Brainiacs Artificial Intelligence Olympiad Mechanics The Brainiacs AI Olympiad is an international competition aimed at encouraging creativity, innovation and academic excellence in students from Grade 5 to Grade 12. It runs in two stages: the Preliminary Round and the Global Round.
CategoriesGrades 5-7, Grades 8-12
Preliminary Round INovember 28, 2026Registration deadlineNovember 26, 2026
Preliminary Round IIDecember 19, 2026Registration deadlineDecember 17, 2026
Preliminary Round IIIJanuary 16, 2027Registration deadlineJanuary 14, 2027
Preliminary Round IVFebruary 13, 2027Registration deadlineFebruary 11, 2027
Global FinalMarch 25-31, 2027Early registrationJanuary 23, 2027Late registrationFebruary 20, 2027
Welcome to the Brainiacs AI Olympiad!
Join us!50 Q Preliminary26 problems + 1 project Global Final
75 min Preliminary120+120 min Global Final
English and Russian
Mechanics
CATEGORIES
- Category 1: Grades 5 to 7
- Category 2: Grades 8 to 12
PRELIMINARY ROUND
Students register through the official Brainiacs Olympiad website or through authorised representatives in their country. The four online rounds follow the same format but feature different challenges. Participants who do not qualify in the first round, or cannot take part in it, may sit the second, third and fourth.
- Online I: November 28, 2026 (registration deadline November 26, 2026); results December 3, 2026
- Online II: December 19, 2026 (registration deadline December 17, 2026); results December 24, 2026
- Online III: January 16, 2027 (registration deadline January 14, 2027); results January 21, 2027
- Online IV: February 13, 2027 (registration deadline February 11, 2027); results February 18, 2027
Format. 50 multiple-choice questions in 75 minutes, tailored to the participant's educational level: 15 easy, 20 normal and 15 difficult.
Scoring. Easy +1 point, normal +2 points, difficult +3 points for each correct answer. No negative marking, and nothing is deducted for an unanswered question.
Recognition. 40-49 Honorable Mention Certificate, 50-74 Bronze Medal, 75-89 Silver Medal, 90-100 Gold Medal. Participants scoring at least 40% qualify for the Global Round, and every participant receives a Certificate of Participation.
GLOBAL ROUND
The Global Round of the 3rd Brainiacs Olympiad takes place at Xiamen University Malaysia from March 25 to 31, 2027. Standard registration deadline: January 23, 2027. Late registration deadline: February 20, 2027. Students register through the official Brainiacs Olympiad website or through authorised representatives in their country.
The Global Round's format differs from the Preliminary Round: a theoretical and a practical part on two consecutive examination days.
Day 1 — AI literacy and prompting. Students' understanding of fundamental AI concepts and their ability to communicate with AI systems through well-designed prompts: basic AI concepts, applications and terminology; how AI is used in everyday life — image recognition, voice assistants, recommendation systems, robotics and generative AI; the characteristics of an effective prompt — clarity, specificity, context and instructions; improving poorly written prompts; choosing the most appropriate prompt for a task; analysing AI-generated responses for irrelevant information, ambiguity, factual errors or missing instructions; and writing prompts for specific outputs such as a story, explanation, image description, study plan or structured list.
Day 1 format and scoring. 26 problems in 120 minutes: 20 multiple-choice questions at +1 point, 3 easy challenges at +10, 2 medium challenges at +15 and 1 hard challenge at +20. No negative marking, and nothing is deducted for an unanswered problem.
Day 2 — Practical project. Each participant receives a randomly assigned problem, revealed at the start, and builds a working digital solution with approved AI coding and development tools — using AI to brainstorm, plan, generate code or content, debug and improve. 1 project in 120 minutes for 100 points.
- Category 1 (Grades 5-7): a simple solution with AI-assisted no-code or low-code tools — an interactive website, a mobile app, an educational game or an interactive learning tool. Advanced programming is not required.
- Category 2 (Grades 8-12): a more advanced solution with AI-assisted coding tools — a web application, a mobile application, an AI-powered application, or an interactive platform or dashboard.
Day 2 scoring. Problem Understanding & Solution 25, AI & Prompt Engineering 25, Technical Skills & Functionality 25, Creativity, Design & Innovation 25. Technical expectations follow the category: no-code or low-code for Grades 5-7, more advanced implementation for Grades 8-12.
Example challenges. Environmental — encourage students to reduce plastic waste at school. Education — help students organise homework and study time. Health & Lifestyle — encourage healthy daily habits. Community — help students identify and solve a problem in their school or community. Science — an interactive tool for learning about the solar system.
Recognition. Medals go by share of all participants: the top 10% receive gold, the next 20% silver, the next 30% bronze and the next 15% an honorable mention.
LANGUAGES
All problems in the Preliminary and Global Rounds are in two languages: English and Russian.
