Meet the fab four that won the informatics olympiad

In late August, when all eyes were on India’s chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, not many noticed four youngsters – Kshitij Sodani, Sushil Rajaa, Shreyan Ray and Paras Kasmalkar – making India proud on another global arena.

They were medal winners at the 2023 International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI), a global test of algorithmic and programming skills for high school students, held in Hungary this year. India won only its second gold medal ever, after a nine-year gap, this year, and also bagged two silver medals and one bronze making it the country’s best ever performance at IOI in a year when the challenge was also said to be the toughest. Kshitij won gold, Paras and Shreyan won silver, and Sushil won bronze.

“While India has been generally doing well in IOI, a gold medal is rare,” says Madhavan Mukund, director of Chennai Mathematical Institute, who is also the national coordinator of the Indian Computing Olympiad (ICO) that selects the team of four to represent India at the IOI. “Worldwide, companies like Google and Facebook actively seek out winners of competitive programming contests, both at school and college level,” he adds. The majority of IOI members and winners from India have ended up in big tech majors, and reached there after a Bachelor’s or Master’s in computer science. “Some of the problem solvers have subsequently gone on to launch their own startups, while a small number has remained in academia,” adds Mukund.

Having cracked a challenge that is regarded to be tougher than the JEEs, the winners of the Olympiad have large ambitions. They have their eyes set on international under-graduation – some by choice and some because global universities offer scholarships for their victory but IITs do not.

17-year old Kshitij, the youngest gold medallist in IOI history, wants to delve deeper into computer science and mathematics. A 12th standard student of Disha Delphi Public School, Kota, Kshitij is applying to international universities. “I want to make a significant impact in the tech sector and am also interested in research,” he says.

Silver medal winner Paras, who studied at The Orchid School, Pune, and who is now at University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, has not yet chalked out his professional journey, but is leaning towards a PhD. He loves theoretical computer science.

For Shreyan, the other silver medallist, this was the first time in any such setting, and he was in awe of the global challengers he met. Shreyan graduated from La Marti niere for Boys, Kolkata, earlier this year, and is now in IIT Kharagpur doing the mathematics and computing course. He says his school introduced him to the world of competitive programming through inter-school competitions.

For Sushil, 17, it was an event with many firsts. “It was my first time at the IOI, it was my first time going abroad, and the first time I met the brightest people in informatics from different countries. I made friends with many of them,” he says. He is in the 12th grade at Budding Minds International School in Chennai. He dreams of going to IIT, but rues that his Olympiad victory may not make it any easier. “It’s a pity medallists aren’t recognised by the IITs; IIT-Gandhinagar is the only IIT that recognises IOI. I may be forced to look at universities abroad,” he says.

All the winners said they received support from their parents to spend time training for the Olympiad – a time that parents often insist be spent on JEE classes or school exams. While India’s high schools are filled with exceptionally talented STEM students, not all crack the Olympiad. What’s the secret sauce, I ask CMI’s Mukund.

“Students who study programming in school generally study only the syntax of the language. There is no focus on algorithmic problem solving. So, students have to rely on self-learning to prepare for it,” he says. Not surprisingly, the winners had spent hours honing their problem-solving skills on online platforms like Codeforces, Codechef and Atcoder, and also by looking at the archives of previous Olympiads.

Their advice to those aspiring to ace this Olympiad – practise consistently, stay motivated, get creative in solving problems, and also enjoy solving them.

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