International Olympiad in Informatics

The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is an annual computer science competition for secondary school students. The first IOI was held in 1989 in Pravetz, Bulgaria.

The contest consists of two days computer programming, solving problems of an algorithmic nature. Students compete on an individual basis, with up to four students competing from each participating country (with around 81 countries in 2004). Students in the national teams are selected through national computing contests, such as the Australian Informatics Olympiad, British Informatics Olympiad, and Bundeswettbewerb Informatik (Germany).

The IOI is one of the most prestigious computer science competitions in the world. UNESCO and IFIP are patrons of the International Olympiad in Informatics.

Contents

[hide]

Structure of the competition

On each of the two competition days, the students are typically given four problems which they have to solve in five hours. Each student works on his/her own, with only a computer and no other help allowed, specifically no communication with other contestants, books etc. Usually to solve a task the contestant has to write a computer program (in C, C++ or Pascal) and submit it before the five hour competition time ends. The program is graded by being run with secret test data. For IOI 2010, tasks are divided into subtasks with graduated difficulty, and points are awarded only when all tests for a particular subtask yield correct results, within specific time and memory limits. In some cases, the contestant's program has to interact with a secret computer library, which allows problems where the input is not fixed, but depends on the program's actions – for example in game problems. Another type of problem has known inputs which are publicly available already during the five hours of the contest. For these, the contestants have to submit an output file instead of a program, and it is up to them whether they obtain the output files by writing a program (possibly exploiting special characteristics of the input), or by hand, or by a combination of these means.

IOI 2010 will for the first time have a live web scoreboard with real-time provisional results. Submissions will be scored as soon as possible during the contest, and the results posted. Contestants will be aware of their scores, but not others', and may resubmit to improve their scores.

The scores from the two competition days and all problems are summed up separately for each contestant. At the awarding ceremony, contestants are awarded medals depending on their relative total score. The top 50% of the contestants are awarded medals, such that the relative number of gold : silver : bronze : no medal is approximately 1:2:3:6 (thus 1/12 of the contestants get a gold medal).

Front
Back
A bronze medal from IOI 2006 in Mexico

Unlike other science olympiads, the IOI regulations specifically prohibit ranking by countries. Although unofficial rankings are circulated within some participating nations, there is therefore no standard. Students who do not receive medals do not have their scores published, making it impossible for a country to be ranked by adding together scores of its competitors unless each wins a medal.

List of IOI websites and locations

Multiple IOI winners

The following is a list of the top performers in the history of the IOI. The * sign indicates a perfect score, a rare achievement in IOI history. Also, First (I), second (II) and third (III) places among gold medalists are indicated where appropriate. This list includes only those countries where the national selection contest allows the same participant to go multiple times to the IOI.

Name Team Years
 Gennady Korotkevich   Belarus   G*(I) 2011   G(I) 2010   G(I) 2009   G 2008   G 2007    S 2006  
 Filip Wolski   Poland   G(I) 2006   G 2005   G 2004   G 2003      
 Martin Pettai   Estonia   G 2002   G 2001   G 2000   S 1999        
 Andrzej Gąsienica-Samek   Poland   G 1999   G 1998   G 1997   S 1996        
 Vladimir Martianov   Russia   G 1999   G(I) 1998   G(I) 1997           
 Martin MareĆĄ   Czech Republic   G 1995   G 1994    G 1993           
 John Pardon   United States   G 2007   G 2006    G 2005           
 Marcin Andrychowicz   Poland   G 2008   G 2007    G 2006           
 Neal Wu   United States   G 2010   G 2009    G 2008           
 Alex Schwendner   United States   G 2005   G 2003    S 2004    S 2002        
 Rumen Hristov   Bulgaria   G 2011   G(II) 2010    S 2009    S 2008        
 Wolfgang Thaller   Austria   G 1997   G 1996   S 1999   S 1998        
 Bruce Merry   South Africa   G 2001   G 2000    S 1999    B 1998    B 1997    B 1996  
 Goran ĆœuĆŸić   Croatia   G 2008   G 2007    S 2009   B 2006       
 Victor Bargachev   Russia   G(I) 1995   G(I) 1994   S 1993           
 Mihai PătraƟcu   Romania   G(II) 2001   G 2000   S 1999           
 Roman Pastoukhov   Russia   G 2000   G(II) 1999   S 2001           
 Piotr ZieliƄski   Poland   G 1997   G(III) 1996   S 1995           
 Miroslav DudĂ­k   Slovakia   G 1997   G 1996    S 1995           
 Richard KrĂĄlovič   Slovakia   G 1999   G 1998    S 1997           
 Tomasz Czajka   Poland (1998, 2000), United Kingdom (1999)   G 2000   G 1999    S 1998            
 Petr Mitrichev   Russia   G 2002   G 2000   S 2001           
 Luka Kalinovčić   Croatia   G 2004   G 2003    S 2002           
 Rostislav Rumenov   Bulgaria   G 2007   G 2006    S 2005           
 Vladislav Epifanov   Russia   G 2008   G 2007    S 2009           
 Cosmin Gheorghe   Romania   G 2009   G 2008    S 2007           
 Pasin Manurangsi   Thailand   G 2011   G 2010    S 2009           
 David Arthur   Canada   G(II) 2000   G 1999  B 1998          
 Janis Sermulins   Latvia   G 1999   G(II) 1997  B 1998          
 Hong Chen   P.R. China   G(II) 2000   G(I) 1999              
 Reid Barton    United States   G(I) 2001   G 2000              
 Kazuhiro Hosaka   Japan   G(II) 2009   G 2008              
 Velin Tzanov   Bulgaria   G(III) 2002   G 2001              
 Ali Babaei Chshmehahmadrezaei   Iran   G 2010   G 2009              

See also

External links