SOI day 2024

Yaël Arn wins the regular round for the second time in a row

The winner of the first round in 2023/2024: Yaël Arn

The three best participants of the first round were honored with prizes on the day of the Computer Science Olympiad. They are: Yaël Arn (Gymnasium Bäumlihof, Basel-Stadt), Andrej Ševera (Collège Voltaire, Geneva), and Elias Bauer (Kollegium St. Fidelis, Nidwalden).

Yaël had a very successful first international season in 2023. In the first round of SOI, he was the only one who solved the hardest task, Caravan, for 100 points. He also presented his solution to Pyramids, where he came up with a very clever solution that the judges had not intended.

The second place was shared between Andrej Ševera and Elias Bauer who both got 575 out of 600 possible points, only missing the last subtask of Caravan.

Strong results also in the junior round

The winners of the junior round in 2022/2023: Andrej Ševera and Jovian Soejono

The junior round is for participants who are still in school for at least two more years and can therefore still participate in the SOI many more times. This year, the participants had to calculate, among other things, how to navigate a cruise on the Nil.

Two participants manage to get full score in this round! Andrej Ševera (Collège Voltaire, Geneva) and Jovian Soejono (International School of Geneva, Geneva) both got all 600 points. Both of them already placed in the top 3 of the junior round last year. The third place went to Benjamin Andreas Hausher (Kantonsschule Wettingen, Aargau), scoring only 4 points less than the two winners.

This year we added an extra task to the junior round, bringing the number of tasks to 6 just like in the regular round. This allows us to have a wider spread in difficulty. With almost 60 participants of the Junior round fully solving the first task, this was a big success.

Fun program with questions in honor of Niklaus Wirth

SOI participants and orgas

Besides the presentation of the results, there were also a lot of other exciting presentations. Solutions to some of the problems were presented and some participants told about their experiences at the International Olympiads last year.

In a tight race the participants competed in a Kahoot, a quiz show with tricky questions about computing and SOI. Two questions where dedicated to Niklaus Wirth, a famous Swiss computer scientist who unfortunately passed away on Jan 1, 2024.

In the breaks and the apero after SOI day of course the one or other game of Tichu needed to be played.

The goal in sight: The IOI in Egypt

The competition continues for the computer science fans as early as February: 24 selected participants will train at the Sarnen camp from February 10 – 17, 2024. This is followed by the second round which will consist of two practical exams that happen at EPFL Lausanne at the beginning of March. The best participants then make it to the final round, where the four most successful youngsters can qualify for the International Olympiad in Informatics in Egypt (1 – 8 September 2024).

Links

• Ranking of the first round
• Ranking of the junior round
• Solution booklet (coming soon)
• Pictures