Mathematics and informatics competitions shaped my interests and taught me about problem solving, persistence, and creativity. My secondary school teachers opened this world to me at just the right moment. My country was experiencing a growth era in olympiads, and I found myself participating in many international competitions, making lasting friendships along the way.
How I got into olympiads
Academic competitions were completely foreign to me in 6th grade. I wasn’t a particularly outstanding student, and personal problems at my school pushed my family to look for a new one. I passed the entrance exam for the Physics-Mathematics and Informatics Lyceum in Baku and transferred there for 7th grade.
That year, the first “National Subject Competitions” took place in my city — essentially olympiads for younger students. The school sent me to compete, and somehow I placed first in mathematics alongside a few other students. This became my first taste of competition.
A wonderful teacher noticed me coding in C++ during informatics class later that year. He passed away in 2024, but his influence stayed with me.
I don’t actually remember why I learned C++. As best I can recall, I was trying to learn hacking and had read somewhere that professional hackers use C++ to write exploits.
He and another teacher ran an after-school olympiad class and invited me to join. Neither knew much C++ or algorithms, but they understood what mattered: bringing interested students together. National olympiad competition was practically nonexistent. Azerbaijan’s last International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) medal had been in 2011, with the previous one way back in 2004. We had no tradition, no community, and no resources. Everything had to be learned from scratch.
That year I competed in the National Olympiad alongside 8th graders and won a bronze medal by solving the easier problems with basic math I already knew.
That success opened doors. The following year, a pilot classroom focused on mathematics olympiad preparation came to my school. The Ministry of Education ran a selection exam for winners of the National Subject Competition, choosing 30 students across the country. They made an exception for me after initially rejecting my application; I became number 31. The environment proved intensely competitive, but I made a lot of great friends. Though the Ministry eventually discontinued the pilot initiative, our class maintained its character.
Both mathematics and informatics national olympiads drew me in during 8th grade. I won bronze and gold medals respectively. The awards ceremony gave me special recognition as the first student to win two medals in the same year.
It is now pretty common for students in Azerbaijan to participate in multiple olympiads in the same year!
I kept preparing in both subjects through 9th grade and went to international competitions in each. An unfairness in mathematics made me leave that field and focus only on informatics, which likely was the right decision to do anyway.
By then, something had shifted in how I saw my role. I wasn’t just competing for myself anymore. Building a new generation of informatics olympiad students became the work I’m most proud of. I taught others, recruited students away from mathematics olympiads, and sought out university students who could teach us more advanced techniques.
The work paid off beyond what I imagined. Today, informatics olympiads are more popular than mathematics ones in Azerbaijan. We had over 10,000 registrations in 2025, compared to fewer than 50 a decade ago. I won a long overdue IOI medal in 2020 alongside two of my friends. Since then, the results speak for themselves: Azerbaijan won 11 IOI medals between 2020 and 2025, compared to just 5 medals from 1994 to 2019. The community is thriving, and I’m grateful to have played a part both in its early days and now that it’s established.
After 2019, a new rule granted free university admission to olympiad winners, including national medalists. I skipped the national olympiad in 2020 so another student could win a medal and receive this benefit.
Competition History
| Year | Competition | Location | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | National Subject Competitions (Math) | Baku, Azerbaijan | I Place |
| 2016 | National Olympiad (Informatics) | Baku, Azerbaijan | Gold Medal |
| 2017 | National Olympiad (Math) | Baku, Azerbaijan | Bronze Medal |
| 2017 | National Olympiad (Informatics) | Baku, Azerbaijan | Gold Medal |
| 2017 | European Junior Olympiad in Informatics (EJOI) | Sofia, Bulgaria | Bronze Medal |
| 2017 | 1st YSKIOI Olympiad (Informatics) | Izmir, Turkey | Silver Medal |
| 2017 | International Youth Olympiad in Mathematics (8th grade) | Moscow, Russia | I Place |
| 2017 | Central European Olympiad in Informatics (CEOI) | Ljubljana, Slovenia | Participation |
| 2017 | International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) | Tehran, Iran | Participation |
| 2018 | National Olympiad (Informatics) | Baku, Azerbaijan | Gold Medal |
| 2018 | National Olympiad (Math) | Baku, Azerbaijan | Silver Medal |
| 2018 | 22nd Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad (JBMO) | Rhodes, Greece | Silver Medal |
| 2018 | European Junior Olympiad in Informatics (EJOI) | Innopolis, Russia | Bronze Medal |
| 2018 | Central European Olympiad in Informatics (CEOI) | Warsaw, Poland | Participation |
| 2018 | Innopolis University Olympiad in Informatics | Tatarstan, Kazan | Participation |
| 2018 | Vekua Programming Cup 2018 | Tbilisi, Georgia | II Place |
| 2018 | Open Southern Caucasus Championship 2018 (Individual) | Tbilisi, Georgia | II Place |
| 2018 | Open Southern Caucasus Championship 2018 (Team) | Tbilisi, Georgia | III Place |
| 2018 | International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) | Tsukuba, Japan | Participation |
| 2019 | National Olympiad (Informatics) | Baku, Azerbaijan | Gold Medal |
| 2019 | 4th International Olympiad of Metropolises (Informatics) | Moscow, Russia | Silver Medal |
| 2019 | 15th International Zhautykov Olympiad (Informatics) | Almaty, Kazakhstan | Silver Medal |
| 2019 | Vekua Programming Cup 2019 | Tbilisi, Georgia | II Place |
| 2019 | 3rd edition of info(1) Cup Online Informatics Contest | Online/Romania | Bronze Medal |
| 2019 | International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) | Baku, Azerbaijan | Participation |
| 2020 | 16th International Zhautykov Olympiad (Informatics) | Almaty, Kazakhstan | Gold Medal |
| 2020 | International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) | Online | Bronze Medal |
Highlights
- 2017 EJOI: First international medal for Azerbaijan in informatics in a long while.
- 2018 JBMO: My only mathematics international medal.
- 2020 Zhautykov: First international gold medal in informatics for Azerbaijan.
- 2020 IOI: First IOI medal (3 at that!) for Azerbaijan since 2011.