The number of participants in the 2025 Talent Search soared by 35 per cent compared with 2024, with nearly 20,000 learners participating in this year’s event.
The Talent Search is part of the Computer Olympiads – a key initiative by the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA).
The Talent Search is the South African version of the renowned Bebras Computing Challenge, which attracts more than two million participants from over 50 countries around the world annually. Talent Search is suitable for learners with little or no computing knowledge and is staged at participating schools in March each year. It includes fun puzzles and logic challenges to help identify STEM aptitude and encourage computational thinking. In order to make it accessible to all schools, Talent Search is available online or as a pen and paper test.
For older learners who have some computing skills, the IITPSA Computer Programming Olympiad and Computer Applications Olympiad are held later in the year.
In 2025, 19,630 participants from 201 schools took part in the Talent Search, up from 14,539 learners from 175 schools last year.
IITPSA President Pearl Pasi says this increase followed efforts by the IITPSA to extend the reach and impact of the challenge. “The IITPSA’s commitment to skills development and encouraging more young people to enter the IT industry starts with early childhood activities like the Talent Search,” she says. “We’re delighted to see more schools and more learners taking advantage of the opportunity to enhance their STEM capabilities and possibly later consider participating in the Programming and Applications Olympiads, and ultimately, explore careers in IT.”
In 2025, 8,589 girls and 8,964 boys participated in the Talent Search, with 2,077 listed as ‘not specified’. Gauteng topped the list with the most participants – 6,941, followed by the Western Cape with 4,611. 2,931 learners participated in KwaZulu Natal, 2,138 in the Eastern Cape, 867 in Limpopo (significantly up from 303 last year), 830 in Mpumalanga, 728 in the Free State, and 496 in North West. The Northern Cape, which last year had only five participants, had 26 participants this year. 61 learners also participated in Namibia this year.
