The contest year 2018/2019 is over. We’ll soon be updating this page for 2019/2020.
The SOI year involves a multitude of events. These provide many opportunities to learn about exciting algorithms and computer science. But they also allow you to get to know other students from all over Switzerland.
- The first round: Everyone who satisfies the conditions of participations (see below), can participate in the first round and solve the tasks online from home. The first round starts on October 1st 2018 and ends on November 30st 2018. The six tasks are chosen to promote creativity and good ideas – prior knowledge in programming and algorithms is useful, but not required. (The first round is already over, the next one will start in October 2019.)
- Workshops: During the first round we organize several workshops where we teach how to solve the tasks of the olympiad in informatics. This includes an introduction to C++ but also many interesting algorithms. The workshops can be attended for free. On the detail page you can find the dates and the registration form.
- SOI Day: The SOI day on January 5, 2019 is an event in Zürich during which the results of the first round will be published. Furthermore, the tourney to find the winner of the creativity task will take place at SOI day. Finally, there will be gripping speeches on topics of Computer Science.
- SOI Training Camp (Sarnen): Starting September 2018 the top 16 participants, followed by the next 6 students who can participate again in the following year (2019-2020) at SOI and 2 selected participants by the jury are qualifed for participation in the training camp in Sarnen. For clarity during the competition you’ll be able to see which participants can participate again the following year, so you can approximatelly know your place in the rankings (which are not final, but a good indicator). In the SOI-Camp in Sarnen, which is from February 10 till February 16, 2019, you will train on selected IOI-like tasks and visit interesting lectures. There you will also meet the other participants and have lots of fun (see pictures).
- The second round: The best participants of the first round qualify for the second round. Participation in the SOI-Camp is not mandatory for participation in the second round. The second round consists of two parts: the first is a contest, where you may solve four practical tasks in C, C++, Pascal und Python inside a time frame of 5 hours and the second is a theoretical exam that takes place in Lausanne and Zürich.
- The final round: The top 10 participants of the second round together with two selected by us are invited to the final round in Bern and Zürich. During the final round there are four practical programming contests that are held on two weekends in Bern and Zürich. In the finals and at IOI, you will not be allowed to use any language other than C, C++ or Pascal to solve the tasks.
The four best programmers from the final round travel to Azerbaijan to compete in IOI 2019.
During the year there are often further opportunities: In the past the SOI sent the top participants of the SOI-Camp to a programming contest in Romania and the top four participants of the second round could participate in a training camp organized by the Slovak Olympiad in Informatics.
For more information, please look at the Detailed agenda