• Part 1: Learn the Basics
  Meet the platform used by top companies around the world to run their most business critical applications.  Learn how to access a user interface, the basic concepts of mainframe programing, and the fundamentals of what differentiates the mainframe from other platforms. IBM will provide step by step instructions to complete the challenges and set you up for success in Part 2.
• Part 2: Practice
  Continue your mainframe skills journey learning how to program with languages such as JAVA, C, COBOL and REXX. Learn JCL and assembly language to navigate the mainframe environment using advanced commands, system security tools and system navigation tools.  Earn the Part 2 IBM Digital Badge to showcase your new skills to employers around the world.
• Part 3: Real World Challenge
  Dive even deeper into the mainframe using real life scenarios encountered by experienced systems programmers. Data Analytics, creative problem solving and knowledge gained in Part 1 and Part 2 challenges will help build out the final challenges.  Part 3 will put contestants to the test and identify those with the most drive and determination to Master the Mainframe.

This unique, virtual contest is open globally to high school and college students to progressively teach mainframe skills in a real world enterprise computing environment. Employers from around the globe use this contest to seek out potential candidates for mainframe careers.  

Find out more here

Industry relies on the mainframe for their speed, reliability, scalability, and unmatched security. Mainframes are critical to the success of a wide range of industries for high-speed cloud computing, real-time analytics, and more, just look at the numbers!

• 93 of the top 100 banks use the mainframe
• Over 3/4 of top WW enterprises across key industries of banking, travel & transportation, retail and insurance run on IBM Z
• IBM Z builds on the capabilities of the world’s most powerful transaction engine at the center of global commerce today supporting:
• 87 percent of all credit card transactions and nearly $8 trillion payments a year.
• 29 billion ATM transactions each year, worth nearly $5 billion per day.
• Four billion passenger flights each year.
• More than 30 billion transactions per day – more than the number of Google searches every day.
• 68 percent of the world’s production workloads at only six percent of the total IT cost.

Master the Mainframe and you’ll be taking a giant step toward developing critical skills that are in hot demand by the world’s largest and most respected companies.