Indian-origin boy wins gold at International Olympiad in Informatics

Agastya Goel, a young Indian-origin boy, is once again making headlines for winning his medal at the esteemed International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), known as the world toughest programming competition for school students. The 36th IOI held in Egypt saw Agastya achieving a ranking with an impressive score of 438.97 out of 600.

Residing in California Agastya is the son of Ashish Goel, a Stanford University professor and an accomplished IIT JEE qualifier from 1990. His fathers academic excellence and distinguished career have undoubtedly shaped Agastya’s path as he makes strides, in the field of programming at just 18 years old.

This years competition was fierce with Kangyang Zhou from China securing the spot by scoring a perfect 600. A total of 34 students, including Agastya were awarded medals at the IOI. Among them was another Indian participant, Kshitij Sodani who finished in the 21st position overall.

Agastya Goel’s recent triumph, at the IOI is truly remarkable. The IOI, recognized as the toughest programming competition for students worldwide has brought him fame and respect. His wins have triggered a wave of congratulatory messages on platforms. One post on X (formerly Twitter) even drew a parallel between him and his father, Ashish Goel. It read, “Agastya Goel has claimed his IOI Gold medal representing the US in the most challenging programming contest for high schoolers globally. He secured the #4 overall spot.

In 1990, his father, Ashish Goel, achieved #1 out of nearly 1 million candidates in India’s IIT exam and went on to earn a PhD becoming a professor of computer science algorithms at Stanford. Like father, like son!”

The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), which was founded in 1989 by UNESCO is an annual coding competition. It is one of the five International Science Olympiads designed to assess high school students worldwide in tackling algorithmic and programming challenges. The competition takes place over two days during participants must demonstrate their coding skills to solve problems within set time frames.

Agastya Goel’s notable success, in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) has brought pride to his family and left an impression, on the global programming community. With his two gold medals at a young age Agastya’s future in the realms of technology and computer science looks promising. There are expectations that he will follow in his father’s footsteps and achieve great things, in the years to come.

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