News
Timeline
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First Round
1 – 26 September 2025
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Second Round
1 October – 30 November 2025
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Training Camp in Sarnen
7 – 14 February 2026
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Finals
A weekend in March 2026
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EGOI in Italy
12 – 18 May 2026
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Team Selection
Two weekends in May 2026
First Round
The First Round is a 40-minute online quiz with multiple-choice computer science questions. No prior knowledge is required, just sharp logical thinking to figure out answers to algorithmic problems. The First Round is ideal for solving in class; you are invited to ask your teacher about it. In case you do not have the opportunity to participate at your school there will be an option to take part individually.
We will provide more details on how to participate as a class or as an individual on our website shortly before the round starts.
We are newly introducing the First Round this year, see announcement.
Second Round
Pick your favourite programming language and solve the tasks of the Second Round online.
The Second Round is conducted online. Everyone who satisfies the conditions of participations can participate. There are two categories: junior and regular. If you can participate this year and the following two more years, you are eligible for the junior round. The five tasks are chosen to promote creativity and good ideas – prior knowledge in programming and algorithms is useful, but not required.
Sarnen Camp
Group picture in 2023 in Sarnen
The Sarnen camp is a week-long training camp for top 16 participants from the regular round, the top 8 participants of the junior round and some guest countries. There are lectures, practice tasks and training contests, but there is also ample time to meet the other participants and have lots of fun.
Finals
All participants of the Second Round which qualify for the SOI-camp also qualify for the Finals. Participation at the camp is not mandatory for participation in the Finals.
The Finals consists of two parts:
- FP (800pts, practical): Two practical exams of 5 hours each.
- FH (200pts, “homework”): solve some full-feedback training tasks starting from December 1st
EGOI
The Swiss delegation at the EGOI 2022 in Antalya
The EGOI, the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics, is a competition where countries from all over Europe send their best female participants. The first edition was held in 2021 in Zurich. The best four female participants at the Finals of this year’s Swiss Olympiad in Informatics will make up the Swiss team at EGOI.
Team Selection
The top finalists are invited to the Team Selection in Bern and Zürich. Additionally, wild cards can be given, usually there are 12 participants in total. At the Team-Selection, the delegations for the IOI and other international contests and training camps are selected.
During the Team Selection there are four practical programming contests that are held on two times two days in Bern and Zürich. We recommend to use the C++ programming language, though Python is also allowed; these two are the only languages allowed at the Team-Selection and at IOI.
See full agenda for a list of all dates.
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