If we want younger generations to feel the spirit of competitive programming, they'd better know the history.
This post shall initialize a series of analytical essays about the place of Kazakhstan in the global scene of programming competitions.
The series shall begin by touching the most prestigious olympiad for school students - International Olympiad in Informatics.
We'll talk about the competition itself and then try to analyze the performance of Kazakhstani teams - names, places, statistics.
What is IOI?
It's simply one of the five main scientific olympiads for school students: IMO (Math), IPhO (Physics), IChO (Chemisry), IBO (Biology) and IOI (Informatics).
Each country can send a team of up to 4 students, but the olympiad is individual.
The idea of initiating international olympiads in informatics for school students was proposed to the 24th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris by the Bulgarian delegate Professor Blagovest Sendov in October 1987. This plan was included into the Fifth Main Program of UNESCO for the biennium 1988-1989 (Section 05 215). In May 1989, UNESCO initiated and sponsored the first International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). (Quoted from the IOI'89 and IOI'92 Report). The first IOI was held in Bulgaria in 1989. (IOInformatics)
According to IOInformatics, the main goal of the competition is to: "stimulate interest in informatics, computing science and information technology".
And it really does so. Problems are becoming harder each year, which shows the increasing level of preparation.
Kazakhstan started to participate in 1998, when the host country was Portugal.
The first national team consisted of Beket Zhapbasbay, Renat Shaimardanov, Maksat Aipanov and Arman Prashev.
Although they won no medals, they did a great job by opening the road for future generations.
In the below table you can find the list of all participants from Kazakhstan with their results (clickable):
Some interesting observations and facts:
- 20 - number of years since Kazakhstan started participating in IOI
- 48 - total number of Medals
- 28 - total number of Bronze Medals
- 18 - total number of Silver Medals
- 2 - total number of Gold Medals
- 4 - maximum number of medals by one student (Bakhytzhan Baizhikenov)
- 1999 - first Bronze Medal (Arman Prashev)
- 2004 - first Silver Medal (Zhanibek Datbayev)
- 2007 - first Gold Medals (Bakhytzhan Baizhikenov, Zhomart Sadykov)
- 2012 - first Silver for debuting participant (Aman Sariyev)
- 2015 - IOI was hosted by Kazakhstan (Almaty)
Although in 20 years of participation we got Gold only once, the tendency to win more medals is growing and becoming more consistent. New coding schools and programming courses are opening each year. Various bootcamps and guest lecturers are being called to help students prepare better. Overall level of Kazakhstani programmers is increasing and that is really cool!
Official logo of IOI 2015
The TOP 3 countries by medals are: China (77 Golds, 115 Total), Russia (56 Golds, 104 Total) and USA (46 Golds, 95 Total) - compared to Kazakhstan (2 Gold, 48 Total). So we got the role-models and know where to aim. Good luck, future generations!