The scoresheet
The olympiad sets three problems a day over two days, four and a half hours a paper, seven points a problem. Coordinators mark each written argument step by step and award partial credit, which is why most scoresheets are uneven. Pylaiev's is not: six sevens, no gaps.
The official results place him at rank 1 with a gold medal. The competition does not separate contestants who share the maximum, so he is listed alongside the nine others who also finished on 42.
Competing in 2022
Ukrainian schools spent the first half of 2022 disrupted by war, with air raids, displacement and interrupted teaching across the country. The national team still travelled to Norway and still competed, and Pylaiev's paper was the strongest possible result any contestant can produce.
The olympiad record does not describe any of that context; it prints a name, a country and six numbers. The context is worth stating because it is the difference between a good score and a remarkable one, and because it is the reason this particular line in the 2022 table was noticed far beyond the mathematics community.
The company he kept
The other maximums in Oslo went to six contestants from China, Yuya Oki of Japan, Quy Dang Ngo of Vietnam, and Galiia Sharafetdinova, who was listed without a country because Russian contestants competed that year with no national designation.
Ten perfect papers in one year is exceptional. For comparison, the 2019 olympiad in Bath produced six, the 2023 olympiad in Chiba produced five, and the 2024 olympiad produced a single one. The number says as much about the paper as about the people who wrote it.
How the olympiad is scored
Each of roughly 110 countries may send up to six contestants, and the competition is formally an individual one; the country tables are unofficial sums. Medals are limited to half the field and split into gold, silver and bronze in roughly a one to two to three ratio, so gold falls to about one contestant in twelve.
A 42, by contrast, is not a proportion of anything. It is an absolute: every problem closed, every argument complete. That is why perfect scorers are listed together at the top of the table with no order between them.
What is documented, and what is not
Documented by the IMO's own database: Oslo as the host city, a field of 589, Ukraine as the country he represented, seven points on each problem, a total of 42, rank 1 and gold.
Not documented: his age or date of birth, which is why this page carries no birth year; his school or home city; his results in any other year; and anything about his life since 2022. This page does not describe his personal circumstances during the war, because no source used here does.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ihor Pylaiev | Ukraine | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2022 | — |
| Colin Shanmo Tang | United States | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2019 | — |
| Youngjun Cho | South Korea | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2019 | — |
| Galiia Sharafetdinova | Russia | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2022 | — |
| Quy Dang Ngo | Vietnam | A perfect 42/42 at the International Mathematical Olympiad, 2022 | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Scored 42/42 at IMO 2022 in Oslo for Ukraine
- Ranked joint first with a gold medal
- Seven points on each of the six problems
- One of ten perfect papers among 589 contestants
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No age, date of birth or school in these sources
- No other IMO year recorded for him in this file
- Nothing documented about his circumstances or studies
Questions people ask about Ihor Pylaiev
What did Ihor Pylaiev achieve?
A perfect 42 out of 42 for Ukraine at the 2022 International Mathematical Olympiad in Oslo, joint first with a gold medal.
How old is Ihor Pylaiev?
No age or date of birth appears in the sources used here.
Did Ukraine compete at the 2022 olympiad?
Yes. The official results list Pylaiev among Ukraine's contestants in Oslo.
How many contestants scored 42 that year?
Ten, out of 589.
What is the maximum IMO score?
42: six problems, seven points each, across two four-and-a-half-hour papers.
Is Ihor Pylaiev on Wikipedia?
No standalone article is recorded for him in this file.
Where is Ihor Pylaiev now?
The sources used here do not say.
Who else scored a perfect paper in Oslo?
Six contestants from China, Yuya Oki of Japan, Quy Dang Ngo of Vietnam and Galiia Sharafetdinova, listed without a country.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Pylaiev’s story?
Which country did Ihor Pylaiev represent?
What was his score?
How many contestants took part in Oslo in 2022?
Sources
- IMO 2022 individual results — International Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2022
- Ihor Pylaiev - IMO contestant results — International Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2022
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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