Common Sense Media Review
By Amanda Bindel
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Challenging programming puzzler teaches coding logic.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Lightbot : Programming Puzzles
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
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Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
Kids move a robot along a Q*bert-style maze by dragging commands into place, lighting up specified tiles as they go in LIGHTBOT. Completing one level unlocks a more challenging level that introduces new programming concepts. Kids collect stars for meeting certain requirements, such as completing the program in no more than a specified number of steps. They can collect up to 20 stars over 40 levels, working with such programming concepts as procedures, loops, conditionals, and overloading.
Is It Any Good?
This very challenging puzzler does a fabulous job of teaching kids programming concepts, but it's most likely to engage kids who would be drawn to programming anyway, mostly because of the quickly escalating challenge. There are no user accounts, so only one player at a time can work through the levels, but kids can erase and start over for a new player. The level of challenge ramps up very quickly, so younger kids may enjoy more programming playtime with My Robot Friend or Kodable Pro. It's easy to get stuck for a while on some levels, and no hints or clues are offered. Kids get as many chances as they need to be successful, though, and they'll learn from each failure.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Stress to kids that there's no penalty for trying and failing in Lightbot. If they want to find the best solution, they'll have to try, fail, and try again.
Talk to kids about what computer programmers create (and how it's changing the world). Share with them President Obama's encouraging words to kids about coding.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Subjects : Math : patterns , sequences
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : logic , problem solving , strategy , thinking critically , Tech Skills : using and applying technology
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Release date : January 23, 2016
- Genre : Educational Games
- Topics : STEM , School ( High School )
- Publisher : LightBot Inc.
- Version : 1.6.7
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 5.1.1 or later; Android 2.3 and up
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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