The National Olympiad in Informatics (NOI) is modelled after the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), the ultimate international competition in computing. NOI emphasises creativity in problem solving on the one hand and programming skill and expertise on the other. The 12th NOI consists of a four-hour session in which each contestant is required to individually solve and program a solution to four programming tasks. The solutions are judged according to their correctness (i.e. whether they produce the correct answers) as well as their speed of execution (i.e. producing the answers within a time limit). The actual time spent on programming will not be taken into account in the evaluation. Each contestant works on a PC and is given a choice of programming language (Pascal, C, or C++) to use.

ACJC congratulates Ian Leow (2SA6) who is also the President of Tech Council, for having won a silver medal in the 12th NOI.

Below are some reflections from Ian: ‘This year's NOI was slightly different from the previous years as they changed some of the rules and procedures of the competition. This made it a little more interesting as the results of the programming tasks became more unpredictable. The silver medal came as a surprise because I initially thought I did not do well enough to achieve it, but I was nevertheless pleased as the result was my personal best.’