Your next action
Ask your teacher for the 66th Mathematik-Olympiade school round and your local hand-in date.
- Season
- 2026–27; school round through October 2026.
- Who enters
- Grades 3–7 finish at state level; the national final starts at grade 8.
- First contact
- Your teacher or state coordinator.
- Costs
- Local entry and travel costs were not verified. Ask the coordinator; do not assume that every cost is covered.
Official competition guide and state coordinators
Entry information checked 24 September 2026.
Who organises the German pathway?
Start with Mathematik-Olympiaden e.V. and your state coordinator. For BWM and IMO selection, use the separate programme links below.
Mathematik-Olympiade: start with your school
The sequence is school → regional → state → national. Round one may be homework or a school test; later rounds require qualification. Use the state-coordinator directory if your school cannot help.
66th Mathematik-Olympiade: 2026–27 dates
| Stage | National timetable | What to confirm locally |
|---|---|---|
| School round | School-year start–October 2026 | Task release and your submission deadline |
| Regional round | 11 November 2026 | Your region’s sitting |
| State round | 26–28 February 2027 | Grade-specific days and invitations |
| National final | 30 May–2 June 2027, Kaiserslautern | State-team invitation |
State instructions take priority; primary rounds can be later. These notices do not specify daily start times.
Why your state matters
- North Rhine-Westphalia: the regional round is 11 or 14 November 2026, depending on the region; its state round in Cologne is 27 February 2027. See the NRW calendar.
- Hesse: participation normally goes through schools; exceptions need the state coordinators’ decision. Schools report primary grades 3–4 by 2 October and grades 5–12 by 23 October 2026. These are school reporting deadlines, not a promise that a pupil can wait until that date to submit work. Primary participation is a pilot in Gießen-Vogelsberg, with exceptions elsewhere. See the Hesse first-round notice.
State examples are included to show the differences. Students elsewhere should use their own coordinator, not copy a neighbouring state’s dates.
Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik: a different entry competition
BWM has two take-home rounds followed by a mathematical interview. Its first round admits pupils on an education pathway that can lead to the Abitur, including eligible German schools abroad. Read the detailed exceptions before entering.
For the 2026 BWM cycle, first-round submissions closed on 2 March and second-round submissions on 24 August. Those dates are past; a 2027 entry window was not confirmed in the page checked. The organiser describes preparing your work first, registering it online, then posting the required paper submission. Email alone is not accepted. First-round teams of up to three are allowed; round two is individual.
The rules require independent work and prohibit using AI to solve or check contest submissions. Practise with released older problems and follow the live contest’s help rules. BWM participation rules, calendar and registration guidance.
How the German IMO team is selected
The invitational Auswahlwettbewerb zur Internationalen Mathematik-Olympiade is also abbreviated AIMO in Germany. That abbreviation here does not mean the Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad.
The programme invites successful candidates from BWM round two, the Mathematik-Olympiade national final, and state-winning mathematics projects in Jugend forscht. Residence or schooling, age and prior university study also matter; a result alone does not settle eligibility. Read the official selection conditions and the international eligibility rules, and obtain the organiser’s ruling for an unusual schooling or cross-border case.
For the 2027 IMO selection cycle, invitations are scheduled for November 2026, with selection tests on 24 and 25 November 2026. These are invitation-only school sittings. The best 16 progress to seminars and seven further tests, from which six representatives are chosen. The first 2027 seminar is listed for 29 January–5 February in Hamburg; the final Oberwolfach seminar date was still unannounced when checked.
Notice the sequence: the 66th national final is in May–June 2027, after those November 2026 selection tests. Entering the autumn school round does not itself give access to the already-scheduled 2027 selection tests.
Past papers and solutions
Use the official task archive and select the competition, round and grade. A BWM take-home paper and an IMO-selection test demand different pacing. Some teacher solution archives need a state-coordinator password.
For preparation, attempt a released problem before reading its solution. Our proof-writing guide and number-theory starter lesson can help with the transition from calculations to full arguments.
Previous results
Find the completed 65th Olympiad report on the programme page. For Germany’s international team records, use the official IMO archive. A domestic award is not an IMO medal.
If your school does not take part
Find the state coordinator through the official competition page. Include your state, grade, school type and the competition you mean, and ask about an authorised route and deadline. Do not submit private student details through this information website.
Organiser-enquiry checklist · Germany paper catalogue · National results index
This guide’s entry, state-example and selection sources were checked on 24 September 2026. It is independent of the organisers.