The UK Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence

The UK Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence

The UK Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence

The UK Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (UKOAI) is a national competition for schools and colleges to select for the UK's International Al Olympiad team.

Register interest for 2026

OUR AIMS

Accelerate the development of AI skills and knowledge in British students

Accelerate the development of AI skills and knowledge in British students

Represent the UK in AI on the global stage

Represent the UK in AI on the global stage

In partnership with

UKOAI Timeline

International Olympiad
in AI rounds

Jan - Feb 2025

Register and Prepare

Registration is now closed. The exam consists of three long-form questions that test programming and mathematical ability in deep learning.


We recommend looking at our resources below, and trying the sample papers on the IOAI website.



1st March 2025

Online UKOAI Test

All secondary school students living in the UK are invited to take the free online UKOAI exam on Saturday 1st March 2025.


Students will be emailed the exam directly at 1pm UK and will have 3 hours to complete and submit it. Only a laptop or computer and an Internet connection is required.


All secondary school students living in the UK are invited to take the free online national exam on Saturday 1st March 2025.


Students will be emailed the exam directly at 1pm UK and will have 3 hours to complete and submit it. Only a laptop or computer and an Internet connection is required.

March 2025

Interview Stage

Marking of the exam will take place immediately. High scorers of the exam shall be invited to a video interview with a UKOAI mentor in mid-March.


The interview will further test each student's problem-solving ability. Those that perform well will be invited to the training and selection camp.

18th-20th April 2025

Training Camp

An invite-only multi-day training and selection programme takes place 18th-20th April. Students will have lectures in AI, practice papers, and do team building activities.


Four participants will be selected from this camp for the team to represent the UK at IOAI 2025.


May - July 2025

IOAI First Round

The selected team will have extra training sessions in May and June in preparation for the IOAI. Each team member will be assigned a mentor from academia or industry.


The first round of the IOAI starts in July 2025 with an at-home task. All team members will be expected to work on this throughout July.

2nd-9th August 2025

IOAI Main Contests

The IOAI takes place 2-9th August 2025 in Beijing, China.


There will be 2 contests: the first being a continuation of the at home task, and the second of unseen novel tasks.


During the week, there are also a number of social and cultural events that the team can attend.

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How to prepare for the UKOAI test

How to prepare for
the UKOAI test

Here are some resources that will be useful when preparing for the UKOAI exam. We expect people who do well in the exam to have some knowledge of the following areas.

THE UKOAI ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Ferenc Huszár

Ferenc Huszár

Ferenc is a Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge's Department of Computer Science and Technology. He previously served as Senior Machine Learning Researcher at Twitter and Principal Research Scientist at Magic Pony Technology.


Euan Ong

Euan Ong

Euan is a Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic. He previously represented the UK at the International Olympiad in Informatics, placing 91st in the world.

James Hindmarch

James Hindmarch

James is currently working as a content developer for ARENA. He has a BA and MMath from University of Cambridge. Before this, he conducted research into improving the safety of AI systems.

Aaliya Manji

Aaliya Manji

Aaliya is a Software Engineer at Wise and a Polaris Fellow. She has years of experience working in operational roles in EdTech.

Chloe Li

Chloe Li

Chloe is the programme lead and content developer of ARENA, a leading AI training programme. Before this she ran AI learning initiatives at University of Cambridge, where she studied for her BA.

Rhea Kumar

Rhea Kumar

Rhea is a Management Consultant at BCG and previously an Investment Banker at Lazard. She has experience working in tech across her roles.

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Registration Closed for 2025

Registration Closed for 2025

Registration closed for 2025

If you are a student, teacher or parent, register to get on our mailing list for more information on the competition. For enquiries, please email aaliya@ukoai.org.

Register interest for 2026