The awards ceremony for the "12th Samsung Collegiate Programming Challenge (SCPC)" was held on Friday, August 28, at Samsung Electronics' Seoul R&D Campus. The competition, which began in June, concluded with this ceremony following two online preliminary rounds and an on-site final.

Launched in 2015, SCPC is Korea's largest programming competition, held annually by Samsung Electronics to expand the software ecosystem and discover outstanding talent. This year's SCPC was run across two categories—the "AI Challenge" and the "Software Algorithm Challenge"—with 13 winners in each category, for a total of 26.

From Defining the Problem to Solving It, the "AI Challenge" Evaluates Agentic AI Development Capabilities

Now in its second year, the "AI Challenge" went a step beyond last year's theme of "multimodal AI model development" to evaluate participants' "agentic AI development capabilities." Participants first defined for themselves the problems they actually wanted to solve from the perspective of a smartphone user, and then developed actual mobile agents based on those definitions.

During the two online preliminary rounds, participants implemented an agentic AI harness that understands user requests and formulates decision-making and execution plans, and developed mobile AI agents capable of retaining commands and contexts across multiple iterative tasks. In the final held on Friday, August 21, participants presented the design approach, performance, and improvement plans for the agents they had developed, followed by a question-and-answer session with the judges.

Daehyun Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of Global AI Center, Samsung Research, who oversaw the "AI Challenge," said, "We designed the problems so that participants would experience the entire process—not simply implementing AI technology, but identifying the real pain points users face and turning them into solutions," adding, "In line with Samsung Electronics' future technology direction, in which AI adds new value to everyday life, the 'AI Challenge' will continue to serve as a venue for evaluating creative problem-solving skills and practical AI capabilities."

In addition, Professor Gunhee Kim from Seoul National University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who served as an advisor for the "AI Challenge," said, "Just as the students defined the problems they each set out to address and arrived at correspondingly different answers, the possibilities of this field will expand as widely as the questions they posed."

12-Year Tradition of the "Software Algorithm Challenge" for Logical Thinking and Creative Problem-Solving

The "Software Algorithm Challenge" focused on evaluating participants' mathematical optimization skills along with their problem-solving and implementation capabilities. Students who advanced through the preliminaries competed in the on-site final on Friday, August 28, testing their programming skills on a range of algorithmic problems that required logical thinking and creative approaches.

Professor Sung Ryul Kim from Konkuk University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who took part in formulating the problems, commented, "Watching the students tackle high-difficulty problems with persistence and work out solutions of their own has made me look forward all the more to the growth and achievements they will show in the years ahead."

SCPC Joined by Some 42,000 Participants, Continuing to Expand the Software Ecosystem and Discover Outstanding Talent

Launched in 2015 and now in its 12th year, SCPC has drawn approximately 42,000 university and graduate students to date and produced a total of 419 award winners.

Kangtae Kim, Samsung Research’s Executive Vice President and Head of the R&D Strategy Team, which organized this year's event, said at the awards ceremony, "SCPC is a proving ground where university students interested in AI and programming can fully demonstrate their capabilities and take their skills to the next level," adding, "We hope that the students who took part in the 2026 SCPC will leverage this experience as a springboard to grow into future technology leaders."

Going forward, Samsung Electronics plans to continue actively providing opportunities for university students in AI and software algorithms to showcase their talents through SCPC, while consistently supporting the discovery and development of future technology talent. The company will also continue its efforts to strengthen global competitiveness in the AI and software fields.

Meanwhile, the problems presented in the "AI Challenge" can be found on the DACON website, while the "Software Algorithm Challenge" problems are available on Codeground.