Competitions · Business and economics · DECA ICDC
DECA ICDC, the International Career Development Conference.
The judge plays a client. You play the professional they have hired. Almost every DECA event is a role-play, and that is the part students cannot prepare for by reading.
Read this first
You enter through your school, or not at all.
DECA is a membership organisation before it is a competition, and that changes what a family needs to do first. There is no route that begins with signing up online as an individual.
Find your school’s DECA chapter
The first step is establishing whether your school has one, and contacting the chapter advisor. If it does not, the question becomes whether one can be started - which is a conversation with the school, not with DECA.
Then become a member
Membership comes before competing, and the advisor handles the registration process. Nothing else can happen until this is done.
And an adult advisor is required
Every entry needs one. This is not a competition a student can run around their school rather than through it.
Then compete upward
District or state events first, scored on a points system, then the international conference for those who qualify. ICDC is the top of the pyramid, not the entry point.
At a glance
What DECA is.
DECA was founded in 1946 and is one of the largest secondary-school business leadership organisations in the United States, preparing students for marketing, finance, business administration and hospitality management. It has more than 200,000 members across all fifty US states and in Canada, China, Germany, Guam, Mexico, Spain and Italy.
- Who can enter
- Students in grades 7 to 12
- How you enter
- Individually, choosing an event that suits you. Team events may be entered as a team
- Required
- An adult advisor, and membership through a school chapter
- What ICDC is
- The International Career Development Conference - DECA’s annual championship, held in the United States in late April
- Scale
- More than 60 competitive events, judged by over a thousand entrepreneurs and managers from American companies
- The route
- District or regional events, then state, then international. A points system ranks competitors at each stage
- Event structure
- Each event is made of one, two or three parts, drawn from pre-submitted work, an objective test, and a live role-play
- Recognition
- DECA’s awards and results are recognised by the US Congress and by state, district and international education bodies
- 2026 dates
- 18 to 21 April
The three components
Pre-submitted work, a test, and a role-play.
An event combines one, two or three of these. Which combination applies depends entirely on the event chosen, so check before preparing.
Pre-submitted work
Completed and uploaded before the conference - typically a business document, a web page or a media file. Events requiring a submission usually include an interview as well.
The objective test
About an hour, sat at the conference, on paper or by computer. Content differs by event. Some team events sit a single shared test between them.
The live role-play
The distinctive part. The judge and the competitor each take a role in a business scenario, and the interview runs as that scenario. Which roles depends on the event.
Submission rules
What goes up, and who uploads it.
The submission rules are short but strict, and the organisers are explicit about what will not be accepted as an excuse.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Audio presentation | MP3 format. Required |
| Written paper | Required |
| Presentation slides | PDF. Optional |
| Who uploads | One person only - the team captain - submits on behalf of the whole team through the judging platform |
| Timing | Do not leave it to the last moment. The organisers state that technical difficulties, server problems and power cuts will not be accepted as reasons for a late submission |
That last line is worth reading literally. A team that uploads on the final evening and hits a platform problem has no recourse.
The career clusters
Seven clusters, and sixty events inside them.
Choosing the event is the real decision. Each one maps to a professional path, and the preparation for one is close to useless for another.
| Cluster | Events inside it |
|---|---|
| Business Administration Core | Principles of business management and administration, of finance, of hospitality and tourism, and of marketing |
| Business Management & Administration | Business law and ethics team decision making; human resources management |
| Entrepreneurship | Entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship team decision making |
| Finance | Accounting applications; business finance; financial consulting; financial services team decision making |
| Hospitality & Tourism | Hospitality and tourism professional selling; hospitality services team decision making; hotel and lodging management; quick serve restaurant management; restaurant and food service management; travel and tourism team decision making |
| Marketing | Apparel and accessories marketing; automotive services marketing; business services marketing; buying and merchandising team decision making; food marketing; integrated marketing campaigns for an event, product or service; marketing communications; marketing management team decision making; professional selling; retail merchandising; sports and entertainment marketing, and its team decision making event |
| Personal Financial Literacy | Personal financial literacy |
Note how many events end in "team decision making". Those are the ones entered as a team; most of the rest are individual.
What a role-play looks like
Four real scenarios from one season.
These are the actual briefs DECA set. They are the clearest possible answer to what preparation should look like.
Business operations research
Every career cluster shared a theme: strategies for the talent shortage. Competitors partnered with a local business, analysed its recruiting, hiring, onboarding and retention, and proposed a strategic plan to attract and keep staff.
Financial consulting
You are a financial advisor. A small business client wants to add a peer-to-peer payment option for their customers, and wants you to explain the different platforms and recommend one that will help them financially.
Hospitality and tourism professional selling
You are the sales manager of a luxury glamping resort, meeting a chief executive planning a retreat for twelve staff and their families. Cover the setting, lodging, catering and activities - and they also want a creative meeting space for a kickoff.
Professional selling
You are a sales representative at a firm that builds social media sales strategies. You are meeting the owner of a local retail boutique to explain how your company could expand their social selling.
The awards
Recognised by component as well as overall.
DECA separates the test from the project, so a student who tests well is recognised for it even without an overall placing.
A certificate for every competitor
Everyone who competes receives an official certificate of achievement.
Team awards
First, second and third place on overall event score. Each member of a placing team receives their own certificate.
Objective test awards
The top three on the objective test are recognised separately from the overall placing.
And merit awards
Students placing in the top group on project score receive a merit award. The published material gives this as the top six in one place and refers to a top ten in another, so confirm the current number.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares a DECA competitor.
The role-play is what decides DECA, and it is the one component that reading cannot prepare you for.
Rehearsing the role-play as a role-play
Being handed a scenario and having to be a sales manager, on the spot, in front of a stranger - repeatedly, with different scenarios - is the only preparation that works. It is uncomfortable, and that is the point.
Choosing the event honestly
Sixty events across seven clusters. Marketing, finance and hospitality demand different knowledge, and a student who picks by prestige rather than by interest will be found out in the interview.
Building the cluster knowledge
The objective test covers the professional content of the chosen event. There is a defined body of material and it rewards systematic study.
And submitting early
Pre-submitted work is uploaded by the team captain alone, and the organisers accept no technical excuses. Getting it up days early is free insurance.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for DECA ICDC at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for DECA ICDC is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Case and submission pack
The same material our own DECA ICDC students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFPast cases and question sets
- PDFA worked example of a full submission
- PDFEvent categories and the judging criteria, broken down
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Bai
Master's in social entrepreneurship from Hult International Business School in San Francisco and a business administration degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, with an exchange at Texas A&M's Mays Business School. Accredited by the College Board, Cambridge International and the IBO, a certified intermediate economist, and a judge at the 2020 Diamond Challenge global final and the 2021 NEC China final.
Zhang
Master's in engineering management from NYU and a double degree in finance and supply-chain management from Syracuse. Nearly nine years overseas and in finance, including at a well-known venture firm - experience that feeds scenario-based teaching. College Board-accredited.
Jiang
Master's in business analytics from the Schulich School of Business, a finance and business economics degree from York University and a software engineering degree from the Harbin Institute of Technology. Years in North America, university teaching before returning, and long experience across the whole economics curriculum.
Student results
What Hanlin students got.
Taken from Hanlin's published record of student honours and rewritten in English. Figures are as the organisers reported them.
DECA ICDC
- 2024Fourth place and advancement
- 2019-20Fourth at the US state round in Business Finance Series and Restaurant Management, with all entrants advancing
Earlier years
- 2017-18The highest honour awarded to the Chinese delegation
The full record, across every subject and year, is on the student honours page.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for DECA ICDC, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
Scan to add an advisor
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DECA ICDC, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
How do I enter DECA?
Through your school. Find out whether it has a DECA chapter and contact the advisor, become a member, choose an event, then compete at district or state level and qualify upward. There is no individual sign-up route to ICDC.
Who can enter?
Students in grades 7 to 12. Registration is individual, and team events may be entered as a team. An adult advisor is required.
What is ICDC?
The International Career Development Conference - DECA’s annual championship, held in the United States in late April. More than sixty events are judged by over a thousand entrepreneurs and managers from American companies.
What is an event made of?
One, two or three components drawn from pre-submitted work, an objective test of about an hour, and a live role-play interview.
What is the role-play?
The distinctive part of DECA. The judge and the competitor each take a role in a business scenario - a client and an advisor, a buyer and a sales manager - and the interview is conducted in character.
What do I have to submit in advance?
For events requiring it: an audio presentation in MP3 format and a written paper, both required, and presentation slides as a PDF, optional. Only the team captain uploads, on behalf of the team.
What if the upload fails?
The organisers state that technical difficulties, server problems and power cuts are not accepted as reasons for late submission. Submit well before the deadline.
What events are there?
Around sixty across seven clusters: business administration core, business management and administration, entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality and tourism, marketing, and personal financial literacy. Events ending in "team decision making" are entered as a team.
What awards are given?
A certificate of achievement for every competitor; first, second and third place on overall event score, with a certificate for each team member; separate recognition for the top three on the objective test; and merit awards for the top group on project score.
When is it?
ICDC runs 18 to 21 April 2026, in the United States.
Related
Other business competitions.
What students enter alongside DECA.
DECA enquiries
It starts with your school, not with us.
DECA is entered through a school chapter with an adult advisor, so the first question is whether your school has one. Tell us where the student studies and which of the sixty events interests them, and an advisor will work out what is actually possible from there.