teamwork across year groups. Beyond the prizes, the competition itself really captured students’ interest in cyber security and has influenced many to choose IT at GCSE. We will absolutely be taking part in the 2026 competition!”
Anwen Worsfold, IT teacher, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd
Enter by 6 March 2026 for a chance to have your students crowned Cyber Explorers Cup 2026 Champions!
If you have any questions about the competition, please get in touch with us at [email protected].
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