Official Lockheed Martin QUEST^® Competition Rules

Code Quest^® and Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST^®

Last Updated September 2, 2026

General Rules

Participation Requirements
Team Eligibility
Registration
Team Name Requirements
Waitlists
Coaches
Attending In-Person Events

Code Quest^®

Overview
Technical Information
Competition Rules / Guidelines
Scoring

Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST^®

Overview
Technical Information
What to Expect

General Rules - Participation Requirements

Lockheed Martin Quest is open to students of high school age (grades 9-12). Specifically:
- Students ages 13 & under may not participate.
- Students ages 19 & older may be permitted on a case-by-case basis if a high school student.
Each team consists of 2-3 students for Code Quest^® and 3-5 students for Lockheed Martin CYBERQUEST^®, plus one coach.
Some Code Quest^® locations may permit participation of middle school teams (grades 6-8); at these locations, the minimum age noted above is waived, however Lockheed Martin must receive verifiable consent from a parent or legal guardian before a coach can complete registration for any students under age 13. For more information, please see our Parental Consent Process.

General Rules - Team Eligibility

Team members must be from the same school or registered STEM program and represent that group.
Recognized STEM programs may form teams, including students from different schools if their schools cannot form teams.
Teams that are disqualified from a competition are removed from official rankings for that competition and will not receive participant badges or certificates, but will still be able to participate in other activities during that event (e.g. facility tours, etc.). However, members of teams may become ineligible to apply for Quest-sponsored internships or apprenticeships with Lockheed Martin, and may be unable to participate in further Quest competitions held that year.

General Rules - Registration

Space is limited for both virtual and in-person events. Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
Coaches exclusively hold the responsibility for creating registration profiles and registering teams; students are not permitted to perform these tasks. This ensures coach awareness and an accurate registration process, contributing to a streamlined competition experience.
Registration will remain open at each contest site until that contest site reaches capacity or the scheduled registration end date is reached.
Teams should be affiliated with and represent the high school under which they are registering. Before registering as a school team, please make sure you have permission from your school to participate under the school's name. If you do not have permission, you may be able to register instead as an unaffiliated STEM club.
Important: Coaches that are attending in-person cannot attend the virtual competition. There will be activities that coaches will participate in during the competition period and no cell phones are allowed at the in-person events.
Schools may not register for multiple virtual events for the same competition.
Alternate students may only attend if they are replacing registered students on that team. Similarly, alternate coaches may only attend if they are replacing the primary coach or if school policies require an additional chaperone. In either case, please contact the competition site's registration lead as soon as possible to inform them that an alternate needs to attend.

General Rules - Team Name Requirements

Have fun and be creative, but please keep team names appropriate for a school and workplace environment. Team names may not include any of the following:

Profanity, vulgar language, or inappropriate abbreviations
Sexual, violent, or drug-related references
References to race, ethnicity, religion, disability, or any other protected characteristic
Hate speech, discriminatory language, or offensive stereotypes
Harassment, bullying, or references targeting an individual or group
References to illegal activities
Impersonation of a team, school, company, or organization
Content that could reasonably be considered inappropriate by students, parents, teachers, or volunteers

Additionally, for technical reasons, certain special characters may not be permitted within team names.

Lockheed Martin Quest reserves the right to reject or require changes to any team name that does not meet these guidelines. When in doubt, choose another name.

General Rules - Waitlist

Up to four (4) teams per school may register for in-person events (subject to site limitations; some sites may have lower limits). Up to four teams per school are allowed at the virtual event.
Additional teams may be registered but may be added to a site's waitlist. Teams may be automatically placed on a waitlist when a site reaches capacity.
Waitlisted teams are not actively registered and may not attend the event unless and until moved off of the waitlist.
Teams on the waitlist may be moved off as space becomes available, subject to the limitations set above and the discretion of the site.

General Rules - Coaches

Coaches must be adults (18 years or older).
Teams representing a school should be coached by a teacher or school employee and must register using a school email address.
If the coach is not a teacher or school employee (for example, a parent or STEM program leader), the team must register as a STEM program or homeschool rather than representing the school.
LM Employees can be coaches for teams, but will be forbidden to participate in challenge development and may not provide internal information to teams.
No technical knowledge is required for coaches.
Only one coach per team is allowed. A second coach may be allowed if specifically required by school policies; if this applies, please contact your site's registration lead as soon as possible to make arrangements.
COACHES MUST ATTEND THE EVENT.

General Rules - Attending In-Person Events

Breakfast and lunch will be provided, but we regret that we may be unable to accommodate food allergies and other dietary needs. Attendees with limitations are encouraged to bring their own breakfast and lunch.
Family members, and other spectators, and unregistered participants cannot be accommodated.
Attendance at in-person events is contingent on all participants for a team (coaches and students) submitting signed legal documents prior to the event. Generally, this includes liability and photo waivers, but the specific list of documents may vary by location; see the document list for more details. All documents must be signed by hand in blue or black ink; electronically signed documents will be rejected and must be re-submitted. Documents for a child under age 18 must be signed by a parent or legal guardian.
Lockheed Martin is a national defense contractor and is required to review and approve all visitors to Lockheed Martin locations. As part of this process, additional information may be required to complete registrations for persons who are not citizens of the country where the event is being hosted; see our Privacy Policy for more details. While we will make every effort to ensure that all members of a team are able to attend, security procedures vary from site to site and it is possible that not all members of a team may be approved through our Security office. If this occurs, we will communicate this to the registered coach as soon as possible, and may be able to accomodate the team at a virtual location.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES may ANY cell phones, smart watches/glasses/other wearables, broadband network cards/adapters, recording devices, or removable storage devices be allowed inside Lockheed Martin facilities. All such devices MUST be left in vehicles. We will provide a phone number that family and friends can reach in case of emergency. If a person is found in possession of any such device, the device may be confiscated by Lockheed Martin security, their team may be subject to immediate disqualification, and/or they may be asked to leave the premises.
Rules may vary by site depending on security and capacity limitations. Please review the Site List for site-specific details. Major points will also be communicated in status update emails from this website.

Code Quest^® - Overview

Each year, Lockheed Martin hosts Code Quest^®, an annual computer programming competition where teams of two to three high school students work together to solve problems by using JAVA, Python, C#, and/or C++ programming to complete the "quest". The problem set consists of 20 to 30 challenging problems created by Lockheed Martin engineers and computer programmers.

Generic Schedules

U.S. In-Person Code Quest^® Events (Local Time)

7:00 A.M.

Team Registration, Set-up Work Stations and Light Breakfast

9:00 A.M.

Welcome - Introduction, Videos and Kick-off

9:30 A.M.

Competition Begins

Coaches Corner - Program of activities and presentations for the coaches during the competition

12:00 P.M.

Competition Ends, Lunch Begins.

12:30 P.M.

Lockheed Martin Facility Tour or Other Activities

1:30 P.M.

Awards

2:00 P.M.

Departure

U.S. Virtual Code Quest^® Events

There are three separate U.S. Virtual Code Quest^® events, aligned to the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones (observing U.S. Daylight Savings Time). Each of these events will follow the schedule below for its designated time zone. Teams need not register for the time zone in which they reside.

8:30-9:30 A.M.

Students Verify/Resolve Access to Competition Systems

Registration Check-In

9:30-10:00 A.M.

Event Kick-Off

10:00-10:30 A.M.

Breakout Room Transition & Break

Coaches Corner - Program of activities and presentations for the coaches during the competition

10:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.

Competition Begins for Students

Coaches Corner Continues

1:00-1:15 P.M.

Competition Ends, Break

Competition Standings Tallied

1:15-1:30 P.M.

Wrap-Up & Awards Ceremony

1:30 P.M.

Event Ends