Code Hunt - "Hunting" to Learn Programming

Abstract

Programming is a major subject in Computer Science (CS) departments. However, students often face difficulties on the basic programming courses due to several factors that cause these difficulties. The most important reason may be the lack of problem solving abilities that many students show. Learning to code can be made more effective if it is perceived as fun by the learner. Code Hunt uses puzzles that players have to explore by means of clues presented as test cases. Players iteratively modify their code to match the functional behavior of secret solutions. The aim of this paper is to introduce an educational, browser-based coding game which can help in learning coding.