United Kingdom · Round one in school · Live online preparation

British Informatics Olympiad preparation

The British Informatics Olympiad is the national programming competition for school students, and its first round is unusual: three questions, three hours, any programming language, sat in your own school on a day the school picks. Nobody watches you type, and nothing stops a plausible-looking program from being wrong on the cases the marker will try. That is what makes preparation different from revision. You cannot memorise your way through it, and you cannot tell by reading whether your solution is right. This page sets out what the organiser says round one involves, shows a testing method that finds the bugs reading never does, and explains what weekly practice with a teacher adds.

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Original practice problems · No past papers reproduced · No results promised

In short

The British Informatics Olympiad sets round one as a 3-hour paper with three questions, answered in any programming language and taken in school on a day of the school's choosing, during December and January. The organiser opens it to students under 19 studying full-time at an establishment of Secondary or Further, not Higher, Education in mainland Britain. Strong entrants go to a final in Cambridge at Easter, and the top four finalists form the UK team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, which Uzbekistan hosted in 2026. Preparation is mostly two things: knowing a handful of algorithm patterns, and testing a solution hard enough to find your own mistakes. We teach both live online, with problems written fresh rather than copied from the organiser's papers. A first class is free; groups cost USD 100 a month and one-to-one USD 150.

Where to start

Three courses behind a BIO entry

Most entrants need two things at once: more algorithms, and better testing. These build them.

Competitive Programming for Teens course thumbnail

BIO / 01

Competitive programming

Contest-shaped problems with time limits, and the discipline of trying to break your own answer before the clock does.

Open the syllabus →
Problem Solving for Teens course thumbnail

BIO / 02

Algorithms and data structures

Search, recursion, dynamic programming and the structures round one keeps reaching for.

Open the syllabus →
Python for Teens course thumbnail

BIO / 03

Python from start to finish

For entrants whose programming is not yet fluent: the language first, so the contest is about the thinking.

Open the syllabus →

What the organiser says

Round one, in the organiser's own words

Everything in this table is quoted or summarised from olympiad.org.uk, read on 20 September 2026. Check it again before entering, because arrangements change year to year.

British Informatics Olympiad, round one
QuestionWhat the organiser states
What is it?A 3-hour paper with three questions
In what language?Answers may be written in any programming language
Where is it sat?In school, on a day of the school's choosing
When?During December and January; the 2026 window ran from 8 December 2025 to 23 January 2026
Who may enter?Students under 19 years of age studying full-time at an establishment of Secondary or Further, not Higher, Education in mainland Britain
What is submitted?The student's computer programs, together with written answers to the problems
What comes next?A final held in Cambridge at Easter
And after that?The top four finalists make up the team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, hosted by Uzbekistan in 2026

Two details change how a student should prepare. The paper is sat in school, so a teacher has to enter the school and set a date: if nobody at school knows about it, that conversation is the first task, not the algorithms.

And because answers include written work as well as programs, a solution that is half explained is worth more than a program that silently fails. Practising the writing matters.

The language freedom cuts both ways. A student may use whatever they know best, but nothing in the room will tell them their program is wrong. Under exam conditions the only judge available is the student's own testing, which is why the next section is the heart of this page.

Students in Northern Ireland should check their eligibility with the organiser, since the rules quoted above say mainland Britain. The UK competitions calendar lists alternatives, including one in Belfast.

Source: British Informatics Olympiad 2026 and its rules page, read 20 September 2026. Modern Age Coders is not connected with the British Informatics Olympiad.

The habit that wins marks

The test you did not write

Contest solutions fail on cases their author never imagined. The fix is not to imagine harder; it is to let a computer find them for you.

1. Write the slow version

First solve the problem the obvious, stupid way: try every possibility. It will be far too slow for the real input, and that does not matter. It is your definition of the right answer.

2. Generate small cases

Write a generator that makes tiny random inputs, small enough for the slow version to finish instantly, and seed it so any run can be repeated exactly.

3. Compare until they differ

Run both on thousands of cases and stop at the first disagreement. Because the case is tiny, you can read it, work it out by hand and see the bug.

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Our run of 20 September 2026: fast solution against brute force, 10,000 random grids, seed 20260920
MeasureResult
Cases tested10,000
Cases where the buggy fast solution disagreed1,872, or 18.7 per cent
First disagreementCase 12, a five-row grid, brute force 0 routes against the fast solution's 1
Cases where the corrected solution disagreedNone
Time to find the first bugUnder a second

The bug was invisible on the examples in the question, which is exactly how contest mistakes behave. It only showed itself when a wall sat in the first row, and that arrangement did not appear in the sample input. Reading the code again would not have helped; a hundred hand-written tests might have missed it too.

The seed matters more than it looks. Recording it means a failing run can be reproduced exactly, by you tomorrow or by a teacher looking at your work. Without it, a bug that appears once and vanishes is the most frustrating thing in competitive programming.

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A term of practice

Ten weeks, one hour a week, and no cramming

A realistic shape for an autumn term before a December or January paper. It assumes a student can already write programs in one language.

A ten-week preparation shape
WeeksFocusWhat the student should be able to do by the end
1 to 2Reading problems and brute forceRestate a problem in their own words and solve it slowly but correctly
3 to 4TestingWrite a generator and a brute force, and find their own bug with a seeded run
5 to 6Search and recursionEnumerate arrangements, prune sensibly and know when recursion is the wrong tool
7 to 8Dynamic programming and countingTurn a counting problem into a table, and explain in writing why it is correct
9Writing answersExplain a method on paper clearly enough for a marker who never sees it run
10Full three-hour practiceSit three fresh questions in one sitting and manage the clock

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Where we fit

What a teacher adds, and what we do not claim

Preparation is mostly practice. A teacher shortens the time between a mistake and understanding it.

What classes add

Problems at the right level each week, a person who reads both the program and the written explanation, and the testing habit above, taught until it is automatic.

What we do not do

We do not enter students, invigilate, mark, or have any role in the competition. We do not reproduce its papers and we promise no score, no place in the final and no team selection.

Worth it anyway

Everything on this page, from brute-force reasoning to seeded testing, is ordinary professional practice. A student who never sits the paper still keeps the skills.

Getting there

Four steps to a serious attempt

Most students arrive somewhere in the middle. The free class finds where.

From confident coder to contest entrant
StageStepThe evidence it is secure
Before starting1. Fluent in one languageCan write and debug a 50-line program without help
Weeks 1 to 42. Slow but rightSolves a contest problem by brute force and proves it on small cases
Weeks 3 to 63. Tests properlyFinds a bug with a seeded generator rather than by rereading
Weeks 5 to 104. Fast and explainedTurns the slow answer into an efficient one and writes why it works

If a school does not enter

Ask the organiser about arrangements before assuming there is no route. Meanwhile the skills carry over to other contests on the UK competitions calendar.

Team contests such as the Perse Coding Team Challenge suit students who prefer company to silence.

After round one

Finalists work on harder problems and tighter limits. The path beyond is the International Olympiad in Informatics, which the top four finalists reach.

Many entrants also practise on USACO, which runs online through the year.

The catalogue

Nine courses for contest preparation

Ordered roughly by where an entrant usually needs work. Each card opens its syllabus.

I

Getting fluent

The language stops being the obstacle

BIO / LANG / 01

Python from start to finish

Every core idea of the language, with prediction before running.

Open the syllabus

BIO / LANG / 02

First steps in Python

For younger entrants who are new to typed code.

Open the syllabus

BIO / LANG / 03

Java for teens

For students whose school teaches Java and who want to enter in it.

Open the syllabus
II

Algorithms

The patterns round one rewards

BIO / ALG / 01

Algorithms and data structures

Search, sorting, recursion and dynamic programming, reasoned on paper first.

Open the syllabus

BIO / ALG / 02

Competitive programming

Contest problems against the clock, with testing built into the routine.

Open the syllabus

BIO / ALG / 03

Advanced competitive programming

For finalists and sixth formers pushing into harder rounds.

Open the syllabus
III

Around the contest

Projects, maths and hackathons

BIO / EXTRA / 01

Olympiad mathematics

Counting, proof and case analysis, which informatics problems lean on.

Open the syllabus

BIO / EXTRA / 02

Hackathon preparation

Building something complete under time pressure.

Open the syllabus

BIO / EXTRA / 03

AI and machine learning for teens

For students whose interest runs towards the AI olympiad instead.

Open the syllabus

How preparation runs

One hour a week, plus problems between

Teachers work from India, five and a half hours ahead of the UK in winter and four and a half in summer, so most contest students take a weekday evening or a weekend morning, agreed in UK time.

Weekday evening

The common choice for Years 10 to 13 during term.

Weekend morning

Long enough for a full practice paper and a review.

Holiday intensives

For the weeks before a December or January sitting.

Problems written fresh

Every practice question is our own, in the competition's style; the organiser's papers stay on the organiser's site.

Programs read line by line

The teacher reads the code and the written explanation, not just the final output.

Testing every week

A generator and a brute force are part of the routine, not an afterthought.

Small groups

Five to ten students at a similar level, comparing approaches to the same problem.

One to one before a sitting

For a student with a date in the diary and specific gaps to close.

Honest limits

No promises about scores or selection, and no help during the paper itself.

Student work

What our students have built

Four published student projects. The student labs page has more.

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A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

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An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online.

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A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.

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Fees

Fees

Monthly, in US dollars, the same rate as every country outside India. No joining fee.

Free first class

USD 0

no card required

  • A real contest problem with a teacher
  • An honest view of the starting level
  • No card details
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Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

  • Five to ten students at one level
  • Weekly problems and code review
  • The same teacher throughout
  • A certificate at the end
Start here

One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

  • A teacher for one student
  • Planned around the sitting date
  • Suited to finalists and to late starters
Enquire

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Questions about the BIO

What students and parents ask about the British Informatics Olympiad

What happens in round one?

The organiser describes it as a 3-hour paper with three questions, answered in any programming language and taken in school on a day the school chooses, during December and January.

Who can enter?

The organiser states it is open to students under 19 years of age studying full-time at an establishment of Secondary or Further, not Higher, Education in mainland Britain.

Which programming language should my child use?

Whichever they write most fluently, since any language is allowed. Fluency matters more than the choice: three hours is not long enough to fight the language as well as the problems.

What happens after round one?

Strong entrants are invited to a final held in Cambridge at Easter, and the top four finalists make up the UK team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, which Uzbekistan hosted in 2026.

How should a student practise?

Solve problems slowly and correctly first, then test hard: write a brute force and a seeded random generator and compare. In our own run of 10,000 random cases, that method exposed a bug in 1,872 of them that reading the code had not revealed.

Do you use past BIO papers?

No. Practice problems are written fresh in the same style. The organiser publishes its own past papers, and that is where students should get them.

Can you enter my child for the competition?

No. Entry is arranged by the school with the organiser. We teach the preparation, and we have no role in the competition itself.

My school has never entered. What now?

Ask a computing teacher to look at the organiser's site, since the paper is sat in school on a date the school picks. In the meantime, other contests on our calendar page are open to individuals.

What do classes cost?

The first class is free. After that a group place is USD 100 a month and one-to-one teaching USD 150, with no joining fee and no annual contract.

When are lessons, in UK time?

A weekly slot agreed in the free class, usually a weekday evening or a weekend morning. India runs five and a half hours ahead of the UK in winter and four and a half in summer.

Related pages

Other contests and pages

Where the BIO sits among the rest.

UK competitions calendar 2026-27

Every UK coding, maths and AI contest we could confirm.

International Olympiad in Informatics

Where the top four finalists go next.

USACO preparation

An online contest that runs through the year.

The coding olympiad track

How the contests build on one another.

Choosing an online class in the UK

Seven checks for any provider.

Coding classes in the UK

The four school systems, and every UK page.

Start here

Try a contest problem, free

Send a number and we will arrange a free class at a UK time that suits. The class is a real contest problem, solved slowly, then tested until it breaks.

Prefer to read first? Each course page lists its syllabus, how we teach explains the method, and the roadmap shows the order of topics.

WhatsApp us · +91 91233 66161 · contact@modernagecoders.com

WhatsApp from a UK mobile costs nothing and is usually quickest. Our number is Indian and described as such; there is no UK office.

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