Russian schoolchildren took all the gold at the Informatics Olympiad in Hungary

From August 28 to September 4, the 35th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) was held in the Hungarian town of Szeged, which is called the most prestigious competition of IT technologies among schoolchildren in the world. It has been running since 1989. This year Hungary hosted about 1,000 participants from 89 countries, including 360 schoolchildren, 180 team leaders and guests. Each country was represented by four schoolchildren who passed national selections.

According to International Olympiad Secretary John-Paul Pretty, “universities will welcome the young talent who have proven themselves at the IOI with open arms, and they will have the job opportunities they have always dreamed of.”

Among the Russian medalists are two schoolchildren from Moscow and two from Kazan. It is in these two cities, apparently, that such golden personnel for the IT sphere are being forged today. These are Gimran Abdullin from boarding school No. 2 and Valery Rodionov from the Lyceum named after N.I. Lobachevsky KFU from the city of Kazan, and Moscow students – Ivan Piskarev from school No. 2086 and Anton Stepanov from the Lyceum “Second School” named after V.F. Ovchinnikov. Before winning this Olympiad, they passed the selection, numerous training camps and training under the guidance of the coaching staff

“MK” found our team on the way from Hungary to their homeland, at the Istanbul airport, and managed to ask questions to the participants.

– The fight was very tense, our guys achieved excellent results and demonstrated the will to win. They repeated the success of our 2019 team – all four were awarded gold medals, – said the head of the coaching staff, director of the Higher School of Software Engineering and head of the MIPT IT Education Development Center (National Research University) in an interview with MK Alexey Maleev. – This year the problems at the Olympiad were more difficult than in previous years. The competition consisted of two rounds, each was given five hours, and in each it was necessary to solve three problems, that is, there were six in total. I would like to especially note that in one problem – and this is one of the most difficult problems, in my opinion – none of the participants in the Olympiad scored the maximum points, but our Ivan Piskarev scored 92 points out of a hundred, this is the best result!

– How do you feel about the current Olympiad in Hungary?

– They didn’t let us in with the national flag, we competed under a neutral flag, as it was in other subjects. The atmosphere is Olympic, friendly. This is still a competition, a lot is built on trust and honesty. Thanks to the organizers of this Olympiad – the host country! This is such a small, cozy town of Szeged in the south of Hungary, but they were able to adequately host so many participants – from 89 countries. We liked everything in terms of organization.

According to the coach, the grandiose success of Russian schoolchildren confirms, first of all, the high level of school education. The popularity of this subject – informatics – is growing among schoolchildren, as is the number of those wishing to take the exam in computer science (it has already overtaken the number of those wishing to take the exam in physics). This is due to the fact that, in general, the prestige of the IT industry and its importance for the country’s economy is growing. The number of budget places in IT areas is also increasing.

– We must not forget to note the role of teachers – on a par with parents and the students themselves, – added Alexey Maleev. – The most difficult thing, in my opinion, is to recognize such a talent at the very beginning, even in elementary grades. To discern this tendency and captivate the student, develop this talent in him. And this, of course, is the main merit of the teacher.

One of the winners, student of the 10th grade of boarding school No. 2 in Kazan Gimran Abdullin managed to answer a few questions:

– I have been fond of computer science since the 6th grade, – Gimran told us. – In the 8th grade, I was the winner of the All-Russian Olympiad, and in the 9th grade I was already the winner of the High School.

– Have you already chosen the direction in IT in which you will develop?

– No, I haven’t chosen anything yet, I have two more years to study, and then finish the university.

Gimran shared that he was not at all worried before the Olympics. But I wasn’t sure about gold.

“It turned out that the Olympiad this year was more difficult than usual,” he told us. – You know, in fact, in the last two hours of the Olympiad, I thought that I had already lost.

“MK” also talked with the teacher of another gold medalist Ivan Piskarev – Sergei Zaitsevsky, Curator of Mathematical Classes at Moscow School No. 2086. Ivan won first place in points in the Russian team and 10th place among all participants in the Olympiad, which is incredibly prestigious.

– We are certainly proud of our student Ivan Piskarev. He has been studying with us since the 8th grade, now he has come to the 11th grade, – said Sergey Zaitsevsky. – He has a very high level of knowledge in mathematics and computer science; two years ago he was the winner of the All-Russian Olympiad for Schoolchildren in Mathematics.

This year, for the first time, he got into the Russian team in informatics; last year he was a candidate. I can say about Ivan that he is a very kind and helpful guy, he always helps everyone. But, like all mathematicians, he is a bit closed off from people. But he has friends. And although he is all in mathematics and computer science, he also has a hobby – archery. And other disciplines at school are not very interesting to him.

– Of course, I would like to hope that such brilliant young minds in the field of IT will benefit their country in the future and remain working in Russia …

– It is difficult for me to say specifically about my student, but, given the experience of our school, over the past ten years, only a few promising graduates have left somewhere. Everyone stayed in their country and work either in the scientific field, or in banks, or in Yandex, for example.