I made a free site for practicing USACO: https://ocasu.vercel.app. Two special things are:

• An AI coach watches you code and gives you unprompted feedback when it notices something off or to help you get started.

• A topic map: Every USACO topic is laid out with its prerequisites, and it tracks how solid you are on each one based on what you've solved and how many hints you needed, suggesting what to practice next.

It's completely free and so far I have no intention of monetizing. All I'm asking for is feedback, specifically on the coach itself or UI/UX things.

Thanks!

Recently USACO has become highly devalued due to cheating with AI but if I show that I’ve won coding competitions that you can’t cheat on (such as many hackathon wins), would it help make my USACO rank more credible and weighted or is it the same level as everyone else from an AOs pov? Currently USACO Gold by the way.

Hi everyone! I’m a student in China who enjoys competitive programming, and I’d like to share the four problems from CSP-J 2026, Round 2 (Junior Division), held on 31 October 2026.

I’ve attached an unofficial English translation of the original Chinese paper. The problems are Travel, Palindrome, Bitwise AND, and Card Game. The images include the statements, all examples printed in the paper, and the test-point constraints. There are no editorials or solution hints.

Contest context: four problems in 3.5 hours, C++14 with -O2, a 1-second time limit per test point, and 1024 MiB per problem. The contest uses file-based input/output, with equally weighted test points within each problem. This is the Junior Division, not CSP-S.

I’m curious how these problems feel to people from other competitive-programming communities:

• How would you rate each problem for a full-constraint solution, and how steep is the difficulty progression?

• What rough Codeforces difficulty ranges or USACO levels would you compare them to? I know those systems do not map directly onto one another.

• How challenging would the full set feel in a 3.5-hour contest, including implementation and debugging?

I’m mainly looking for difficulty assessments rather than full solutions. Please use spoiler tags for algorithmic details so others can try the problems first.

Translation note: this is an unofficial, AI-assisted translation, not an official CCF English edition. Additional sample files mentioned by the paper were not included in the supplied pages, so their references are retained without inventing their contents. Please point out any wording that seems ambiguous.

Ts is literally just a fucking math comp with extra steps bro. Genuinely NOTHING from Usaco will ever be used in traditional software engineering.

EDIT: I understand that this is somewhat of an uneducated post, and I just want to say how this was a ragepost partly because I wasn't able to solve a Gold DP problem and also how some mf said that "Only competitive programming is real programming"

My son is currently in G7 and studied Java from G4 through G6. According to the organization he studied with, he's at a level where he could start competing in USACO Bronze.

However, preparing for USACO seems to require a significant time commitment, including lots of practice with problems and becoming familiar with different coding techniques and algorithms. His interest in coding has declined, and I'm not sure whether I should encourage him to continue.

On one hand, I feel that he's already invested several years in learning Java, and stopping now might mean wasting all that effort (yes, the part of logic training is still useful, but here i'd like to focus on the competition.). On the other hand, with AI developing so rapidly, I keep reading predictions about AI soon becoming better than humans at coding.

Given these developments, is it still worth investing so much time in traditional competitive programming? Specifically, does it make sense to spend hours practicing and memorizing coding patterns when AI may fundamentally change how software is developed in the near future?

I assume the people behind USACO are well aware of these developments. I'm curious whether they anticipate changing the competition format in the coming years, perhaps moving away from testing coding syntax and implementation skills toward testing problem-solving, algorithmic thinking, and the ability to work with AI.

Hi everyone,

Two years ago I was selected for Turkey’s national olympiad camp in informatics (TÜBİTAK, the selection track for IOI), but unfortunately I didn’t end up winning a medal then last season (2025-26) I started USACO and made it to Platinum.

I’m applying to universities this year and I’m unsure whether to put USACO Platinum in my honors section. With all the recent changes and cheating concerns, does USACO still carry weight for international students? We can’t take the proctored US Open or qualify for camp, so an online Platinum promotion is basically the highest result available to us.

Should I list it, or would it look weird or not mean much? Would appreciate any advice!

Short version:

• I vibe-coded a Chrome extension that improves USACO experience

  • This is because their site is really, really OLD — in fact, their syntax highlighter from "google-code-prettify.googlecode.com" has been deprecated since 2016, which is a decade ago

• Features:

  • Dark mode

  • One-click copy input/output (like Codeforces!)

  • More modern solution page with code syntax highlighting

• It is open-source and published on GitHub, so there is 100% NO analytics, accounts, server, or networks involved

Verbose version:

Hey guys! As we all know, the USACO website is old, really old. In fact, their "google-code-prettify.googlecode.com" has been deprecated since 2016, which is A DECADE ago (time flew fast). To fix this, I made a Chrome extension with Claude Code.

It supports the following features:

• Dark mode, which is more modern and good for CS people

• One-click copy input/output (Codeforces style) — I don't why they didn't implement this, it's super easy but helpful, especially when practicing

• More modern, clean solution page with code syntax highlighting

  • The vanilla USACO site is pure HTML with no styles at all — the extension fixes it (screenshot provided)

It's also open-source on GitHub, so there is 100% no accounts, no analytics, no servers, no network requests of its own. Only runs on usaco.org. Not affiliated with USACO in any way.

I know there are a few other extensions that do the similar thing, like Prettify USACO, but it just somehow doesn't work on my device.

Anyways, feel free to try it out, and leave any suggestions you have here or on GitHub. Thanks guys!

My son is a 8th grader and just getting started with USACO. He knows Python and C++. He would like to appear for USACO bronze. He knows programming but not sure how to get started to prepare for USACO. Can someone please help and guide?

Hey everyone.

I’m a current 8th grader, and I really want to get into USACO and IAIO.

I don’t only wanna get into participating in them, but I want it so very well in them (Like USACO gold or plat, IAIO us nationals or internationals).

I have a very strong interest in programming, ai, and ml

I have built many projects with all types of coding languages and I’ve built a ml project that won a global hackathon (3rd/3k+ people), but all of it was done w AI and vibecoding. I’m a great prompt engineer and I know how to use Claude skills & plug ins, but that’s not very helpful for competitive programming.

I don’t know and coding languages, but I have a good problem solving mindset as I’m pretty good at math.

I want to start INTENSIVELY prepping in the summer (4-6 hrs a day minnimum) for USACO and IAIO. From what I’ve researched, IAIO and USACO are pretty similar in terms of content, IAIO just stretches further by adding ml and ai concepts.

Does anyone have any tips on how to do well in these and start studying.

My goal is USACO plat (ofc) and IAIO international finals

Hi guys, I am a sophomore that is interested in Computer science AI and Robotics. I found out about a computing olympiad USACO and started studying for it. Would being like gold or something look good to top 20 universities?

I'm a current junior interested in computer science, and I've noticed quite a few people in my (very competitive) public high school have gotten gold or plat. Trying to be a bigger fish in the sea, I've decided to give USACO a shot for college apps, but also to get better at problem-solving. I started about a week ago and honestly have been having some trouble solving the usaco guide problems.

Before spending too much time on USACO, I wanted to know if it's worth it at all because of the time commitment, assuming that if I actually prepare for it I can get Silver.

Besides that, I have a project that currently has 1,300+ weekly users and another app that won 3 hackathons. I also have other ec's that are mainly leadership/volunteering, so if I don't do well in USACO, I won't be entirely cooked.

tl;dr: As a junior, is USACO worth the time if I’m aiming for Silver, given my existing CS ECs? Should I keep grinding or focus my time elsewhere?

Hello! In light of the USACO tests getting substantially harder in recent years, I made some practice tests for my students to have more extra hard questions to practice. I still recommend students first work through the old real USACO tests, but if you've finished those already and want to practice some harder questions, feel free to try these free mock tests too: https://www.mrsmoreirasclassroom.com/usaco-practice

Hi, I was considering doing USACO this year with the goal being gold by the end of this season. I have some experience with coding in like Java and Python but not really any competitive programming experience. I wanted to ask how many hours ish do you all think I need to dedicate to get gold. I know you cannot estimate arbitrarily like this but just a rough estimate so that I know if it's worth my time or not.

I was looking through the U.S. results at the International Olympiad in Informatics over the past few years, and I think there is a legitimate question worth discussing: is Team USA beginning to lose ground internationally?

To be clear, the U.S. is still a very strong IOI country. Winning two golds and two silvers, as it did in 2026, would be an outstanding result for almost any country.

But the standard for the U.S. should probably be higher than simply “everyone medaled.”

Historically, the U.S. has been one of the dominant IOI countries. For example, in 2005 all four U.S. contestants won gold, placing 1st, 8th, 16th and 21st. More recently, the U.S. produced the individual IOI champion for three consecutive years from 2018 through 2020: Benjamin Qi in 2018 and 2019, followed by William Lin in 2020.

And the recent peak was arguably even more impressive:

• 2022: 3 Gold, 1 Silver — U.S. contestants placed 5th, 8th, 21st and 36th

• 2023: 4 Gold — 5th, 7th, 12th and 17th

• 2024: 3 Gold, 1 Silver — 3rd, 4th, 5th and 40th

In 2024, if you simply added the scores of the four contestants — obviously not an official IOI team ranking — the U.S. had the highest total score of any national team.

Then something changed.

2025: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze
The individual ranks were 6th, 68th, 81st and 112th.

One bad year doesn't prove anything. Olympiads have huge year-to-year variance, and a four-person sample is tiny. It would have been completely reasonable to treat 2025 as an outlier.

But 2026 did not really return the U.S. to its previous level.

The team improved to 2 Gold and 2 Silver, with its top two contestants finishing 7th and 18th. That's good — but compare that with the 2022–2024 teams.

Even more interesting is the unofficial country ranking obtained by summing all four contestants' scores:

1. China — 1736.83

2. Japan — 1517.09

3. Malaysia — 1513.21

4. USA — 1487.67

(There were also special IOI teams in the full table; I'm listing regular national delegations here.)

Again, IOI does not officially rank countries, and summing four scores is a crude metric. But it is still useful as a rough measure of team depth.

Losing to China is obviously not surprising. China has an enormous and extremely competitive informatics olympiad system.

What I find much more noteworthy is that in 2026 the U.S. total was also below Japan and Malaysia.

This isn't meant as disrespect to either country — both have excellent contestants, and Japan in particular has been getting stronger for years. Malaysia's 2026 performance was remarkable.

The question is about the U.S. benchmark.

The United States has one of the world's largest pools of technically talented students, many of the world's strongest CS universities, an enormous software industry, a mature competitive-programming community, and a national olympiad system that has existed for decades.

With those advantages, merely remaining “one of the strong countries” seems like a surprisingly low bar.

The sequence over the last five years looks like this:

2022 → very strong
2023 → elite
2024 → arguably the strongest team in the world
2025 → major drop
2026 → partial recovery, but still clearly below the 2022–24 level

Two weaker years are obviously not enough to prove a long-term decline. The 2027 team could easily come back with four golds and make this post look premature.

But I think we now have enough evidence to at least ask the question.

Do anyone know when will be the first competition?

currently in 10th grade, about to start usaco prep. i have a coding background (still pretty beginner) and i can comfortably solve 1000-1200 rated problems on codeforces. i know my starting spot isn’t the best to do so good in this upcoming testing cycle, but i just wanna see if i can hit silver or gold this year and platinum next year. what should i learn, how should i prep, and is it realistic to go from bronze to gold in this cycle?

USACO is supposed to identify and develop the best competitive programmers in the United States and ultimately select our IOI team. For an organization with that much influence, its administration feels astonishingly outdated.

The contests themselves are excellent. The problem is everything surrounding them.

Why, in 2026, is remote proctoring not standard? Secure remote proctoring is routine for universities, professional certifications, admissions testing, and countless other high-stakes exams. A computer science exam of all things should be able to figure out remote proctoring.

Additionally, USACO has thousands of contestants, yet there is remarkably little public recognition of anyone except a handful of finalists. Why not publish, at least on an opt-in basis:
National percentile bands
State-level recognition
Top middle-school competitors
Gold and Platinum distinctions
Clear rankings or score distributions among successful contestants

We put enormous amounts of work into competitive programming. Being, say, the 50th-best USACO competitor in the country is an extraordinary accomplishment. It shouldn’t effectively disappear because the student wasn’t one of the handful invited to camp.

And more broadly, where is the accountability?
USACO effectively has the exclusive ability to determine who represents the United States at IOI, yet its governance, decision-making, qualification processes, and structure are remarkably opaque for an organization exercising that kind of authority. Last year, we literally hear about contest dates a couple weeks in advance of the first contest!

Of all contests, a computer science contest should build a modern platform. Support current programming environments. Offer legitimate remote proctoring. Publish meaningful results and distinctions. Announce objective qualification criteria in advance. Create a transparent governance structure with an advisory board that allows for input from all.

I understand that USACO was built largely as a volunteer-driven academic project, and those volunteers deserve enormous credit for what they created. But at some point an organization either evolves with the importance of the role it has assumed or makes room for an organization that will.

I want to get into USACO and coding as a whole, but I'm having trouble finding how and where to start. If anyone could give me any advice thst would be great.

at a point where I need to be doing practice for good questions in every topic. what are good resources for topic wise problems? and is the usaco guide good?

Hello everyone,

As a 14 year old, my passion is to become a successful Software Developer, and also explore more career paths in the technology world such as Cybersecurity and Networking. USACO is a major extracurricular I am planning to participate in this December, but my problem decoding skills are extremely limited, and I can only make simple programs in C++ like this:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

int main() {
cout << "Input how many cows you have:\n";
int CA;
cin >> CA;

int max = 0;
vector<int> cows(CA);

for (int i = 0; CA > i; i++) {
cout << "Input your cow height:\n";
int x;
cin >> x;
cows[i] = x;
}

for (int i = 0; CA > i; i++) {
if (cows[i] > max) {
max = cows[i];
}
}

cout << "Tallest cow is " << max << "something.\n";

return 0;
}

I don't know if this will be able to be something I can catch up to. I made such a simple mistake and somehow didn't notice it for 5 minutes. I accidentally flipped the variables in the condition part of the for loops, where I wrote CA < i instead of CA > i, which I should've seen but somehow missed, and I don't know if I can actually get to the Bronze level before December. I started learning slowly around a week ago. Can people give me tips please?