Kaunas hosts first European Junior Olympiad in Informatics 2026

The European Junior Olympiad in Informatics (EJOI) will take place in Kaunas, Lithuania from 24 to 30 July 2026. It is the first time the competition is organised in Lithuania, jointly hosted by Lithuania and Ukraine. The event is coordinated by Kaunas University of Technology's Faculty of Informatics, Vilnius University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, the Lithuanian Computer Scientists Association and the Ukrainian Olympiad Programming Federation.

Participants from 25 European countries—including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia‑Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova, France, Romania, Georgia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary and Germany—will compete. Lithuania fields two teams consisting of eight students selected from the national informatics olympiad finalists under 15 years old. The opening ceremony was held on 25 July at the KTU Santaka valley, where Dr Mantas Jurgelaitis, pro‑dean of KTU’s Faculty of Informatics, welcomed the young programmers and highlighted the partnership with Ukraine despite the ongoing conflict.

The week‑long competition provides a platform for young programmers to test their skills, develop computational thinking, exchange ideas and build connections across Europe.