Competition aerobatics is an air sport in which ground-based judges rate the skill of pilots performing aerobatic flying. It is practised in both piston-powered single-engine airplanes and also gliders.

An aerobatic competition is sanctioned by a national aero club, its designee, or in the case of international competitions, by CIVA, the Commission Internationale de Voltige Aerienne, which is a constituent body of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). The sanctioning body establishes the rules that apply to the competition, including entry qualifications for all participants, operating procedures, and judging criteria.

A pilot enters a competition in a category of their choice, which defines the level of difficulty of the aerobatic sequences to be flown. Within each category, a pilot flies one or more flight programs. Each flight receives a total score from the judges; ranking each pilot's combined total scores for all flight programs within each category determines that category's winner.

Five power categories are flown in the U.S. (and other countries that adopt the BAeA model). They vary by difficulty of the individual aerobatic maneuvers they contain, as well as the combination of those maneuvers within the sequence. In order of increasing difficulty, the power categories are:

Some aero clubs include a Classic category for airplanes without inverted fuel and oil systems. The sequences flown are similar to those flown in the Sportsman category.^{[citation needed]} A one-design Yak-52 class exists in many countries which is flown in conjunction with the intermediate class.

Four glider categories are:

Categories flown in a competition are announced in advance.

Within each category, each pilot flies one or more flight programs. They are: