Computing Olympiads
Students keen in computer programming or aimed to make future in computer programming can participate the computing Olympiads. Initially on qualifying the zonal level the students at the end can participate the international levels too.
Conducted by Indian Association for Research in Computing Science (IARCS) till the national level in collaboration with CBSE. This competition aims towards identifying the skills in algorithms and programming amongst the school students. The programming language identified for the competition are C, C++, Java and Python.
Approximately 30 students a year are selected to represent India at Internal level.
Eligibility:
Registration:
Registration can be done on official website of IARCS. The official website for registration is https://www.iarcs.org.in
Levels of examination:
The examination is conducted in three levels mainly. The zonal, national and international level.
Level I: The Zonal
The zonal level is divided in two parts.
Part I: Zonal Informatics Olympiad (ZIO)
It is a written exam held across the centres all over the India.
Part II: Zonal Computing Olympiad (ZCO)
Students can qualify second round by taking the ZCO programming contest. The operating languages for this test are C, C++, Java and Python.
Students could choose to write both exams and qualify any one to appear for next level.
Level II: The nationals
The national level exam Indian National Olympiad in Informatics (INOI). It involves programming. The languages supported are C++ and Java.
Level III: The internationals
Top 30 students qualifying INOI are selected to represent India at the International Olympiads in Informatics (IOI). These students are then the part of International Olympiads in Informatics Training Camp (IOITC).
Preparation strategy:
Study the online material available for ICO. The syllabus foe ZIO, ZCO, INOI is the basic topics in the online material.
Try joining online community for IOI.
Practice problem solving at IARCS.
Incentives:
Incentives for the students include direct admissions to institute like IIIT (Delhi, Hyderabad) through the Olympiads quota. Also, Amrita University and Chennai Mathematical Institute offers direct admission to students selected for IOITC. The gold medallists at IOI gets admission to University of Waterloo, Canada (Faculty of Mathematics); Nanyang Technical University, Singapore; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and National University of Singapore.
