Google Gemma 4 Developer Agent Competition: Build AI Coding Agents on Kaggle

The Gemma 4 Developer Agent Competition is an online, worldwide competition focused on AI coding agents and autonomous software engineering. Organized by Google DeepMind / Google Gemma and hosted on Kaggle, the challenge invites participants to create and submit coding-agent entries for evaluation.

The competition opened on September 23, 2026, and the key entry deadline is approaching: participants must join on Kaggle and accept the competition rules by November 25, 2026. Final submissions are due on December 2, 2026. There is also an optional paper track with a writeup deadline of November 12, 2026.

You can find the official competition page here: Gemma 4 Developer Agent Competition on Kaggle.

What Participants and Winners Get

The competition offers $100,000 in total prizes. The main competition prize pool is $65,000, while the optional paper submission awards add another $35,000.

For developers and AI builders, the value is not only the cash prize. The competition is centered on a current and high-impact area: autonomous software engineering. A strong submission can help participants demonstrate practical skill in building AI systems that reason about code, generate patches, or assist with software development workflows.

Who Can Apply

The competition is listed as worldwide and online, subject to Kaggle rules and eligibility requirements. To compete, participants must join the Kaggle competition and accept the official rules before the entry deadline.

There are age-related requirements to note. Participants under 18 need parent or guardian forms, and children under 13 cannot participate on Kaggle. If you are entering as a student, junior developer, or first-time Kaggle competitor, read the official rules carefully before starting work so you do not miss a required eligibility step.

How to Apply or Register

  1. Go to the official Kaggle competition page for the Gemma 4 Developer Agent Competition.
  2. Join the competition on Kaggle using your Kaggle account.
  3. Accept the competition rules before November 25, 2026. This is the entry deadline, and you must complete this step to compete.
  4. Build and test your coding-agent submission according to the competition requirements and submission format.
  5. If you want to enter the optional paper track, prepare and submit the required writeup by November 12, 2026.
  6. Submit your final competition entry by December 2, 2026.

Key Dates

  • Competition start: September 23, 2026.
  • Optional paper deadline: November 12, 2026.
  • Entry deadline: November 25, 2026. You must accept the rules before this date.
  • Final submission deadline: December 2, 2026.

All deadlines should be checked directly on Kaggle before you submit, especially if you are working across time zones.

Practical Tips to Stand Out

Start with reliability, not just ambition. Coding-agent competitions can reward clever ideas, but unreliable agents can fail on basic tasks. Prioritize a system that behaves consistently, handles errors, and produces outputs in the required format.

Use the optional paper track strategically. If you submit a paper, make the writeup clear and focused. Explain the design choices behind your agent, the training or optimization approach you used, and why your method should generalize beyond a small set of examples.

Test like a software engineer. Since the competition focuses on autonomous software engineering, your own development process matters. Create evaluation cases, check edge cases, and compare versions of your agent before the final deadline. Keep enough time for packaging and submission issues so you are not debugging at the last minute.

Final Reminder

Before applying, confirm every detail, rule, deadline, eligibility requirement, and submission instruction on the official website. Legitimate programmes never charge an application fee.