At Coding Lab, we are passionate about empowering our students to reach new heights and commemorating the remarkable achievements of our students. Prepare to be inspired as we introduce you to Chen Feng, 12, from Rosyth Primary School.

Distinction and Judges' Choice (Most Promising Coder) Award at the International Coding Showcase (ICS) 2022? ✅ Silver award at the reputable Hwa Chong Infocomm Challenge (HCIC) 2023? ✅ There’s nothing our amazing coder cannot do!

Chen Feng’s coding journey began at the age of 7, when his fascination with the captivating designs within Roblox fueled his interest in coding and he signed up for his first-ever coding class with Coding Lab. Join us as we learn more about Chen Feng’s exciting coding journey!

Hi Chen Feng! Tell us about yourself. What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

In my free time, I enjoy a variety of activities. Two of my favourite hobbies are playing basketball and Chinese chess. When I simply want to unwind and relax, I play games like Roblox and Minecraft. I also love reading books!

What do your family and friends say when they hear that you code?

My family members are very supportive of my coding journey. Despite not having a coding background, they always do their best to help me in their own ways. My family shared some tips on how I can learn more about programming, by teaching me how to make use of the Internet to expand my knowledge!

What do you like about coding? How has coding positively impacted your life? 

I like that with coding, I am able to create very useful projects or tools that can help those around me. My ICS project achieves this exact goal, so read on to find out more about how I helped my mother with a simple project I created!

What was the inspiration for your ICS coding project? 

I learnt that determination and perseverance are what gets you through tough times. During the process of working on my project, I inevitably faced challenges. Finding flaws in my project and thinking of solutions to improve on my project was not easy, but I never gave up till the end. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I finally used tkinter to make my Stock Price Retriever inputs, which has a more interactive Graphical User Interface!

What is your biggest takeaway from your ICS participation?

Getting the chance to code with purpose! For this project, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to create and why. Rather than creating games like I usually like to do in class, I put more thought into planning my project. This made me feel that coding is a very meaningful skill!

What are some difficulties you faced while learning to code? How did you overcome them? 

When I code, I have many ideas and want to create many things. Sometimes, the things that I want to create in my projects are beyond what I already know. I have to put in effort to self-study and broaden my knowledge such that I can complete my projects. While this can be quite challenging, I tell myself that if I manage to improve my coding skills, I will be able to do so much more in the future!

What is your favourite thing about Coding Lab? 

I love that Coding Lab not only trains my coding skills, but also provides opportunities for me to hone my self-learning abilities and logical-thinking skills! The different problems that we approach and solve in lessons prompted me to research new concepts not covered in class, such as the “join” function. 

What are your future coding aspirations? 

I hope to continue improving my coding skills so I can make an entertaining Roblox game one day. In particular, I want to learn Python programming and utilise it to make games and tools that are useful. When I grow up, I plan to go into the field of cybersecurity or app programming! 

Any words of advice for beginner coders? 

As a coder, I believe there are three things that are crucial for success. Firstly, the ability to self-learn and take your own initiative to expand your knowledge. Secondly, a willingness to take on new challenges to gain more experience. Last but not least, perseverance and determination when faced with difficulties in coding as these are essential in your learning process!

We are glad that under the guidance of our experienced educators, Chen Feng has benefitted so much from our award-winning curriculum and nurtured critical thinking skills such that he continues to be a self-motivated learner! 

We hope that you are inspired by Chen Feng’s words of wisdom and are excited to explore the magical world of coding with us at Coding Lab! 

At Coding Lab, we encourage our students to apply their coding skills and give back to society in their own ways. With coding, our students can do so much, from working on websites with a focus on raising awareness to creating fun, educational learning resources! We hope that Chen Feng’s journey has inspired you to take your first steps towards coding so that YOU can also make a difference! 

Our #CodingLabStudents blogs feature our ambitious students and their ongoing coding journeys – be it the budding coder or advanced Python Pro, we appreciate each and every single one’s efforts as they progress to greater heights. 🌱

Coding Lab offers an award-winning curriculum specially for ages 5 to 18 – check out our courses to begin your own coding journey today!

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(Written by Thinzar)