Girl, 11, wins job offer from tech giant at coding competition

An 11-year-old in a coding competition, Wan Haiyan, has received a job offer from one of China's biggest technology companies.

Wan, from Shanghai, was the youngest contestant in a coding competition held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday by Alibaba Group affiliate Ant Financial.

Participants were asked to create a mini-app within eight minutes, and Wan finished in eight minutes and one second, winning an encouraging award and a special job offer from Jing Xiandong, chairman and CEO of Ant Financial.

She started to learn coding at online coding education platform Codemao more than a year ago and has created 18 games.

"I want to learn artificial intelligence and use it to create more software that can possibly change people's lives," she said. "Jack Ma is my idol, and perhaps someday I will create the next Alibaba."