My Personal Blog

Indian Computing Olympiad: India's IOI Selection Process

Author: Samik Goyal

This is the first part in a 3-part series:

This part covers some basic information about the olympiad.

Q: So what is the Indian Computing Olympiad anyways?

The Indian Computing Olympiad is the process used to select the Indian team for the International Olympiad of Informatics. The IOI is one of the most prestigious competitions for high schoolers on the face of the earth.

These competitions come under competitive programming.

You can also look at this to find out more about this subject.

The Indian Computing Olympiad is organized by the IARCS (Indian Association for Research in Computing Science). The official website is at this link.

Q: Why should I care about it? Will it help me anywhere?

While there is no monetary award associated with the Olympiad, it can help you get admission to a good university. Here are some observations I made last year (IOITC 2024):

Please note that this is not a guarantee, but a trend I observed. The admission process is not completely transparent, and the universities do not disclose the exact criteria they use for admissions.

Furthermore, if you make it to the Indian Team and win a medal at IOI, you are pretty much guaranteed an admission at NUS (National University of Singapore). This fact was confirmed to me by an NUS professor at IOI 2024.

IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras have also announced admissions via Olympiads. These were introduced in the 2024-2025 cycle, and the results are not out yet. I will update this page whenever I procure the results for this year.

Olympiads also look good on resumes when you apply for jobs.

⚠ Do not keep Olympiad as your only option for getting into a good university, especially if you are in Class 12. With the Olympiad, missing the IOITC cutoff by even a single mark could leave you with nothing in your hand. I personally know some people who were ruined this way.
⚠ There are negligible incentives to just clearing ZCO/ZIO or winning a bronze medal at INOI.

Q: What are the different stages?

The Indian Computing Olympiad is made up of 3 stages:

ZCO, ZIO → INOI → IOITC → IOI (YAY!! :D)

ZIO is the only exam that follows a paper-and-pen exam style. That is, you will get questions you'll have to solve by hand or with a simple calculator (Available here).

The ZIO is a 3 hour exam usually held in December. The cutoffs are usually class and gender based, with lower classes (VIII and below) and females getting a preference.

The ZCO is a 3 hour exam usually held in December. The cutoffs are usually class and gender based, with lower classes (VIII and below) and females getting a preference.

By clearing the cutoff in atleast one of the two exams, you can qualify for the INOI.

The INOI is a 3 hour exam usually held in February. The cutoffs are usually class and gender based, with lower classes (VIII and below) and females getting a preference. In INOI, medals are also awarded. These are strictly merit-based (score-based) with around 10 Golds, 20 Silvers, and 30 Bronzes awarded every year. Moreover, girls are also selected for the EGOI selection test.

It should be noted that, class and gender based cutoffs hardly make any difference in the cutoffs for ZCO, as anyone good enough to clear INOI is usually able to clear ZCO with a big margin. However, in INOI, for the IOITC cutoffs, females have a significant advantage. In the last 3 years, the cutoff for 12th Grade Females was lower than the cutoff for 8th Grade Males by about 40/300 marks. The cutoffs for the last few years can also be found on this website, under the data section.

The APIO, TSTs, EGOI, and IOI are not covered in this guide as their format is very different from the INOI and ZCO. The difference is mainly in the style and difficulty of problems.

Q: Is there any coaching that can teach me this subject?

Unfortunately, there are no coaching institutes that can teach you this subject. This is an area where India does lack. The ones which do are usually focused on college students. The only way to learn is by self-study and practice.

However, you may be able to find people from outside India who may offer classes/mentoring such as the USACO Guide Classes.

I will recommend that you join SPOI (Shortest Path to IOI), though. It is the only Indian community for the Indian Computing Olympiad. SPOI has mock contests, and a good amount of people willing to help. You can find me there as well (I’m literally one of the founders).

This work by Samik Goyal is licensed under CC BY 4.0