Students must use their ingenuity to solve puzzles such as deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, decoding numerical spy codes, and interpreting ancient Mayan poetry.
The AILO competition is comprised of two rounds:
The Preliminary Round : This portion of the competition will be held in participating schools the week of 9th November 2026 – on paper with answers submitted online. The paper will be emailed out to teachers for printing and must be taken under exam conditions. Student answers are via an online submission. Schools and individual students can register here. You must have a teacher contact to undertake AILO unless you are home-schooled.
- AILO Final : The top 100 students of the preliminary round (regardless of age) qualify to compete at the National Final of AILO in a Dublin university in March. During this final the students will participate in an individual round as well as a team round.
- International Linguistics Olympiad : AILO is the selector the Irish Interational team. If AILO acquires external funding, four students from the individual round will qualify to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL). IOL typically takes place in July every year and the location changes every year. For more information on IOL click here. To see some IOL Puzzles click here.
Preparation
To prepare for AILO we suggest solving some sample puzzles and viewing previous years’ puzzles.
ADAPT Problem Solving Workshops
ADAPT provide online problem solving workshops to help students prepare for the AILO competition. In these workshops sample puzzles are explained and worked through in detail.
Please note that if you or your students would like to attend a zoom workshop, please register for AILO here.