Spain's Search for Future AI Leaders Begins
The 2025–26 selection cycle has concluded. Team Spain made its debut at the IOAI Finals in Astana, Kazakhstan, in August 2026.
About IOAI Spain
Spain's national selection process for the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence runs across four rounds, from an open entry test to the final team selection.
More about IOAI
The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence is a global competition where secondary-school students compete in machine learning, mathematics and programming against national teams from around the world.
Official IOAI Representative in Spain
Harbour.Space Institute of Technology, based in Barcelona, runs Spain's IOAI selection process and provides the training, mentorship and facilities behind each round.
Eligibility and Registration Process
Students interested in representing Spain at the IOAI must meet the following criteria:
- Be a Spanish citizen, Permanent Resident, or full-time school student in Spain
- Be 20 years old or younger on 1 July, 2026
- Be enrolled in secondary/high school for 2025-2026
Registration for the 2025–26 cycle is closed. Please address all queries to ioai.spain@harbour.space.
Participation is free
There are no fees at any stage of the selection process, from the first round to the training camp.
- No registration fees
- No participation fees
- No training-camp fees
All related costs are fully covered by Harbour.Space Institute of Technology.
Selection Process
The 2025–26 selection ran in four rounds, from an open introductory quiz to weekly training, and concluded with Team Spain competing at the IOAI World Finals.
Round 1
27/10/2025 – 30/11/2025 Entry point for all students, regardless of previous AI or computing experience. Accessible and inclusive introduction to foundational AI topics.
Round 1
27/10/2025 – 30/11/2025Topics Covered
Basic AI concepts, logic and reasoning, pattern recognition, history of AI, search mechanisms and information retrieval, ethics and responsible use of AI.
Selection Criteria
Participation was optional. Participants were asked to complete 30 multiple-choice questions. The results were used for informative purposes and showed the topics that participants were advised to work on first. All participants who completed the entire task advanced to the next round.
Round 2
01/12/2025 – 15/01/2026 Higher difficulty while maintaining accessibility. Focus on problem-solving, reasoning, and applied AI understanding. In this round, students were introduced to technical terms, diagrams, graphs, and data visualizations, making AI concepts more concrete while keeping them clear and accessible.
Round 2
01/12/2025 – 15/01/2026Topics Covered
Basic AI concepts, logic and reasoning, pattern recognition, history of AI, search mechanisms and information retrieval, ethics and responsible use of AI.
Selection Criteria
Participation was mandatory. Participants were asked to complete 30 multiple-choice questions. The results were used to inform the curriculum and to show participants from the first round their progress. All participants who completed the entire task advanced to the next round.
Round 3
16/03/2026 – 31/03/2026 Selection round consisting of three computer-based assignments (Math, Programming, and Machine Learning): a combination of open short-answer tasks (18 items), multiple-choice questions (10 items), and one problem-solving task. For the problem-solving task, participants received datasets for analysis and were required to submit a response file containing their results in accordance with the committee's specifications, as well as a methodology file explaining how those results were achieved.
Round 3
16/03/2026 – 31/03/2026Selection Criteria
Up to 100 participants could be selected to continue to Round 4. The raw score for each assignment was as follows: Math (10 points), Programming (10 points), and Machine Learning (100 points). The final result was calculated as the sum of all three raw scores.
Round 4
18/04/2026 – 16/05/2026 Final round. The 42 participants who advanced to this round received free-of-charge training and were selected based on their performance to form the final Team Spain that would compete in the finals.
Round 4
18/04/2026 – 16/05/2026Selection Criteria
Participants were given weekly classes and had to complete two summative assignments and 10 ongoing assignments. The summative assignments accounted for 80% of the final score, and the ongoing assignments accounted for the remaining 20%. The top eight participants were selected to attend fully sponsored on-site training at the Tenerife Bootcamp.
IOAI World Finals
02/08/2026 – 08/08/2026 Spain's first participation in the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence, held in Astana, Kazakhstan: two silver medals, one bronze medal and three honourable mentions.
IOAI World Finals
02/08/2026 – 08/08/2026Personal Results
- 🥈 Silver Medal — Henri-Alexander Semenov, American School of Barcelona
- 🥈 Silver Medal — Tomás Lázaro Danoni, Institut Tiana
- 🥉 Bronze Medal — Llúria Torras Arcusa, Escola el Cim, Vilanova i la Geltrú
- 🏅 Honourable Mention — Héctor Villanueva Dávila, The British School of Tenerife
- 🏅 Honourable Mention — Varun Aditya, St. George’s British School
- 🏅 Honourable Mention — Roberto Lloréns Dueñas, Escola Professional Salesians de Sarrià
- Participant — Ruiwen Zheng, St. George’s British School, Barcelona
- Participant — Fanxi Xiang, Oak House School
Team Results
In the team ranking — based on the best four-person score per country — Spain’s Team ESP1 placed 26th out of 108 registered countries and territories, with a combined score of 349.9846 and an average of 87.4962 per member. That put Spain ahead of Japan (28th), Belarus (33rd), New Zealand (34th), and Germany (35th), among 82 other nations — a remarkable result for a country competing for the very first time.