Why Romania Excels in International Olympiads

Students in Romania are sharply sorted with meritocratic tests. The result is a nation punching above its weight intellectually, but not necessarily capturing the benefits.

Britchi Mirela/Gheorghe Lazăr National College in Bucharest, Romania

This article by Jordan Lasker will be published at Palladium Magazine on August 29, 2025.

Olympiads are international student intellectual competitions in which students from across the world go toe-to-toe answering questions in mathematics, physics, informatics, chemistry, and more. The best performers tend to be from countries like China, the United States, India, and Japan. But, somehow, the southeastern European country of Romania also frequently tops the list.

Since 2020, Romania’s performance in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) has been nothing short of amazing. In 2022, Romania came in fifth overall, fourth in 2023, and twelfth in 2024. In 2023, Romania placed fourth globally and first in Europe at the International Physics Olympiad, seventeenth globally and third in Europe at the International Olympiad in Informatics, sixth globally and second in Europe in the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad, first in the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad—which also included France, Italy, and the United Kingdom—and first in the Central European Olympiad in Informatics. Romania also performed well in the International Chemistry Olympiad and many others.

It’s an understatement to call Romania’s skill in Olympiads merely “overperformance”. Romania’s lackluster performance in international assessments and its relatively small population size of just over 19 million people makes the things they do in Olympiads downright miraculous.