Context:
Many students find introductory programming courses in STEM degrees excessively challenging, often compromising their motivation and academic performance. Educational strategies like challenge-based learning have shown promise in counteracting this trend by increasing engagement and motivation through stimulating problem solving activities with clear goals and rewards. This paper presents a programming contest implemented at the Escuela Técnica Superior Ingeniaria Sistemas Informáticos (ETSISI) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) within the CodeBoost educational innovation project.

Learning experience:
The contest performed aims to motivate students by presenting programming as challenging yet enjoyable. The contests consisted of a three-hour team-based programming contest with groups of up to three students. The participants solved five algorithmic problems of varying difficulty in assessing multiple skills. The DOMjudge online judge platform, widely used in ICPC events, was used to manage solution submissions and to provide immediate automated feedback. To further motivate participation, the competition was supported by a corporate sponsor, which awarded prizes to the top-performing teams in three categories: first-year, second-year, and a combined third- and fourth-year students.

Results:
Data on student participation are included along with the results of a post-competition survey completed by the participants. This survey collected student perceptions of their experience. Of the 68 students who participated in the competition, 43 responded to the survey, with a total of 10 first-year students, 19 second-year students, and 14 third- and fourth-year students. Regarding the results of the survey, it produced uniformly positive quantitative evaluations in all five key dimensions. On a 1–4 Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 4 = strongly agree), participants rated the overall positivity of the initiative highest (mean = 3.91, std = 0.48), followed by enjoyment during the competition (3.74, 0.58), perceived motivational impact on programming (3.67, 0.61), and adequacy of organizational arrangements (3.60, 0.62). Overall satisfaction with the competition fell only slightly lower (3.47, 0.70), indicating a high level of support, but also some room for fine-tuning. Open-ended feedback highlighted several areas for improvement. A notable proportion of students reported technical interruptions that they felt impeded task completion and reduced the pedagogical effectiveness of the competition. Several respondents also expressed enthusiasm for similar future events and requested supplementary programming workshops or preparatory tutorials. Addressing these concerns may further improve satisfaction and learning outcomes.

Conclusions and future work:
The high level of participation in the contest, along with the positive feedback and overall satisfaction expressed by the students, suggest that the initiative was effective in achieving its educational goals. Consequently, future editions will be organized. Contest-based activities will be integrated into first- and second-year programming courses to foster problem-solving, teamwork, and motivation through gamified learning. In parallel, preparatory workshops will support students aiming to participate in national and international competitions such as Ada Byron and ICPC by providing technical training and promoting collaboration and time management.

Keywords: Programming Education, STEM Education, Challenge-Based Learning, Gamification, Student Motivation, Algorithmic Problem Solving, Teamwork in Education, Programming Contest, Learning Engagement, Automated Feedback, ICPC Training, Technical Skills Development, Active Learning Strategies.