The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. Check out the tutorials.

The Hour of Code takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week. Computer Science Education Week was December 7-13, 2015, but you can host an Hour of Code all year round.

Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path. See more stats on code.org.

Start planning here by reviewing our how-to guide. You can organize an Hour of Code event at your school or in your community — like in an extracurricular club, non-profit or at work. Or, just try it yourself when Dec. 7 arrives.

The Hour of Code is organized by Code.org, a public 501c3 non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. An unprecedented coalition of partners have come together to support the Hour of Code, too — including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the College Board.

Of course. Hour of Code activities are self-guided. All you have to do is try our current tutorials, pick the tutorial you want, and pick an hour — we take care of the rest. We also have options for every age and experience-level, from kindergarten and up. Start planning your event by reading our how to guide.

Code.org tutorials work on all devices and browsers. You can see more information about Code.org's tutorial tech needs here. Tech needs for non-Code.org tutorials can be found on code.org/learn in the tutorial specific description. Don't forget we also offer unplugged activities if your school can't accommodate the tutorials!

No. We have Hour of Code tutorials that work on PCs, smartphones, tablets, and some that require no computer at all! You can join wherever you are, with whatever you have.

Here are a few options:

• Work in pairs. Research shows students learn best with pair programming, sharing a computer and working together. Encourage your students to double up.
• Use a projected screen. If you have a projector and screen for a Web-connected computer, your entire group can do an Hour of Code together. Watch video portions together and take turns solving puzzles or answering questions.
• Go unplugged. We offer tutorials that require no computer at all.

Hour of Code is trademarked. We don't want to prevent its usage, but we want to make sure its usage fits within a few limits. Please see these guidelines for usage.

We are so sorry to share that we ran out of posters to send everyone who requested them. We've more than tripled signups from last year which means we grossly underestimated how many posters to print for organizers. We are working to find a solution to distribute more. You can always print posters yourself on our resources page.

If you're interested in becoming a tutorial partner, see our guidelines and instructions. We'd like to host a variety of engaging options, but the primary goal is to optimize the experience for students and teachers who are new to computer science.

No. Absolutely no signup or login is required for students to try the Hour of Code. Most of the follow-on courses require account creation to save student progress. Also, signing up for the Hour of Code does NOT automatically create a Code Studio account. If you do want to create accounts for your students, please follow these instructions.

Go to our certificates page where you can print certificates for your entire class ahead of time. You can also print out special certificates for students doing the Minecraft tutorial.

They are now published on the tutorials page. We hope you enjoy them!

Our new Star Wars and Minecraft tutorials are great for high schoolers, especially the Star Wars JavaScript version and the free play level on both tutorials. Alternately, we recommend trying one of the beginner tutorials on code.org/learn to start, such as the tutorial with Angry Birds or with Anna and Elsa. A high school student should be able to finish one of these in 30 minutes and can then try a more advanced tutorial in JavaScript, such as Khan Academy or CodeHS.

Scratch doesn't run on tablets. If your students are young, they can use the ScratchJR iPad app (for early-readers). If you look at the tutorials on code.org/learn, you can find other tutorials that work on iPads - from Code.org, Tynker, Lightbot, or CodeSpark.

The Hour of Code tracker isn't an exact measurement of usage. We do not count unique student IDs perfectly when tracking participation in the Hour of Code, especially because we don't require students to log in or register. As a result, we both over-count and under-count participants at the same time. Read all the details here.

We're so sorry you aren't seeing you event on the Hour of Code map. Because of the tens of thousands of organizers who sign up, the map aggregates the data and displays one point for several events. If you click the number above the map you will be directed to a list of all events by state and can find your event listed there. Additionally, given the thousands of people signing up for the Hour of Code, the map and event list usually takes 48 hours to update. Check back in a few days!

The goal of the Hour of Code is not to teach anybody to become an expert computer scientist in one hour. One hour is only enough to learn that computer science is fun and creative, that it is accessible at all ages, for all students, regardless of background. The measure of success of this campaign is not in how much CS students learn - the success is reflected in broad participation across gender and ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and the resulting increase in enrollment and participation we see in CS courses at all grade levels. Millions of the participating teachers and students have decided to go beyond one hour - to learn for a whole day or a whole week or longer, and many students have decided to enroll in a whole course (or even a college major) as a result.

Besides the students, another "learner" is the educator who gains the confidence after one hour that they can teach computer science even though they may not have a college degree as a computer scientist. Tens of thousands of teachers decide to pursue computer science further, either attending PD or offering follow-on online courses, or both. And this applies to school administrators too, who realize that computer science is something their students want and their teachers are capable of.

Above all, what all participants can learn in an hour is that we can do this.

Anyone can host an Hour of Code at any time. The tutorials stay up year round. You can expect all our tutorials and curriculum to be available on our site in perpetuity. Please go to our resources for event how-to guides and other resources to help make your Hour of Code event a success.