Hi everyone!
I’m a member of the Egyptian team for IOI 2026, and I have a question for those who have participated in the IOI before.
Did you perform below the level you expected during the IOI compared to how you usually perform in virtual contests? If so, what do you think caused that?
Also, if you’d like to share any advice or experiences from your IOI, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
Baraa-Ahmed will win IOI 2026
Baraa-Ahmed will win IOI 2026!
Come on Baraa-Ahmed 🔥🔥🔥🔥
how do you perform in your virtuals?
Between high bronze and mid silver.
sleep well and iron your clothes
Baraa-Ahmed will win IOI 2026
I've been to IOI 2024 and 2025, and will be going to this year's IOI too. In 2024 I fluked into the IOI team and hadn't done a single IOI virtual, so I wasn't too stressed about my performance. I ended up 4 places away from a bronze medal which I think was quite a bit above my skill level.
After IOI 2024 I started practising a lot more, and I managed to achieve silver performances in 3 IOI virtuals about half a year before IOI 2025, so I expected to get a silver in the actual IOI. The nights before each contest day I couldn't sleep well and woke up at 4 or 5am due to jet lag and also being anxious about my performance. I was in 115th place (about 30 places below silver) after day 1, causing me to use a very risky contest strategy for day 2 to hopefully be able to get a silver performance overall. I spent 3.5 hours on the communication problem, leaving myself hardly any time to think about the other two problems, and ended up in 128th place overall. I think my underperformance was mostly caused by the anxiety and high expectations, although the problemset was pretty unfavourable for my skillset too.
I think having high expectations is only natural if you've put a lot of time into CP, but the stress that comes with it often causes underperformance and irrational decisions during the contest. If you still have more attempts at the IOI, I think it would be helpful to reassure yourself that this year is more of a test run, and your results this year would likely be overshadowed by your performance in your final year. Coming up with a contest strategy and sticking to it also helps a lot and minimises the chances of severely underperforming due to tilting on one problem (seems like this happened to many during IOI 2024 Day 2 thanks to hieroglyphs).
All the best for IOI!
Jet lag was real for IOI 2025 probably for everyone outside America :/ Logistical conditions could have been much better, and I don't think they really invested the money they should have and contestants suffered probably a lot due to that. I remember we haven't had any form of heater, the water was running cold and boiling hot lol, toilets weren't working for first few days, and yea also some teams were staying together... There were music at 6 am coming from the garden in the back---- I mean if you are holding such a prestigious olympiad what is the point of it if these are the cases... I respect all the event organizers, but they should have the same thoughts as me. I hope it won't be like this again. At least contest problems and conditions were nice :)
I experienced jet lag of about 12 hours on IOI. I don't think it matters compared to regular olympiad occurrences like having to wake up obscenely early just to wait for hours in a bus or in front of the contest hall. If you need a specific amount of sleep, get sleeping pills, we're not ancient Roman programmers.
I had sleeping pills, but waking up to random music wasn't nice + other logistic conditions
Doesn't seem very effective if random music from far away wakes you...
What sleep pill are you mentioning tho, I was thinking about melatonin, it only helps to fall asleep faster not keep you sleeping
Btw music wasn't far away :D, we were in the back of the building on 1st floor and music was coming behind the wall directly + no sound insulation as expected, there was a tent kind of kitchen there
Yes.
The usual. Shit happens, stress gets to me, IOI problems being sufficiently novel that experience isn't everything.
spending more than 3 hours and a half on D2 A
You are not the only one bro
Baraa-Ahmed will win IOI 2026
My advice to you is: don't underestimate the impact of knowledge even in the IOI setting. Most of the real top gold contenders know most of the important stuff that gets used mostly in ICPC because they practice CP in general, not just OI. Saying this because I've seen many OIers underestimating it heavily and being a little shit when the problem isn't "beautiful", while I do ok on IOI virtuals and it's mostly knowledge/experience of similar problems opening alternative solutions.
But that won't matter to you because the contest is really close, so the rest is similar to what's been said already. Just do the contest in the same way as you've been practicing, because if you're not doing that then you're practicing wrong.
just go for the easiest subtasks try not to waste much time on thinking about full solution,the pressure of being at such big stage can affect the performance badly so be yourself and remain calm and never spend too much time on a single problem.
Baraa-Ahmed will win IOI 2026
Baraa-Ahmed will win IOI 2026
I will be participating this year's IOI too. What is the best contest-day strategy? How you all split your time?
Baraa-Ahmed will win IOI 2026 isa.