The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is an annual international informatics competition for high school students from various invited countries, accompanied by social and cultural programmers. The original idea of initiating the IOI was proposed to the 24th general conference of UNESCO by the Bulgarian delegate Professor Sendov in October 1987. This plan was included into the fifth main program of UNESCO for the biennium 1988–1989. In May 1989, UNESCO initiated and sponsored the first IOI, which was held in Pravetz, Bulgaria.

Each participating country is represented by a team of up to four contestants. The competition will take place during two competition days both of which are directly preceded and followed by a non-competition day.  During the competition each contestant must work independently on a desk with an appropriate computer, access to the competition procedures (translated if required), writing instrument and paper.

Objectives

According to the IOI regulations, the main objectives to be accomplished by the IOI include:

• To discover, encourage, bring together, challenge, and give recognition to young people who are exceptionally talented in the field of informatics;
• To foster friendly international relationships among computer scientists and informatics educators;
• To bring the discipline of informatics to the attention of young people;
• To promote the organization of informatics competitions for students at schools for secondary education.

IOI 2017 in Iran

The 29th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI 2017) was held in Tehran, Iran from Friday 28th July until Friday 4th August, 2017. The IOI 2017 was hosted and organized by the Iranian Ministry of Education.

Iran started participation in the International Olympiad in Informatics in 1992, and since then, it has been an active member of the IOI community. As the host of IOI 2017, Iran worked hard to organize the event, and provide a fun experience and an exciting programming competition for all delegates.