10-year-old New York boy a finalist in global coding contest

NEW YORK - Sid Singh is a little boy with a big brain. The 10-year-old from Manhattan could be on his way to becoming an app developer. He created an app called the Toy Box.

"This idea really started during the pandemic when I had used up all my toys and I started to feel boredom that I didn't have enough toys to play with anymore and I was starting to become out of it," Sid said.

We met Sid at his home on the Upper East Side to talk about him being named a finalist in the Silicon Valley Challenge, which is a global competition for young coders. For those of you unfamiliar with what exactly coding is, Sid put it simply.

"I believe coding is giving a computer instructions which it will follow," he said. 

He believes his app, which allows kids to swap toys, will save families money by not having to buy new toys. It's also good for the environment because so many plastic toys end up in landfills.

His mom, Shilpa, is proud to see her son reach for the stars.

"Just to see him do something that he loves to do and his experience with the coding school," Shilpa Singh said, "and where he stacked late hours with a mentor in India working on this app, enjoying himself, loving it, it was great."

The competition is sponsored by BYJU's FutureSchool, an online learning platform where Sid has been taking classes to hone his coding skills. 

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"The winners get a virtual Silicon Valley experience where they get to present a mock proposal to app developers, CEOs and even venture capitalists," BYJU's FutureSchool spokesperson Bethany Braun-Silva said. "So much like they were in the real world when they're presenting their app for funding even though no real funding is involved."

While Sid waits for the results, he's already planning out his future.

"I think it would be nice to be a coder or a robotics person, maybe an engineer, because I think it's just magical to see your machine respond to you after telling you to do something," Sid said. "And you feel a sense of pride once you build a robot." 

Winners of the competition will be announced later this month. 

Whatever the outcome, Sid said he's just grateful to have had the chance to learn and grow so much from this whole experience.