Rabat – A year after he left the International Olympiad in Informatics with an honorable mention, Moroccan student Zakaria Abisourour returned to the world’s top programming competition with a far stronger result: a silver medal and a place among the world’s leading young programmers.
Abisourour scored 332.42 points at the 38th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from August 9 to 16. His score placed him 63rd out of 375 contestants from 92 delegations.
More importantly for Morocco, his result delivered the country’s first silver medal in IOI history.
The 17-year-old’s score comfortably cleared the 303.28-point threshold for silver, by more than 29 points. He finished ahead of more than 83% of the competition’s participants.
A remarkable leap in one year
The scale of Abisourour’s progress becomes clearer when compared with his result at last year’s competition.
At the 2025 IOI in Sucre, Bolivia, he scored 228 points and ranked 190th among 330 participants. That performance earned him an honorable mention.
This year, he added 104.42 points to his total and moved up 127 places in the global standings.
His six scores in Tashkent were 47, 36, 100, 75, 70.42, and four points. A perfect 100 point score on one of the problems proved particularly valuable as he pushed into the silver-medal bracket.
The jump from an honorable mention to a silver medal in just one year puts his achievement among Morocco’s strongest results at the competition.
A new chapter for Morocco at the IOI
Before Abisourour’s breakthrough, Morocco’s IOI record stood at three bronze medals and four honorable mentions.
His silver medal now gives the country its first medal of that level, although Morocco is still waiting for its first gold.
His 63rd-place finish also represents the country’s best individual ranking at the IOI, according to the competition’s results.
The achievement could give a boost to Morocco’s competitive programming scene, where young programmers face demanding algorithmic challenges long before they enter university.
Morocco’s other competitors
Abisourour was one of four Moroccan students who took part in this year’s Olympiad.
Mohammed Cherki finished 216th with 198.50 points and received an honorable mention. Yassir Salama placed 232nd with 176.05 points, while Mohamed Aada ranked 307th with 77.64 points.
Together, the four students represented Morocco at one of the most demanding international competitions for secondary-school programmers.
Where young programmers meet
The IOI brings together some of the strongest student programmers from around the world. Unlike team-based competitions, contestants compete individually and must solve complex algorithmic problems under strict time and memory limits.
The 2026 competition featured two five-hour sessions, with six problems designed to test programming, algorithm design, data structures, and analytical thinking.
This year, competitors needed at least 361.12 points for gold, 303.28 for silver, and 228.80 for bronze. Organizers awarded 32 gold medals, 62 silver medals, and 94 bronze medals, alongside 43 honorable mentions.
For Morocco, however, the most significant number was 332.42, the score that carried Abisourour to a historic silver medal.
His result shows how quickly a young programmer can rise with sustained preparation and experience. More broadly, it offers a promising sign for Morocco’s next generation of competitive programmers, while setting a new target for those who follow: the country’s first IOI gold medal.
