OmegaLearnHow to Prepare for the USA AI Olympiad (USAAIO)
HighWhat is the USAAIO?
The USA / North America AI Olympiad (USA-NA-AIO), organized by the USA AI Olympiad (USAAIO), is a competition in artificial intelligence and machine learning for high school students, first held alongside the launch of the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) in 2024. It runs in three stages β Round 1, Round 2, and a selection camp β and blends AI theory with hands-on programming in Python, NumPy, and PyTorch. Top performers are selected to represent Team USA at the IOAI and IAIO.
Format
A roughly three-hour Round 1 exam in Google Colab mixing theory questions (typeset in Markdown with math) and coding tasks in Python, NumPy, and PyTorch. Round 2 is a longer, harder event with GPU access on some problems.
Who can enter
Round 1 is open to all middle and high school students in the U.S. and Canada. Contestants must be under 20 on the first day of the international competition and not full-time university students.
When & how
Round 1 is held early in the year (Jan 30, 2026) and must be proctored to be certified. Round 2 follows in spring at MIT, and the selection camp runs in June at Harvard.
How to advance
Only top Round 1 scorers are invited to Round 2 (about 19% in 2025). Top Round 2 finishers reach the camp, where team selection tests choose up to 8 students for IOAI and 4 for IAIO.
Official Information
USAAIO official website
The official home of the USA / North America AI Olympiad, with registration, dates, and program details.
View β2026 USA-NA-AIO competition page
Official details for the current cycle: Round 1 (Jan 30, 2026), Round 2 at MIT, and the camp at Harvard.
View βUSAAIO syllabus
The official topic outline, from mathematical foundations and classical ML through deep learning, CNNs, and transformers.
View βUSAAIO contest rules
Official rules documents covering proctoring, authorized documentation, allowed models, and round structure.
View βIOAI official website
The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence, the global event USAAIO's Team USA competes in.
View βUSAAIO on the Institute of Competition Sciences
An independent overview of the USA / North America AI Olympiad, its structure, and eligibility.
View βPractice Tests
Released USAAIO and IOAI problems are the best practice available. Work them in Google Colab under timed conditions, writing both the typeset theory answers and the code, then compare against the provided solutions and datasets.
USAAIO past problems
The official archive of released USAAIO problems, the single best source for practicing the exact exam format.
View βIOAI 2025 tasks & datasets (GitHub)
Official problems, datasets, and example solutions from the 2025 International Olympiad in AI in Beijing.
View βawesome-ioai-tasks collection
A community-maintained collection of IOAI tasks across years and national team selections, great for extra practice.
View βKaggle Competitions
Real ML competitions that build the practical model-building and experimentation skills the later rounds reward.
View βPaid Courses & Classes
USAAIO is a new olympiad, so dedicated courses are still emerging. A few programs offer structured prep aligned to its syllabus, but much of the strongest preparation comes from the free courses and books above.
AlphaStar Academy β AI Olympiad preparation
A leveled sequence from Python and data science through deep learning with PyTorch and dedicated AI olympiad prep.
View βIvyMax β USAAIO program
A structured USAAIO course for high school students covering the math, ML, and coding the competition requires.
View βAIcoding β USAAIO training
A training program built specifically around the USAAIO syllabus and its NumPy and PyTorch expectations.
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