IIMOC × FrontierCS 2026

International Invitational Math Optimization Challenge
IIMOC is a global Math/CS competition centered around hard optimization problems — accessible to motivated high school and college students, but deep enough for weeks of research. For 2026, teams compete across a frontier of algorithmic tasks from FrontierCS. Points are awarded by final placement on each task's leaderboard — the higher you rank when submissions close, the more points your team earns.
Apr 15, 2026
Practice problems released
May 1, 2026
Competition opens at 4 PM PST
June 1, 2026
Submissions close
June 10, 2026
Results released
Certificates are out!  —  Get Your Certificate  ·  View Final Leaderboard
IIMOC 2027 — March 2027
IIMOC 2027 will be held in March 2027. We received feedback that having two problems that saturated faster made the contest more about breadth than depth. We will return to one problem only in IIMOC 2027.
Details and registration will be announced here.

2026 by the Numbers

307

Teams

Competing from top universities and clubs globally.

15,346

Submissions

Total iterative optimizations across the 4-week window.

Past Prizes

Every year, top teams take home custom IIMOC apparel.
IIMOC 2025 Champion T-shirt, front and back: black tee with pixel-art IIMOC 2025 lettering, champion score, sponsors, and problem setters
2025 — Champion Tee
IIMOC 2026 prize hoodie, front and back: black hoodie with IIMOC × FrontierCS logo and a large ⟨Σ⟩ mark
2026 — IIMOC × FrontierCS Hoodie
Partners
IIMOC relies on partnerships to make tough, high-quality contests possible.
CascadeX CXL logo
AP Memory logo
FrontierCS logo
How IIMOC 2026 Worked

Many Problems

For 2026, a curated set of FrontierCS tasks (not just one problem). Teams could specialize, explore, and iterate.

Placement Scoring

Points are awarded by final rank on each task. Submit your best solution before the deadline and lock in your placement.

Reproducibility

Standardized evaluation via FrontierCS’s tooling, so results are comparable and auditable.

Rank-Based Points

The higher you place across all tasks, the more points you earn. Consistent top placements win the overall leaderboard.

Read the complete Rules & Code of Conduct.
FrontierCS on GitHub About the benchmark
FrontierCS content is used with permission; FrontierCS remains the original source of the tasks.

2025 by the Numbers

209

Teams

Competing from top universities and clubs globally.

9,549

Submissions

Total iterative optimizations across the 4-week window.

Where Clubs Compete

21 countries in 2025
🇺🇸 USA🇯🇵 Japan🇰🇷 Korea 🇹🇼 Taiwan🇲🇦 Morocco🇨🇦 Canada 🇪🇹 Ethiopia🇬🇧 UK🇨🇳 China 🇮🇳 India🇮🇷 Iran🇵🇰 Pakistan 🇳🇱 Netherlands🇩🇪 Germany🇻🇳 Vietnam 🇵🇱 Poland🇶🇦 Qatar🇫🇮 Finland 🇭🇰 Hong Kong🇪🇬 Egypt🇧🇭 Bahrain

2025 Problems

Permutation (Sample)

Author: Qiuyang Mang (Sua)
Edited by: Edwin Chen
Editorial by: Alexander Du
Prepared by: Alexander Du & Edwin Chen

Polyomino Packing

Author: Shang Zhou (Berkeley Sky Computing Lab)
Edited by: Shang Zhou
Editorial by: Shang Zhou
Prepared by: Edwin Chen