UC Berkeley students to host free online coding contest for Indian students on November 9

The CALICO Informatics Competition, also known as CALICO Fall ’26, will be hosting a free online programming contest on November 8, 2026. The contest is organised by students at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and is open to participants from all around the world.

The CALICO Fall ’26 will start on November 8 from 4 pm to 7 pm Pacific Time, which is November 9 from 5:30 am to 8:30 am Indian Standard Time (IST). Students can participate alone or join with one or two other students to form a team of up to three members.

No advanced programming skills are required to join. Basic knowledge of conditions, loops and strings is enough for participants to get started. The contest will have both easy and difficult problems, so that beginners and experienced students can take part.

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CALICO Fall ’26: Eligibility, registration

Participation is open to all, but only pre-college teams will be eligible for official placement prizes. These teams will consist of students who are not studying at any university yet. The organisers have announced prizes for the top pre-college teams, along with a raffle.

Participants can also take part in a week-long practice contest before the main event to prepare and become familiar with the format of CALICO Fall ’26. Interested students can register through the official CALICO website, calico.cs.berkeley.edu/register.html.

Online registration will close on November 1, 2026, at 11:59 pm Pacific Time, which is November 2 at 1:29 pm IST. Teams can register online before the deadline and later add members. Participants can also join the official CALICO Discord server to find teammates and ask questions.