Nexon, the South Korean gaming giant, announced Wednesday that it will transform the Nexon Youth Programming Challenge (NYPC) into a strategy-based programming competition centered on artificial intelligence capabilities starting this year.
NYPC is a junior programming contest held annually since 2016 under the slogan "Coding that Changes the World." The competition has focused on algorithm problem-solving with the goal of raising interest in coding among young people and enhancing their skills.
Nexon said it is restructuring the competition to comprehensively evaluate AI utilization and strategic problem-solving abilities, reflecting changes in programming skills required of future talent amid a rapidly evolving technology landscape. The competition has also been renamed the Nexon Young Programmers Cup (NYPC 2026).
The problem format will shift from conventional algorithm-solving to "heuristic" problems with no fixed answers. Participants will compete by using AI to design strategies and derive optimal solutions under given conditions.
Considering the characteristics and difficulty level of the new problem format, the eligible age range has been raised and the competition split into two divisions: youth and university. The youth division (ages 14 to 19) consolidates the previous age-based tracks (ages 12–13 and 15–19) into a single track. The university division (ages 20 and above) is newly established by making "NYPC Code Battle" — which drew strong response as a special event marking the competition's 10th anniversary last year — an official track.
Each division will also operate under differentiated formats. The youth division is an individual competition where participants use AI to devise strategies and achieve the highest score within a time limit. The university division is a team contest where AI program models designed by each team compete against one another, evaluating participants' ability to predict and counter opposing strategies.
Additionally, to reduce the burden of preliminary rounds and enhance engagement, the existing two-round online preliminaries will be consolidated into a single round in July. The finals are scheduled for late August.
"As the spread of generative AI has made problem-solving deeper and more sophisticated, strategic thinking that leverages AI technology is becoming increasingly important," said Kim Jung-wook, chairman of the Nexon Foundation. "We hope participants will grow to the next level through NYPC by designing their own strategies alongside AI and gaining experience in finding optimal solutions."
Nexon plans to launch a teaser page outlining the revamped direction of NYPC 2026 in May, followed by an official website in June that will disclose detailed schedules, registration methods, and other specifics for each division.