Five budding engineers made a bridge of small wooden beams that withstood a toy car weighing 130 times its weight.
The students amazed spectators with the feat in the Bridge Building Competition for Secondary Schools earlier this month.
The contest was co-organised by the department of construction at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Tsing Yi) and the department of civil engineering at the University of Hong Kong.
Thirty-one teams entered bridges made of wooden sticks measuring 0.3cm in width. Each team took turns explaining their designs to the adjudicators and the bridges were then put to a series of weight tests.
In one of the tests, a toy car was put on each bridge. As it moved slowly along the bridge, small objects were put on top of the car to test the structure's strength.
Five Form Three students from TWGHs Kwok Yat Wai College snatched first prize with their arching bridge as it carried the most weight.
The students said the contest gave them a practical lesson in physics.