Filipino students from kindergarten to Grade 12 can train for the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence at zero cost: registration for IOAI Philippines 2027 is open until November 11, 2026, there are no application fees, and the first round requires no programming experience. The four top finishers will represent the country at IOAI 2027 in Singapore next July.
What is IOAI Philippines?
IOAI Philippines is the official national committee that selects, trains, and sends the Philippine team to the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) — the AI counterpart of the long-running math and science olympiads. According to the program's official site, it is hosted by Ateneo BUILD, run by AIOS PH, recognized by the Office of the President, the Department of Education (DepEd), and DOST-SEI (the science department's Science Education Institute), and accredited by the IOAI itself.
The country has form here: at IOAI 2026, all four Philippine delegates came home with medals — one silver and three bronze.
Who can join, and how much does it cost?
Entry is open to all eligible Filipino K-12 students, whether studying in the Philippines or abroad, and selection is based only on performance in the technical assessments — there are no school or grade cutoffs to apply. The program is free end to end; the official site puts it as "zero cost to students."
Registration opened on September 12 and closes on November 11, 2026, through the official form linked on ioaiph.org. The program's 2027 cycle was first reported by Technobaboy, which notes that the first-round assessment can be taken online on a mobile phone and that no programming experience is required at that stage.
The eliminations themselves run as a window-locked, asynchronous online sprint — students take the round within the November 16–22 window at a time that works for them, combining an EduSpace module with a national multiple-choice exam.
Key dates: five rounds to the national finals
| Stage | Date | Who advances |
|---|
| Eliminations (online, asynchronous) | November 16–22, 2026 | Open pool → Top 300 |
| Qualifiers (timed, proctored) | December 12, 2026 | Top 300 → Top 80 |
| Quarter-finals (online, proctored) | January 16, 2027 | Top 80 → Top 40 |
| Semi-finals (hybrid) | January 30, 2027 | Top 40 plus seeds → Top 24 |
| National finals (onsite at Ateneo BUILD) | February 20–21, 2027 | Top 24 → Top 4, Team Philippines |
The national finals run across two days with up to 31 finalists on site, counting seeded slots.
What the top four get
The four national champions form Team Philippines for IOAI 2027 in Singapore, July 4–10, with arrival on July 4 and the opening ceremony on July 5. Separately, four non-graduating students from the junior pipeline will compete at APOAI 2027 in Russia, April 26–30, hosted by Central University and the AI Alliance. A further invitational in Vietnam (IAIO 2027, February 25–March 2) is listed as pending accreditation and would draw from the 2026 medalist pool.
Before flying out, the team goes through a 10-week pre-departure boot camp from April 19 to June 27, 2027. Its curriculum mirrors the IOAI syllabus: classical machine learning, deep learning, NLP (natural-language processing, how computers handle text), computer vision, audio, and AI ethics, with mentors drawn from local and international universities and industry.
Another free lane in the Philippine AI pipeline
The olympiad track adds to a growing stack of free AI training in the country — teachers recently got theirs through Google's AI Educator Series, and workers through the free TESDA-AWS cloud and AI courses. This one is the competitive route for students, and the clock on it runs to November 11.
