AI systems score a perfect 42/42 at IMO 2026, officially graded
For the first time AI achieved full marks at the International Mathematical Olympiad: at IMO 2026 in Shanghai, Huawei's 'Celia' and Xiaohongshu/RedNote's 'dots-note-3.0' each scored 42/42, with solutions graded by IMO organisers after the human contest; only 7 of 666 human contestants got perfect scores. Other labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Moonshot, Axiom) also claimed 42/42.
Key facts
- Perfect 42/42 (all six problems) for Huawei 'Celia' and RedNote 'dots-note-3.0' under the IMO's formal AI evaluation process
- Process: AI received problems only after human contestants finished; strict time limit; no human intervention; graded by IMO organisers
- Humans: 7 of 666 contestants achieved full marks (IMO held in Shanghai)
- Per commentator Deedy Das (quoted by TechXplore), OpenAI, Anthropic, Axiom Math and Moonshot's Kimi K3 also reached 42/42 (not all officially graded)
- Context: 2024 best AI = silver (4/6 problems over 2-3 days); 2025 = gold-level 35/42 (Google DeepMind, OpenAI)
- No AI was an official medal-eligible contestant
Science result
- Field
- mathematics / olympiad problem solving
- Problem
- International Mathematical Olympiad 2026 problems (Shanghai)
- Result
- First officially graded perfect AI scores at the IMO: Huawei 'Celia' and RedNote 'dots-note-3.0' each solved all six problems for 42/42; several other labs self-reported 42/42.
- AI system
- Huawei Celia, RedNote dots-note-3.0
- Human role
- Autonomous; problems given after the human contest, no human intervention
- Verification
- Graded by IMO organisers (for Celia and dots-note-3.0); other 42/42 claims self-administered
- Status
- confirmed
- Why surprising
- Only 7 of 666 human contestants got full marks, and the first perfect AI scores came from Huawei and a social-media company rather than a frontier US lab.
What happened
At IMO 2026 (Shanghai), several AI systems solved all six problems. The two officially graded perfect scores came from Chinese companies not usually considered frontier labs: Huawei (Celia) and Xiaohongshu/RedNote (dots-note-3.0, its first IMO entry). Multiple US labs and Moonshot also reported perfect solutions. Commentator Deedy Das: "The frontier of AI has officially moved well past IMO math."
Why it matters
Olympiad math is now saturated as an AI benchmark just one year after the first gold-level results; attention shifts to research-level math (FrontierMath Tier 4, Erdős problems).
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: added post link(s) (1) from Google/DeepMind + math posts pass
- 2026-09-29: added primary/secondary links during a verification pass
- 2026-09-29: created
- 2026-09-29: added science block (science & math tab)
Related posts (2)
- Deedy Das: Fable, Sol, K3 and Axiom all score 42/42 on IMO 2026 Deedy Das @deedydas · x · 2026-07-21
Cited as a source by: 2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores - NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Ultra graded 30/42 by the IMO team at IMO 2026 NVIDIA AI @NVIDIAAI · x · 2026-07-21
An officially graded open-weights data point from IMO 2026: NVIDIA's Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 30/42 under contest conditions with no tools.
Related events
- OpenAI model disproves Erdős's 80-year-old unit distance conjecture ★★★★★
- Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3, a 2.8T-parameter open-weights multimodal model ★★★★★
- AxiomProver produces machine-checked Lean proofs for all 12 Putnam 2025 problems ★★★
- NVIDIA's Nemotron-3-Ultra-CC outscores every human at IOI 2026 (535.4/600) ★★★
Sources (7)
- pressTechXplore: AI catches up with humans to score 100% at top math contest
- pressSCMP: RedNote's AI model first to achieve flawless score at maths Olympiad
- pressTaipei Times: AI models score 100 percent at top math competition
- pressMalay Mail: Huawei, Xiaohongshu AI storm Olympiad
- pressFrance 24 / AFP: AI catches up with humans to score 100% at top maths contest
- discussionDeedy Das on X: self-run IMO 2026 results for frontier models
- discussionNVIDIA AI on X: Nemotron 3 Ultra graded 30/42 by IMO team
id: 2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline