Exams Done? 10 Fun Computer Science Things to Do This Summer

If you’ve just sat Paper 2 — well done, it’s over. No more trace tables, no more “state three ways”, no more checking the clock every four minutes. You’ve earned a proper break.

But if you’re the kind of person who can’t quite switch the CS part of your brain off (and let’s be honest, if you’re reading this, you probably are), here’s a completely pressure-free list of fun things to do with it this summer. No mark schemes. No deadlines. Just things that happen to be Computer Science.

1. Build something pointless on purpose

The best summer projects are the ones with zero stakes. Some ideas that are genuinely fun to build in Python:

A Discord bot that replies to your friends with increasingly unhelpful advice
A text adventure game set in your school (the canteen is the final boss)
A “would you rather” generator that gets progressively more unhinged
A program that renames all your files based on vibes, not logic (back them up first!)

None of these need to be good. The whole point is that nobody is marking it.

2. Try a coding challenge site that isn’t about exams

CodinGame — solve puzzles by programming tiny robots/ships, with genuinely funny themes
Advent of Code (the 2025 edition drops in December, but the back-catalogue from 2015 onwards is all still playable) — bite-sized daily puzzles
Project Euler — maths + programming, scratch that “I want a real challenge” itch
CSES Problem Set — if you want to get properly good at algorithms for fun

Pick whichever one matches your mood. CodinGame if you want silly, Project Euler if you want smug.

3. Watch something that’s secretly a CS lesson

Put these on and tell your family it’s “revision” (it isn’t, but they don’t need to know that):

The Imitation Game (2014) — Turing, Bletchley Park, the Bombe
Hidden Figures (2016) — human computers at NASA, before “computer” meant a machine
Halt and Catch Fire (TV) — the personal computer boom of the 80s/90s, surprisingly gripping
Mr Robot (TV) — hacking, but with style (don’t try this at home)
AlphaGo (documentary, free on YouTube) — genuinely one of the best AI documentaries out there

4. Make something with a Raspberry Pi or micro:bit (if you have one lying around)

If your school ever handed out a micro:bit and it’s been sitting in a drawer ever since, now’s its moment:

A step counter, a mini drum machine, a “rock paper scissors” tilt game
A Raspberry Pi running a retro game emulator (NetHack and the original Doom both run beautifully)
A weather station that logs temperature to a spreadsheet so you can pretend it’s data science

5. Read (or re-read) one proper CS book — just for the story

“The Cuckoo’s Egg” by Cliff Stoll — a true story of tracking a hacker in the 1980s, reads like a thriller
“Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution” by Steven Levy — the origin story of hacker culture
“Algorithms to Live By” — surprisingly practical life advice, all backed by CS concepts you already know

6. Some CS trivia to win arguments with

Drop these into conversation over the summer for maximum effect:

The first computer “bug” was an actual moth, found stuck in a relay of the Harvard Mark II in 1947.
The QWERTY keyboard layout wasn’t designed to be slow — that’s a myth. It was designed to reduce typewriter jams for common letter pairs.
A “byte” doesn’t have to be 8 bits — it historically varied between 1 and 48 bits depending on the machine. 8 just won.
The first ever computer programmer was Ada Lovelace, writing algorithms for Charles Babbage’s (never-built) Analytical Engine in the 1840s.
The term “debugging” predates computers — engineers were “debugging” mechanical systems (and yes, sometimes literal bugs) long before software existed.

7. Set up something genuinely useful for September

Future-you will say thank you:

Organise your revision notes into folders by topic (you know which ones you scrambled to find at 11pm)
Back up your NEA/coursework files somewhere that isn’t “just my laptop”
Try out a new IDE or editor in a low-stakes way — VS Code with a few extensions can make next year much smoother

8. Play a game that’s basically an algorithms lesson

Human Resource Machine / 7 Billion Humans — you literally write assembly-style programs to solve puzzles
TIS-100 — for when you want to feel what programming a 1980s chip was like
SpaceChem — chemistry + automation puzzles that scratch the same itch as writing efficient code

9. Build a tiny website for something you actually care about

A page for your football team’s fixtures, a fan page for a show you like, a recipe collection — anything. HTML and CSS take an afternoon to get the basics of, and there’s something satisfying about a website that’s yours, with zero exam board involved.

10. Take a proper break

Genuinely — the best thing you can do for your Computer Science is nothing CS-related for a bit. Sleep in. Go outside. Come back to it in a few weeks and you’ll be amazed how much clearer everything looks.

Whatever you get up to — huge congratulations on getting through the exams. Enjoy the summer, and we’ll see you back here when results day and the new term start creeping up.

Looking for results-day advice or want a head start on next year? Browse the revision notes whenever you’re ready — no rush.