Moroccan student Zakaria Abisourour won a silver medal at the 38th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from Aug. 9 to 16, giving Morocco its first silver medal in the competition.
Abisourour scored 332.42 points out of 600, placing 63rd among 375 competitors representing 92 delegations. The score was above the 303.28-point threshold for a silver medal and below the 361.12-point threshold for gold.
The result represents a significant improvement from his performance at the 2025 IOI in Sucre, Bolivia. Abisourour scored 228 points and finished 190th among 330 participants, receiving an honorable mention. In 2026, he increased his score by 104.42 points and moved up 127 places in the overall ranking.
His 2026 score was built across six problems, for which he earned 47, 36, 100, 75, 70.42 and 4 points, respectively. His 100-point score on one problem was the highest possible result for that task.
Morocco sent four competitors to this year’s competition. Mohammed Cherki finished 216th with 198.50 points and received an honorable mention, while Yassir Salama ranked 232nd with 176.05 points and Mohamed Aada finished 307th with 77.64 points.
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The IOI is an international competition for secondary-school students focused on computer science and algorithmic problem-solving. Participants compete individually over two five-hour sessions, solving six problems that require programming, algorithm design, analysis and data-structure skills. Their solutions are assessed according to factors including correctness, execution speed and memory use.
This year’s competition awarded 32 gold medals, 62 silver medals and 94 bronze medals, alongside 43 honorable mentions.
