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INDIAN COMPUTING OLYMPIAD

IARCS home > OLYMPIAD

• Announcements
  
• About the Indian Computing Olympiad
  
• Eligibility
• Registration
  
• Stages
  
• How to prepare for ICO
  
• Incentives for students
  
• Contact
  
• Our partners

Announcements

Important update: INOI-2022 will have a new structure and expanded syllabus  ...

Indian team wins three medals at IOI-2021, EGOI-2021, six medals at APIO-2021  ...

About the Indian Computing Olympiad

The Indian Computing Olympiad is a nationwide competition organized annually by IARCS. The goal of the competition is to identify school students with outstanding skills in algorithms and computer programming.

The Indian Computing Olympiad is used to select the team of four students to represent India at the International Olympiad for Informatics (IOI). IOI is one of the twelve international Science Olympiads held annually. Other prominent Science Olympiads include Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy.

Eligibility

The Indian Computing Olympiad is open to all school students across the country, from any school board. Any student registered in school upto class 12 during the academic year 2020-2021 is eligible. There is no lower age limit for participation.

To participate, you must still be in school. If you have completed Class 12, you are no longer eligible, even if you have taken a break and are not enrolled in college, or if are planning to redo your Class 12 exams for improvement.

Registration

ZIO-2022 will take place on Sunday, 5 December, 2021. Details about ZCO-2022 are still to be finalized. Registration for ICO-2022 is expected to open around 15 October, 2021. Updates will be posted here as soon as they are available.

Stages

The first round of the Indian Computing Olympiad is in two parts.

• The Zonal Informatics Olympiad (ZIO) is a written exam held at centres across the country. ZIO is normally held in November-December. ZIO-2021 was held on 19 December, 2020.
  
  
• The Zonal Computing Olympiad (ZCO) is a programming exam held at centres across the country. The programming languages supported are C, C++, Java and Python. ZCO is normally held in November-December. Due to CoViD-19 constraints, ZCO-2021 did not take place.
  
  
• Students can write either ZIO or ZCO or both and qualify through either exam for the second round.

The second round, the Indian National Olympiad in Informatics (INOI) involves programming. INOI is normally held in January-February. INOI-2021 took place on 28 February, 2021.

• INOI-2020 will have a new structure and expanded syllabus.
  
  
• The only programming language allowed for INOI is C++, since IOI has withdrawn Java as an official language from 2021.

Approximately 30 students are selected from INOI for the IOI Training Camp (IOITC). IOITC is normally organized in early May. Due to the CoViD-19 situation, IOITC-2021 was held online during March–June, 2021.

IOI-2022 will be hosted by Indonesia.

How to prepare for ICO

• The syllabus for ZIO and ZCO is the list of Basic Topics in the Online Study Material  ...
  
  
• INOI-2022 will have a new structure and expanded syllabus  ...
  
  
• Go through the Online Study Material for ICO.
  
  
• Mentoring programme for ZCO, INOI and IOITC by past IOITC participants  ...
  
  
• Preparatory material for ICO on CodeChef  ...
  
  
• ICO Learning Program to prepare for ICO, weekly sessions by CodeChef volunteers  ...
  
  
• Solve problems online at the IARCS Problems Archive  ...
  
  
• Join the IOI online community  ...
  
  

Incentives for students

Codechef conducts a monthly programming contest Lunch Time through Codechef for Schools and offers incentives for IOI through the Go for Gold for IOI programme  ...

The following academic institutions in India have special admission procedures for ICO students.

• Amrita University offers fully funded B.Tech. Honors CSE programme for students who perform well in ICO  ...
  
  
• Chennai Mathematical Institute offers direct admission to students selected for IOITC in Class 11 or 12  ...
  
  
• IIIT Delhi offers bonus marks to students selected for INOI and IOITC  ...
  
  
• IIIT Hyderabad offers admission via the Olympiad category to students selected for IOITC  ...

The following international academic institutions have special admission procedures for IOI students.

• The Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Canada, offers Michael and Ophelia Lazaridis Olympiad Scholarships to IOI medallists  ...
  
  
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has a scholarship scheme for IOI gold medallists  ...
  
  
• Nanyang Technical University (NTU), Singapore exempts IOI medallists from writing the entrance exam  ...
  
  
• National University of Singapore (NUS) offers special consideration for IOI medallists  ...

Contact

Please write to Madhavan Mukund, National Coordinator, Indian Computing Olympiad at ico@iarcs.org.in if you have any questions or clarifications.

Our partners

The Indian Computing Olympiad is held in partnership with:

• Sasken Technologies, who sponsor the IOI Training Camp and the travel expenses for the Indian team to IOI.
  
  
• Tata Consultancy Services, whose TCS iON platform is used to conduct ZIO.
  
  
• CodeChef, whose platform is used to conduct ZCO and INOI.
  
  
• ACM India, who provide administrative support.
  
  

From 2001-2002 to 2013-2014, ZIO and INOI were coordinated through the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE). ZCO-2016, INOI-2016 and ZCO-2017 were held on the TCS iON platform. Jed-i provided administrative support from 2013 to 2015.