USA Artificial Intelligence OlympiadUSAAIO

Round 1 is open to everyone and does not require a competitive-programming background, but it does assume solid Python plus high school mathematics, and real ML and deep learning fundamentals covering machine learning, PyTorch and CNNs. AP Computer Science A at Irvine public high schools builds the coding base, but the machine learning and PyTorch concepts still need to be picked up separately, whether through self-study or an outside course.

It is new — the first USA-NA-AIO was held in 2025, so it does not yet have the recognition USACO has with admissions readers. Its position is nonetheless clear: USAAIO is the sole official route by which the United States selects its team for the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) and for IAIO and IAI²O, so reaching Round 2 with an award, or the camp, is still genuinely scarce and one of the few official credentials in the AI track right now.

Not freely from home. Every round must be taken onsite under proctoring, at the student's own school or a USAAIO-authorized site such as a university, library or testing center. On top of that the rules require full-screen and face recording via OBS Studio, installation of the official monitoring software, a single monitor only, and no electronic devices other than the exam computer. All contestants worldwide sit it at the same time.

Round 1 runs in two parts on the same day. The first is a 60-minute non-coding paper of multiple-choice and fill-in questions covering markdown, mathematical foundations, basic and advanced coding, machine learning, deep learning with PyTorch, and CNNs. The second is 75 minutes of coding in Google Colab, where all code must run on CPU — GPUs are neither needed nor permitted in Round 1. Round 2 covers the full syllabus and does provide GPUs.

Registration for the 2027 edition is open and closes on January 31, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. US Eastern Time. Round 1 is scheduled for Friday, February 19, 2027, from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Because every round must be sat onsite under proctoring, an Irvine student does best confirming early whether the school or an authorized test site can host it, and mapping the prep schedule around schoolwork well before the deadline.

Round 1 registration is open to everyone, and the USA-NA-AIO is run for K-12 students in both the United States and Canada. Advancing to the USAAIO camp and competing for a Team USA place, however, requires being a US citizen, a permanent resident, or an international student attending a US secondary school. Canadian students can compete and win awards but cannot represent the USA.

USAAIO does not list a registration fee on its public pages; any amount typically appears inside the registration form itself. Check the registration page at usaaio.org or email the organizers to confirm before you commit. Also budget for possible test-site costs — an authorized venue outside the student's own school may charge separately for hosting and proctoring.

They test different skills. USACO is algorithms and data structures, solved from scratch under time pressure; USAAIO is the AI stack — mathematical foundations, ML concepts, hands-on PyTorch and CNNs. An Irvine student already working through algorithms usually finds it smoother to build USACO fundamentals first, then move into AI. USAAIO sets no USACO-division prerequisite, though students with Bronze-or-Silver-level Python pick it up noticeably faster.