From 1982 – 2022, ECOO hosted annual programming contests for secondary students. Following a restructuring of the ECOO Board circa 2006, the contest continued each year through the support of former members of the ECOO-CS special interest group.

• For many years, the ECOO Programming Contest was coordinated and supported annually by Dr. David Stermole and John Ketelaars, together with the assistance of a number of regional coordinators.  
  In recognition of their efforts in supporting and maintaining the continuance of the ECOO-CS Programming Contest through the years, the ECOO Board nominated and promoted David Stermole and John Ketelaars to ECOO Life Member status. 
• During the COVID pandemic pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, Valentina Krasteva and her students at MCPT convened an online version of the contest, engaging upwards of 600 students each year.
• For the 2022 year, Valentina and her students hosted a Cybersecurity Capture-the-Flag event in February, and a Hackathon event in April.

Since 2023, however, the ECOO Board of Directors has not had a representative to co-ordinate the annual contest.  For the annual contest to resume, the following would be required:

1. an ECOO Board member with time and expertise to support the planning of the events.
2. a suitable source of new questions/datasets to support for the regional and provincial events on an annual basis
3. a committee to support the planning and implementation of the annual event.