Welcome to Lockheed Martin QUEST® events!
We're proud to be able to offer these exciting competitions for high school students! By completing these challenges, teams will be able to exercise their programming and cybersecurity skills and prepare to become the next generation of industry leaders. By applying for internship opportunities, students have the ability to kick-start their careers even before their first college class. Learn more about these unique events and how Lockheed Martin can support your student's technical growth.
Code Quest®
Code Quest® is Lockheed Martin's annual high-school programming competition, pitting teams of 2-3 students against a set of increasingly difficult programming problems.
Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST®
Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST® is the annual cybersecurity competition for high school students. Faced with a wide range of scenarios, teams of up to five must complete as many as possible before time runs out.
AI Quest
AI Quest will be an exciting new competition allowing students to test their abilities with artificial intelligence and machine learning systems. More information coming soon!
What is Code Quest®?
Code Quest® challenges teams of 2-3 high school students to solve as many programming problems as possible within a 2.5-hour-long contest. Problems are solved by writing programs in Java, Python, C++, or C# that must read input from the console, and calculate the correct output to present to the judging system. If the program produces the correct response, the problem is solved!
This contest is designed to provide a challenge for programmers of all skill levels - from those students just learning the basics of programming, to those who are taking on advanced challenges and exploring the limits of software engineering. The competition is divided into two divisions: Novice, for students with less than one year's experience in programming; and Advanced, for those with a broader range of experience. Both divisions are presented with the same set of problems, but are scored separately, ensuring that every team has an opportunity to succeed.
The problems used at Code Quest® cover a broad range of scenarios, although as often as possible attempt to demonstrate real-life scenarios that a programmer might expect to encounter during the course of their career. Many problems are inspired by actual projects taking place at Lockheed Martin. Each year, a Coach's Resource Packet is provided to teachers that includes additional information about the topics covered in a selection of problems used in that year's contest.
For specific event dates, please see our Site List , as dates may vary by location.
For more information about the official rules for this contest, please visit our Official Rules page.
What About the Problems?
Code Quest® problems cover a broad range of topics and difficulties, suitable for students of all skill levels. Some concepts may include:
- Logic control structures
- String manipulation
- Advanced mathematics
- Recursion
- Data structures
- Path finding
- NP-complete problems
- Machine learning
Points are awarded for each problem solved based on difficulty, with the easiest problems worth 5 points, and the hardest problems typically worth 70 or more points.
To see examples of problems used in past Code Quest® competitions, visit the Code Quest Academy website at https://lmcodequestacademy.com.
What About the Challenges?
Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST® challenges are developed each year to deal with a wide range of possible cybersecurity threats including:
- Cryptography
- Steganography
- System penetration
- Incident response
- Reverse engineering
- Operating system hacks
- Web exploits
- Social engineering
As teams complete each challenge, they gain access to a "flag" (a short message), which can be provided to the contest website in exchange for points. Points can then be spent to receive clues on how to solve other challenges.
To see examples of the type of challenges you might see in the competition, visit the Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST® Academy website at https://lmcyberquestacademy.com
What is Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST®?
Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST® provides teams of up to 5 high school students the opportunity to assume the role of a cybersecurity engineer by taking on a series of challenges that build upon one another to fully test the team's skills. Teams are encouraged to use any tools available to them in order to find their way into an adversary's computer system, to defend their own systems against attack, or to put together the clues when investigating an attack that has already occurred.
The challenges for Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST® are created by Lockheed Martin employees each year to simulate real-life scenarios that occur frequently around the world. Multiple teams across our cybersecurity landscape work closely with this program to ensure that the challenges we present represent the cutting edge of both attacks and defense in the world of cybersecurity. Students are invited to throw their full weight against these challenges, as they take place on isolated systems created specifically for the purpose of the contest.
After the contest is over, our volunteers set aside time to answer questions from students and explain how certain challenges should be tackled, to ensure that every student has a chance to learn from their efforts.
For specific event dates, please see our Site List , as dates may vary by location.
For more information about the official rules for this contest, please visit our Official Rules page.
Career Development Opportunities
Students who participate in Lockheed Martin QUEST® events in the United States are given the opportunity to apply for internships at Lockheed Martin. These valuable experiences provide students with real work experience even before they set foot in a college classroom. Students will be given the opportunity to work on actual Lockheed Martin programs and see first-hand what it's like to work for a major industry leader.
Information about how to apply for these internships is made available to teachers at the contest events, and only students who participated in the event are eligible to apply. Please note that the number of available internships is limited each year, and certain work locations may have additional restrictions related to citizenship and work eligibility. Students applying for an internship will be required to take part in an interview process and, if accepted to the internship, a background check and drug screening. Performance in the competition(s) is not a factor in the hiring process.
While students take part in the contests, teachers are also able to take part in discussion panels to provide them with resources towards expanding their student's knowledge and prepare them to start a career in software development or cybersecurity. These discussion panels include a wide range of Lockheed Martin employees, from executives to managers to new employees, including some who previously participated in these events as student. We look forward to helping you support your students as they aim to become the next generation of technical engineers.
For more information about the internship opportunities offered through Lockheed Martin QUEST® competitions or the career development resources we can offer to educators, please contact us using the email addresses at the bottom of this page.
Code Quest Academy
Code Quest Academy allows you to bring Code Quest® directly into your classroom. This program pairs your class with a volunteer Lockheed Martin employee, who will virtually meet with your students in a series of one-hour-long mentoring sessions leading up to the Code Quest® event.
Students and teachers alike are also welcome to join us at the Code Quest Academy website at https://lmcodequestacademy.com. Students can test their skills against hundreds of programming problems previously used in Code Quest® competitions. Teachers can create classes within the website to monitor their student's progress and help them succeed.
For more information about this program or to be added to our mailing list to be notified when registration for the mentoring program opens, please contact us at code-quest-academy.gr-eo@lmco.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
This section has moved! Please check out our new FAQ page, or check the Official Rules for our competitions.