Can an 8‑Year‑Old Teach Kids to Code? Meet Vita, the Young Programming Star

On December 16, Apple’s CEO posted a birthday greeting to a Chinese friend on Weibo.

This friend is an eight‑year‑old Shanghai primary‑school student named Vita, who had already gained popularity on Bilibili with the hashtag “8‑year‑old teaches you programming”.

With her father’s help, Vita recorded, edited, and uploaded a series of lessons titled “Elementary Students Teach You Programming” to Bilibili in August. Her first video, “#01 Command | Swift Playgrounds Tutorial”, has amassed over 200,000 views and 72,000 followers, making her one of the youngest programming instructors online.

Vita’s lessons focus on child‑friendly programming games, and many adults praise her clear logic, strong expression, and promising future. In her videos she appears confident, explains concepts such as algorithms, functions, and loops in an accessible way, and even pauses to give viewers thinking time, much like a classroom teacher.

She began playing simple games like Monument Valley , Shadowmatic , and Rop around age three and moved on to more complex puzzles such as HOOK and Sudoku by age four. At four and a half, her father introduced her to the Swift Playgrounds app, which she used to start learning programming fundamentals from scratch.

Some netizens questioned whether it is appropriate for an eight‑year‑old to produce coding tutorials, but Vita’s father clarified that the videos are not meant to turn her into an internet celebrity or a future professional programmer; rather, the process of creating the lessons reinforces her own learning.

The story illustrates that programming can be an enjoyable skill for children, especially when taught through games, fostering problem‑solving, creativity, and communication abilities. The most crucial factor for young learners is maintaining their interest and enthusiasm for coding.