The international science olympiads are among the best-known academic competitions for high-school students: mathematics has the IMO, physics the IPhO, chemistry the IChO, biology the IBO, and informatics (computer science) the IOI.
Because computer science carries a certain “high-tech” reputation, some families assume competitive programming is out of reach before they even start. In practice, the entry level is designed to be approachable. Newcomers begin in the Bronze division, where problems focus on basic logic and can be solved in any supported language, including Python.
Just as China selects its IOI team through the CSP-J/S and NOI system, the United States selects its team through the USA Computing Olympiad (USACO). This article gives a plain, honest overview of what USACO is, how it works, and what changed for the 2025-26 season.
01 USACO Competition Overview
The USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) was first held in 1992, giving it more than three decades of history. It is run by the competitive-programming community, currently directed by Dr. Brian Dean at Clemson University, and its stated mission is to identify, motivate, and train high-school computing students at all levels. Each year it selects the four students who represent the United States at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).
USACO has four divisions: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Difficulty increases at each level, and participants advance one division at a time. Every new competitor starts in Bronze, and the required knowledge grows from basic implementation in Bronze to advanced algorithms and data structures in Platinum.
Who can take part: the online contests and training resources are open to pre-college students worldwide, and there is never any fee to participate. One important limit is worth knowing: only pre-college students in the United States are eligible for finalist and training-camp selection and for the US IOI and EGOI teams. International students can compete and earn division promotions, but not team selection.
Programming languages: USACO supports C, C++, Java, and Python. C++ is the only language used at the IOI and is the practical choice for the Gold and Platinum divisions, where some problems cannot be solved within the time limit in Python.
For families weighing the competition’s role in admissions, one accurate reference point is that MIT Admissions’ blog lists USACO as the US qualifying competition for the International Olympiad in Informatics. USACO does not publish admissions statistics, so be cautious about any specific “acceptance rate” figures you may see attributed to it.
02 USACO Competition Rules
01 Eligible Participants
The contests are open to pre-college students around the world, with no fee to enter. As noted above, students outside the United States can compete and be promoted between divisions, but only US pre-college students are eligible for the training camp and the national teams.
02 Competition Schedule
A USACO season runs three regular online contests followed by the US Open championship. The dates for the 2025-26 season were:
- First contest: January 9-12, 2026
- Second contest: January 30 – February 2, 2026
- Third contest: February 20-23, 2026
- US Open: March 28, 2026 (proctored, held in person at designated sites)
The training camp for selected US finalists followed on May 21-30, 2026, and the 2026 IOI is scheduled for August 9-16 in Uzbekistan. With only three regular contests plus the US Open each year, every contest carries real weight, so consistent preparation matters.
03 Registration and Format
Registration is a free account on the official USACO website. Enter accurate personal details when you sign up, including date of birth, expected high-school graduation year, and country, because eligibility for finalist selection depends on them.
Contest format: a typical contest has three problems (occasionally four). Once you open the contest you have a continuous 4-5 hour window to work, taken as a single block within the multi-day contest period. Each problem is worth up to 333.33 points, for a maximum of 1000, and is checked against about ten test cases. You receive per-test feedback (green for a passed case, red for a failed one) and may resubmit as many times as you like during your timer; only your last submission is graded.
Promotion: score at or above a contest’s promotion cutoff and you move up to the next division for future contests. Cutoffs are set per contest, and in recent seasons the monthly contests have mostly fallen around 650-750. A perfect score of 1000 earns an immediate in-contest promotion, letting you start the next division’s problems within the same window.
Integrity: you must work alone. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or Copilot are not allowed for writing or debugging code, pre-written code templates are prohibited, and each competitor may use only one account. Serious violations can lead to a lifetime ban.
04 Programming Languages
You may compete in C, C++, Java, or Python. All Bronze problems are meant to be fully solvable in any of these, including Python. As you climb into Gold and Platinum, C++ becomes the practical default: it is the only language supported at the IOI, and some higher-division problems are difficult to fit within the time limit in Python.
03 Key Changes for the 2025-26 Season
USACO treated 2025-26 as a transitional year and adjusted several rules. The four that matter most are below.
01 The US Open Is Now Proctored and In Person
Rather than a fully online contest, the US Open became a proctored, in-person championship held at designated sites. Top competitors from the three online contests were invited, and their US Open results were the main basis for training-camp finalist selection.
02 A Certified-Score Start Window for Gold and Platinum
Gold and Platinum competitors who want a certified score, one that counts toward promotion and finalist selection, must begin when the problems are released at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the Saturday of the contest, within a roughly 15-minute start window (12:00-12:15 ET). You can still start later for practice, but a late start will not produce a certified score.
03 Training-Camp Selection Needs Multiple Certified Scores
Being considered for the training camp now depends on more than a single strong result. Competitors generally need two to three certified scores across the season, which makes consistent participation important.
04 Platinum Participants Were Reset to Gold
At the start of the season, Platinum competitors were moved back to Gold, a reset the organizers noted they may repeat in future seasons. In past years promotions were treated as permanent across seasons, so this is a notable change to watch.
Preparing for USACO
USACO publishes hundreds of hours of free official training and past problems with full solutions, which is the best place to start. If you would like structured, guided preparation on top of that, feel free to reach out.