Developer Spotlight: 9-Year-Old Programmer Simon Tiger
Tags: prodigy, wunderkind, coding
Published: 2019-05-21 19:34:32

---
title: Developer Spotlight: 9-Year-Old Programmer Simon Tiger
published: true
description: Simon Tiger is a 9-year-old mathematician-cum-programmer. We sat down with him to talk neural networks, being a wiz kid, and what he's building on Repl.it.
tags: prodigy, wunderkind, coding
---

### Welcome to another **Developer Spotlight**! 

Today we (virtually) sat down with 9-year-old Belgium-based [wunderkind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tTTTefBOTM) [Simon Tiger](https://simontiger.com/bio) and his mom, Sophia. 

![virtualcafe](https://storage.googleapis.com/replit/images/1558117457012_f78ae7e0c19948a20c80589fa6bf96be.gi)

Simon came to our attention after he shared a [repl](https://repl.it/@simontiger/Raytracing-AI-Full) of a neural network he’d built.

Without further ado, here’s our interview:

![DSC_1714](https://storage.googleapis.com/replit/images/1558117472077_b0302d03c7cd3f6bc8d000215dbde72b.jpe)

**@katyadee**: If you could sum yourself up in one sentence, how would you do it? 

**@simontiger**: This would sound a bit circular, but I would say: "To sum me up in one sentence: You can't sum me up in one sentence.”

**@katyadee**: I think that actually says a lot! You’re really well spoken—are you really 9 years old? 

**@simontiger**: Turning 10 soon.

**@katyadee**: Wow. So, are you in school? 

**@simontiger**: No, I’m homeschooled.  We even had to move to Belgium to be able to homeschool, because school is mandatory in the Netherlands (where I'm from), and it didn't fit well with me.

**@katyadee**: That’s really cool that you guys find a way to make it work. I really like your mom’s site. It says you’re a mathematician… I’m wondering, what does that mean to you? Are you doing research? 

**@simontiger**: Well, that's a difficult question. I see patterns in the world wherever I look. I just love doing math, I'm doing math loads of time every day. Like I'm writing a short book about knot theory and experimenting with knots. Or I want to use Penrose's Illumination Problem in my coding. And I make math videos. Ron Graham said he liked my video about the Graham Scan Algorithm! 

![DSC_2176](https://storage.googleapis.com/replit/images/1558117484722_10c8c3e4cf27345350a24dc98989e0a2.jpe)

**@katyadee**: I’m blown away. [Ron Graham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Graham) - that’s no joke! Speaking of coding, how’d you start? 

**@simontiger**: With Arduino and Sparkfun. And I discovered Arduino through [littleBits](https://littlebits.com). Arduino was how I discovered [Processing](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/connecting-arduino-to-processing/all), and how I discovered [Coding Train](https://codingtra.in) by Daniel Shiffman. He always watches my videos and has become my friend. And I participate in [Coding Train Live Sessions in Slack, too](https://youtu.be/LdWCL0pRD6M). 

**@katyadee**: Wow! Where’d you go from there, after Arduino? What was your first language?

**@SimonTiger**: Surprisingly, not English! It’s not my native language. I taught myself English by watching coding videos, mainly. My actual native languages are Dutch and Russian. 

**@katyadee**: Oh, I meant programming language! I’m sorry. 

**@SimonTiger**: After C, with Arduino, I started using all sorts of languages for a while but now I have settled on JS, Java, Python, and sometimes Haskell. And sometimes even the Wolfram language! 

![DSC_2019](https://storage.googleapis.com/replit/images/1558117496934_e4e80268ac5e30e2979f34b7513480b2.jpe)

**@katyadee**: What brought you to Repl.it?

**@SimonTiger**:  I was first just looking for an online Python editor, because my computer memory was (and still is!) almost full.  I first found onlinegdb.com, but then, after a while, my code disappeared! And then I started using Repl.it.  And now I even no longer only use Python on Repl.it, but also JS. I one time tried to use Haskell on Repl.it, but that didn't really work for my purpose, because the browser runs on JS which is a strict language, and Haskell is a lazy language.

**@katyadee**: What’s your favorite thing you’re building on Repl.it?

**@SimonTiger**: Pretty much all of my repls are a work-in-progress. Here are two:
[Raytracing A.I.](https://repl.it/@simontiger/Raytracing-AI-Full)
[Sorting Algorithms](https://repl.it/@simontiger/SortingAlgorithmsImproved)

**@katyadee**: One last question for ya. What are your plans for the future? Your present is pretty darn cool.

**@SimonTiger**: Depends on what you mean. More coding, math, and physics—if that counts. 

![IMG_20190510_131529](https://storage.googleapis.com/replit/images/1558117528301_d3c17eea2606c9e49d535b4f99b1408e.jpe)