Welcome to the IOL

The IOL is one of 13 International Science Olympiads for secondary school students, and has been held annually since 2003. Each year, teams of young linguists from around the world gather and test their minds against the world’s toughest puzzles in language and linguistics.

No prior knowledge of linguistics or languages is required: even the hardest problems require only your logical ability, patient work, and willingness to think around corners. Give some of our past problems a try!

Isle of Man 2022

The 19th IOL, hosted by Isle of Man, has successfully concluded on July 29th, 2022. Due to the ongoing worldwide pandemic, contestants remotely competed in their countries. A total of 184 contestants of 43 teams representing 33 countries competed in IOL 2022. You can find more information here.

Click here to find out the full list of the countries/regions that have participated in the IOL.