Boy, 8, passes GCSE maths with highest grade - while teaching himself to program

An eight-year-old boy passed a GCSE maths exam with the highest grade possible - while also teaching himself hot to program.

Kautilya Katariya, sat the exam while he was in year three of primary school at Wootton Park School in - almost eight years earlier than most children do.

His astounding achievements came after teachers assessed his ability in the subject, determining he has the skills to study maths along years 10, 11 and 12.

Clever Kautilya managed to go to achieve a 9 in the exam - the equivalent to an A* grade.

But his extraordinary ability doesn't end there, as he also taught himself how to program when he was just six years old using free resources he found online during the pandemic.

Kautilya Katariya, sat the exam while he was in year three of primary school at Wootton Park School in - almost eight years earlier than most children do (Anita Maric / SWNS)

Kautilya now holds the the ‘world’s youngest coder’ in the Guinness World Record for completing IBM’s AI certification.

Proud dad Ishwari Katariya said: "Me and his mother are really proud of him and the amazing work he is doing. It was great to see him feel so accomplished.

"There was only so much we could help Kautilya with because of his advanced level."

Kautilyan has now gone on to compete with university and expert programmers in coding, and is an IBM Certified Artificial Intelligence Professional.

Kautilya Katariya with parents Ishwari Katariya, Trupti Patidar & brother Shiv Katariya at home in Northampton (Anita Maric / SWNS)

He has even been asked to attend a number of talks, summits and conferences – including being invited by the prime minister of the UAE to speak at the World Government Summit this year.

But being in the limelight is nothing new to Kautilya, having alreadt attended his forst conference in America in 2020

His father added: "Kautilya was very proud of himself when he delivered his speech in front of so many important people from around the world."

Kautilya described how he first got interested in maths and programming, saying: "I’m feeling good about my achievements and I’m quite proud.

Kautilyan has now gone on to compete with university and expert programmers in coding, and is an IBM Certified Artificial Intelligence Professional (Anita Maric / SWNS)

"I got interested when my dad gave me a book about programming and I liked it so much I finished it in a day.

"That was when I was five-and-a-half."

Kautilya now works on his own projects, building an AI chatbot and an image recognition app which could be used to detect smoke and fire.

The pint-sized genius says in future he plans to start his own company and build an AI from scratch.