Central European Olympiad in Informatics, also known as CEOI, is an annual informatics contest for secondary schools from central Europe. It consists of 2 days of programming and solving arithmetical problems with the help of the computer within the team.  This year CEOI will be held in Varaždin, Croatia from 24^th until 30^th of July 2022 with competition days set for 26^th and 28^th July. Organizer is Croatian Computer Science Association while Prva gimnazija Varaždin is a hosting school.

The concept

Every team consists of 4 competitors who are selected through national competitions, a team leader, and a deputy leader. Teams can be accompanied by several guests. Every year CEOI is organized by the Ministry of Science and Education or another similar appropriate institution from one of the eight initial central European countries that are always invited, known as CEOI countries; Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. While the host country has a main duty to organize competition, in addition it can also have a second team with the same leader participating as well as inviting guest countries to compete. One of the main duties for the host country is to assemble a Scientific Committee (SC) which will select and prepare competition tasks together with deciding grading scales and schemes. The competition itself consists of two rounds which are divided on two days on which teams are given three tasks and five hours to solve them with the help of programming languages. In these five hours experts from SC must be available to answer any questions if needed.

The history

The first ever CEOI was held in Romania in 1994 and every year since then it has been motivating and developing interest for informatics in students, testing and proving ability to solve problems with the help of the computer thus giving young people from all around central Europe an opportunity to meet and establish contact with others with similar interests. In this competition students are learning how to incorporate using technology, arithmetics and programming languages to solve a problem. In addition to that, they are developing their social skills while working in teams and meeting new people.

What about this year?

This year CEOI will be held in Varaždin, Croatia from 24^th until 30^th of July 2022 with competition days set for 26^th and 28^th of July. Organizer is Croatian Computer Science Association while the host is Prva gimnazija Varaždin (First Grammar School Varaždin). Great support also came from the President of the Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Science and Education, Croatian Association of Technical Culture and Varaždin County. Along with Croatia, as a host country, this year 11 more countries from central Europe will compete; Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

Teams are expected to arrive in Varaždin on Sunday, 24^th July, while the first practice session, meetings of the leaders and the opening ceremony are going to take place on Monday, 25^th July. The first competition is going to take place on Tuesday, 26th July. Teams and delegations will have Wednesday, mostly free as they will be going on their first excursion. The second and the last competition day is set for Thursday, 28^th July. The second excursion, closing ceremony and banquet are going to happen on Friday, 29^thJuly. The teams and delegations are expected to leave Varaždin on Saturday, 30^th July. 

With many hardworking, diligent, and perspective people involved in the project, this is an amazing opportunity to witness why is informatics called the job of the future.  

Written by Ana Strelec