International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence

The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) is an annual International Science Olympiad in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) for secondary education students under the age of 20. The first IOAI was held in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2024.

Each country or territory may send up to two teams, each consisting of up to four students supported by one leader. Participants are selected through a multi-stage National Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (NOAI) and/or a Regional Olympiad such as the NAOAI or APOAI. Participants at the IOAI compete on an individual basis.

As of 2025, there were 61 countries and territories participating in the IOAI. Three hundred students participated in IOAI 2025.

As of 2026, the IOAI has 130 accredited countries and territories, with 103 to participate in IOAI 2026.^[1][2]

The IOAI consists of three contests: the Individual Contest, the Team Challenge, and the GAITE contest. Medals are awarded based solely on the Individual Contest.^[3]

The Individual Contest is the main competition of the IOAI in which contestants compete individually on separate computers and are not permitted to communicate during the contest. Medals are awarded solely on the basis of the total score from the two-day Individual Contest. The Individual Contest consists of two on-site contest days (six hours per day), preceded by an at-home practice round and an on-site practice session. In IOAI 2025, three at-home problems were released for preparation approximately one month before the on-site contest. Results from this at-home round do not affect final results.^[3]

The first on-site contest day (Individual Contest 1) comprises three tasks as extensions and continuations of the at-home tasks, while the second day (Individual Contest 2) comprises two or three tasks which are novel and different from the at-home tasks.^[3] The Individual Contest tasks span various AI domains such as machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.^[4]

The IOAI 2025 contest rules describe tasks as requiring typical machine-learning workflows, including writing code, fitting models on training data, and running inference on test data, using identical local machines and GPU resources (minimum 24 GB RAM). Tasks, datasets, and submissions are handled through a contest platform (Bohrium), including a web-based Jupyter notebook environment for GPU access. Internet access is restricted to a whitelist of documentation sites and an integrated compact large language model accessible within the platform. The use of external APIs are prohibited unless a task explicitly allows them.^[3]

In IOAI 2025, each contest task was scored up to 100 points and could include multiple subtasks. Scores are normalized using a baseline solution and a maximum score derived from either a Scientific Committee solution or the best contestant submission. Contestants can view only their own scores during the contest; a live scoreboard may be available publicly outside the contest hall but is not permitted to be viewed by contestants during the contest.^[3]

For non-English-speaking teams, the IOAI hold a translation session beginning three hours before each contest day in which team leaders review and may amend machine-translated task statements; translations must match the English original and are published after the contest. The IOAI committee also enforces quarantine restrictions during these translation sessions, where neither contestants or team leaders may not use cell phones, laptops, and other communication devices.^[3]

The Team Challenge is a team-based component of the IOAI. The results of this part do not affect the distribution of medals. The IOAI 2025 rules describe it as a “creative and AI-oriented challenge” in which a team's contestants sit together and cooperate, with the format varying by year.^[3] In IOAI 2024, teams worked with existing AI image and video generation tools to produce a visual result. In IOAI 2025, teams were assigned to program a robot to complete various tasks.^[5]

The GAITE (Global AI Talent Empowerment) contest is a simplified version of the individual contest with a separate scoreboard, where participants may ask for hints. It is designed for countries and territories with limited International Science Olympiads history, and it awards alternative prizes instead of medals.^[6]

The top 50% of the participants in the individual contest receive gold, silver and bronze medals in ratio of 1:2:3, respectively. The top three individuals receive honorary trophies. As in other International Science Olympiads, if an individual is in the top 50% on one of the days, but does not receive a medal, they receive an honorary mention during the awards ceremony. The GAITE contest has similar cutoff logic, but receives a reward instead of a medal. The top three teams in the Team Challenge receive trophies.^[7]

National delegations are selected through country-level qualification processes referred to as National Olympiads in Artificial Intelligence (NOAI) or equivalent.^[8] Globally, at least 790,000 students participate in national qualification competitions annually, yielding a selection rate of 0.038%.^{[Note 1]} For the most competitive countries such as Russia, Singapore, and Japan, the selection rates may be lower, while they are likely higher for newer countries. Also, since many countries do not publish their entrant counts, the total number of national-level participants worldwide is likely significantly higher.^{[9][10][11][12]}

In addition, Regional Olympiads (for example, APOAI or NAOAI) provide continent-level competition and preparation platforms in most regions.^[13]

Participating countries and territories select their students for the IOAI through a National Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (NOAI) or an equivalent process. The names of these selection processes differ by country, but almost all of them (excluding newer countries participating in the GAITE contest) have in common that the process comprises multiple and/or extremely rigorous selection stages.^[1]

• United States / Canada – The USA–North America AI Olympiad (USAAIO) is a three-round process including an invitational in-person round and a subsequent selection camp, after which a national delegation is selected for IOAI.^[14]
• Russia – The Russian Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence is organized as a multi-stage process (training, qualification, main round, final).^[15] Organizers reported 72,316 registrations for the training round and 52,260 registrations for the qualifying round in one season, with tasks spanning mathematics, algorithms/programming, and machine learning; 977 students were disqualified following plagiarism checks.^[10]
• Japan – Japan's national selection consists of multiple stages, beginning with the Japan Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (JOAI), a 10-day-long data science competition. The top 10% of participants advance through further rounds, including written solution reports and 30-minute individual technical interviews. From this process, eight students are selected for the APOAI team, with four ultimately chosen for the IOAI. Japan is the only country that conducts mandatory selection at both national (three-stage) and regional (Asia-Pacific) levels.^[16][17][18]
• Brazil – Brazil's National Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (ONIA) is conducted as a large-scale competition which consists of progressive rounds of evaluation. It identifies 28 top students, four of which are selected for the IOAI.^[12] The competition is held in four phases across two cycles, including a two-step third phase and a final training-and-evaluation phase that selects a four-student national team.^[19]
• Singapore – Singapore's national Olympiad consists of two rounds: an online preliminary round (300 MCQs in 3 hours) selects the top 150 performers to advance to the final assessment, which includes both theory questions and Python programming tasks. Additional training and selection may follow the finals for top performers.^[20]
• Poland – The Polish AI Olympiad adopts a two-stage structure: an open online first stage (at-home tasks) and a second-stage competitive camp with 30 selected participants competing for a four-person IOAI team.^[21]
• France – The Olympiades Françaises d'Intelligence Artificielle (OFIA), organized by France-IOI, follow a three-stage structure consisting of an open online qualification round, a second selection round, and a multi-day national training camp and final in Paris.^[22]
• Bangladesh – The Bangladesh AI Olympiad (BdAIO) selects competitors in three rounds: the online preliminary round, the national finals, and the team selection camp. In 2025, 406 participants competed in the national finals.^[23]
• Norway – The Norwrgian AI Olympiad (NOKI) is a three-stage selection system; however, unlike other countries, its first two rounds are shared with the Norwegian Informatics Olympiad. The national Olympiad reports 1,180 participants in the first round.^[24]
• Hong Kong – The national Olympiad reported more than 800 preliminary-round entrants, narrowing through multiple rounds to 25 finalists, with a subsequent training qualification step (12 students) and a final delegation selection step (top 8).^[25]
• Australia – The national Olympiad includes multiple rounds (including an online academic round and an advanced technical assessment), followed by a final round aligned with APOAI standards for national team selection.^[26][27]
• India – The India AI Olympiad (INAIO) hosted by AMC India is a two-stage selection program.^[28]
• Ukraine – The national Olympiad is a four-stage selection process beginning with an online academic round, followed by later stages focused on data analysis and machine learning principles, practical model-building tasks, and a final training-and-selection stage for the national team.^[29]
• China – China's National Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence culminates in a national finals competition with over 160 finalists competing in a synchronized contest, from which eight students are selected.^[30]

Regional Olympiads in Artificial Intelligence are competitions held under the supervision of the IOAI. They are intended to build continent-level communities, support national Olympiads, and provide training platforms aligned with the IOAI.^[31]

The following regional Olympiads will/did take place for 2026:^[32]

• African Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (AOAI) – Hosted in Sousse, Tunisia (9–12 April 2026) in a hybrid format with online participants.^[33]
• Asia Pacific Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (APOAI) – Hosted in China (13–20 June 2026) in a hybrid format.^[34] Contestants will solve four problems over a total of six hours, with 20 participating countries. Japan conducts the fourth and final selection for the IOAI at this stage, choosing four students from the eight-member national APOAI team.^[17][18]
• Northern Eurasian Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (NEOAI) – Hosted from 2–8 May 2026 in a hybrid format, with countries able to organize local venues.^[35] NEOAI 2025 was held in offline and online formats and included a main round of eight AI-related challenges, with 89 participants from four countries.^[36]
• North American Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (NAOAI) – Hosted on 4–5 April 2026.^[37] In contrast to other regional Olympiads, NAOAI is also known as the USA–North America AI Olympiad and serves as the entire selection pipeline for the IOAI, unlike other countries that select their delegates through national selection pipelines. The NAOAI's multi-round process is organized by the USA AI Olympiad (USAAIO), with an in-person Round 2 stage and a subsequent training camp stage (Round 3).^[14] The IOAI reported that nearly 200 students advanced from Round 1 to the 2026 Round 2 stage.^[38]

The IOAI was founded by the LERAI Foundation, with members Lora Dineva, Elena Marinova, Rositsa Dekova, Aleksandar Velinov, and Iva Gumnishka.^[39] The IOAI's partners and sponsors include institutions, NGOs, and companies, such as Google.^[40]

The current IOAI board consists of:^[41]

• Elena Marinova (Bulgaria) – Chair; IOAI co-founder, eJOI co-founder, Bulgarian Science Olympiads Teams Association.

• Katya Protsko – Secretary; ICPC coach and Head of Olympiad Programs at Central University.

• Ali Sharifi – Chair of the International Scientific Committee (ISC).

• Lora Dineva (Bulgaria) – ISC Liaison; IOAI co-founder, Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians, Natural Science Olympic Teams Association

• Yong Mao (China) – Representative of the IOAI 2025 host; NOAI Organizing Committee, ITCCC Innovative Education.

• Danabek Kaliazhdarov (Kazakhstan) – Representative of the IOAI 2026 host; Federation for Competitive Programming (CPFED).

• Rositsa Dekova (Bulgaria) – IOAI co-founder; Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv.

• Antonio Carlan (Brazil) – Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, EduSpace, Brazilian National AI Olympiad.

• Steven Chen (United States) – Temple University, USA AI Olympiad (USAAIO).

• Airaj Isaacs (United Arab Emirates) – Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).

• Chenning Lu (Singapore) – Nanyang Technological University and Organizing Committee of Singapore NOAI.

The 1st IOAI took place in Burgas, Bulgaria, from August 9 to 15, 2024. The event featured nearly 200 students from 32 countries and territories from 6 continents, organized into 41 teams. In the Team Challenge, the students worked in the space of AI and art, creating a single cover and video for the remix of the song "Love" by Bulgarian singer Maria Ilieva.^[39]

IOAI 2025 was held in Beijing, China, from August 2 to 9, 2025. The competition featured 300 students from 61 countries and territories.^[42] In the Team Challenge, teams were tasked to program a robot to organize a warehouse.

In the individual contest, several delegations achieved notably strong results. Russia secured the highest number of gold medals and placed multiple contestants near the top of the overall individual rankings. Poland, India, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam also earned multiple gold medals in the individual contest. Japan ranked the highest among all countries that sent only one team (with four representatives) to the competition.^[43]

IOAI 2026 will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, from August 2 to 8, 2026.^[44]

For IOAI 2027, Singapore has been chosen as the host city.^[45]

In 2025, 61 countries and territories participated in the 2nd IOAI:^[46]

For IOAI 2026, 103 countries and territories are registered for participation.^[1]

• Official website of the IOAI