The Mercer Island High School team of Allen Bi, Chris Elliott and Jason Zhang won the novice category at the seventh annual Pacific Lutheran University High School Programming Contest.

Thirty-three teams registered for the contest, with 75 students from 21 schools competing for awards and prizes.

The competition tests programming skills and problem solving ability, and lasts three hours, during which time each team solved several computer-programming problems using various programming languages.

The greater the number of problems a team solves, the higher its ranking in the final standings.

The novice division consists of students who have completed one computer programming class and have not previously placed first, second or third in a programming contest.