Zack Noyes was among 118 students who came first in their HSC courses and had his achievement acknowledged in an online ceremony on Thursday.

Zack has always loved mathematics and started computer programming at the age of 12.

He joined the code cadets program at school which helped take his hobby to the next level.

In year 10 he wrote an iPhone application for high school students to input their timetable for easy reference.

As part of the year 11 and 12 HSC course, he built artificial intelligence programs for Connect Four and the abstract Chinese board game called Go.

Zack chose to do the HSC over the International Baccalaureate so he could further specialise in his area of interest.

Canberra Grammar School has had strong results in software design and development in the past and his peers had been speculating who among them could make the list of top 10 students. Zack said it was "kind of cool" he could be that person.

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Zack received an unconditional offer for his second choice course at the Australian National University earlier this year. But he hoped his HSC marks, to be released on Friday, would get him an offer for his dream course in maths and computer science.

He said leaving school was a bittersweet moment.

"I'm a bit nervous or anxious about what will be different after school," he said.

"I get to specialise further. I'm excited to study what I am passionate about."

Head of Canberra Grammar School Dr Justin Garrick said the school was enormously proud of all of its students for reaching the end of their studies on top of an immensely tough year.

"Zack's achievement in topping the state in software design and development is nothing short of extraordinary and it is a pleasure to see his talent and dedication recognised," Dr Garrick said.

Canberra Grammar School was the only ACT school which offered the HSC instead of the ACT Senior Secondary Certificate.

This year 126 first-in-course certificates were awarded to 118 students.

Six students topped two courses each and one student topped three courses.