Australian Informatics Olympiad Preparation: AIO

One paper, divisions only for awards

The Australian Informatics Olympiad is run by the Australian Maths Trust and recognises students with a genuine interest in programming. The AMT is explicit that participants must have programming experience and be able to write code, so unlike the logic contests this is not an entry point for a complete beginner.

One structural point catches people out: there are Intermediate (up to Year 10) and Senior (up to Year 12) divisions, but there is only one AIO paper and the divisions exist for awarding only. A Year 10 student answers the same six questions as a Year 12 student and is ranked within their own division.

That is good news for a Class 9 or 10 student. The early questions are reachable, and being ranked against your own year group means a strong result is genuinely attainable.

The format

Three hours, six questions, answers submitted as source code, online only. Permitted languages are C, C++, Java and Python 3, so a student who already writes Python is fully equipped.

Thirty minutes per question is a workable pace, and the questions rise in difficulty, so the realistic plan for a Class 9 or 10 student is to secure the early questions completely rather than to attempt all six superficially.

Efficiency is scored, not just correctness

This is the difference between the AIO and a school programming exercise, and it changes how a student must think.

Submitted code is compiled and run against input scenarios to test correctness and efficiency. A program that produces the right answer but takes too long on a large input will not score fully.

So part of the work is estimating cost before writing: how many operations will this approach take on the largest input the problem allows? A student who writes first and measures later wastes the time they needed for the next question.

What the questions require

Simulation and careful implementation carry the early questions. Doing exactly what the problem describes, precisely, is enough and these are the reliable marks.

Sorting and greedy reasoning appear in the middle, where ordering the data correctly frequently makes a question straightforward.

Recursion with pruning and dynamic programming appear at the harder end. Dynamic programming in particular is the technique that separates a student who finishes four questions from one who finishes six.

Output and input handling

Because a machine judges the submission, a correct idea formatted wrongly scores zero. Reading the input specification exactly, producing output in precisely the required form, and testing against the provided samples before submitting are habits worth drilling.

They cost two minutes per question and save whole questions, which is the best return available anywhere in contest programming.

For schools: entry and cost

Schools register students through the AMT admin portal at competitions.amt.edu.au/admin/. For 2026 the competition is Thursday 27 August, with entries closing Friday 21 August, at AUD 25.90 per student.

Because it is delivered online only, a school needs computers and supervision rather than printed papers. The supervising teacher does not need to program.

Award bands are proportional — Gold to the top 10 per cent, Silver the next 15, Bronze the next 25, Credit the next 20 — so most participating students receive recognition, which matters for sustaining interest across a cohort.

Where it fits

For students who are not yet writing code, the Computational and Algorithmic Thinking challenge from the same organisation requires no programming at all and is the right first step.

For students ready for more, the AIO sits alongside the Canadian Computing Competition and the British Informatics Olympiad, and leads towards USACO and the IOI pathway.

How the classes run

Live online group classes, maximum eight students, with code written and submitted during the session. Past AIO papers are worked under full three-hour conditions in the closing weeks.

Format, dates, fees and divisions are set by the AMT each year. Confirm the current details at amt.edu.au before planning around them.