PC: UK Maths Trust
In 2026, just seven of the 666 competitors managed to collect all 42 points, according to UK Olympiads. One of them was Britain’s Alex Chui, a 17-year-old from Tonbridge School. Chui’s 42 points came from six full-mark problems. He received 7 points on each question, leaving no partial score or missed mark on his final paper. Only seven students reached the maximum score across the entire competition, which brought together 666 contestants representing 117 teams. Kevin Wai of Magdalen College School joined Chui in the gold-medal group after scoring 29 points. Yuvan Raja of RGS Guildford took silver with 26 points. Adavya Goyal of St Paul’s School, along with Anango Prabhat and Michael Sydorenko of King’s Maths School, each scored 22 and received bronze. Their combined score was 163 points. North Korea also scored 163 points, but the two teams were separated by their medal distribution. Contestants have 4.5 hours on each day to tackle three questions. Each problem carries a maximum of seven points, giving a possible total of 42. At the 2026 event in Shanghai, the results stretched from perfect scores at the top to a large number of contestants receiving no medal. There were 55 gold medals, 105 silvers and 189 bronzes, while 141 competitors received honourable mentions, as reported by The UK Olympiads and IMO2026.
The six students therefore all returned with medals. A perfect score is unusual at the International Mathematical Olympiad, where contestants face six demanding problems over two four-and-a-half-hour papers. The result placed him joint first individually. The British team finished with two golds, one silver and three bronze medals. That total placed Britain ninth in the team standings. North Korea had two golds and two silvers alongside two bronzes, while Britain had two golds, one silver and three bronzes. The International Mathematical Olympiad is built around six problems, divided between two examination days. The questions are designed around areas such as geometry, number theory, algebra and combinatorics, rather than the routine calculations associated with school mathematics.