---
id: "2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores/"
as_of: "2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00"
date: "2026-07-23"
date_precision: day
category: science
importance: 5
confidence: high
status: [Result confirmed]
verification: Expert-checked
sources: 7
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-10-07"
---

As of: 2026-11-13 13:49 CET.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores/

# AI systems score a perfect 42/42 at IMO 2026, officially graded

For the first time AI achieved full marks at the International Mathematical Olympiad: at IMO 2026 in Shanghai, Huawei's 'Celia' and Xiaohongshu/RedNote's 'dots-note-3.0' each scored 42/42, with solutions graded by IMO organisers after the human contest; only 7 of 666 human contestants got perfect scores. Other labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Moonshot, Axiom) also claimed 42/42.

## Key facts
- Perfect 42/42 (all six problems) for Huawei 'Celia' and RedNote 'dots-note-3.0' under the IMO's formal AI evaluation process
- Process: AI received problems only after human contestants finished; strict time limit; no human intervention; graded by IMO organisers
- Humans: 7 of 666 contestants achieved full marks (IMO held in Shanghai)
- Per commentator Deedy Das (quoted by TechXplore), OpenAI, Anthropic, Axiom Math and Moonshot's Kimi K3 also reached 42/42 (not all officially graded)
- Context: 2024 best AI = silver (4/6 problems over 2-3 days); 2025 = gold-level 35/42 (Google DeepMind, OpenAI)
- No AI was an official medal-eligible contestant

## What happened

At IMO 2026 (Shanghai), several AI systems solved all six problems. The two officially graded perfect scores came from Chinese companies not usually considered frontier labs:
Huawei (Celia) and Xiaohongshu/RedNote (dots-note-3.0, its first IMO entry). Multiple US labs and Moonshot also reported perfect solutions. Commentator Deedy Das: "The frontier of AI has officially moved well past IMO math."

## Why it matters

Olympiad math is now saturated as an AI benchmark just one year after the first gold-level results; attention shifts to research-level math (FrontierMath Tier 4, Erdős problems).

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 84 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 23 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen (training cutoff March 2026): 114 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 53 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [TechXplore: AI catches up with humans to score 100% at top math contest](https://techxplore.com/news/2026-07-ai-humans-score-math-contest.html) (techxplore.com, press)
2. [SCMP: RedNote's AI model first to achieve flawless score at maths Olympiad](https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3361482/worlds-first-ai-model-earn-perfect-score-maths-olympiad-comes-chinas-rednote) (scmp.com, press)
3. [Taipei Times: AI models score 100 percent at top math competition](https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2026/07/24/2003861308) (taipeitimes.com, press)
4. [Malay Mail: Huawei, Xiaohongshu AI storm Olympiad](https://www.malaymail.com/news/tech-gadgets/2026/07/23/huawei-xiaohongshu-ai-storm-olympiad-join-maths-elite-with-perfect-100pc-score/228720) (malaymail.com, press)
5. [France 24 / AFP: AI catches up with humans to score 100% at top maths contest](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260723-ai-catches-up-with-humans-to-score-100-at-top-maths-contest) (france24.com, press)
6. [Deedy Das on X: self-run IMO 2026 results for frontier models](https://x.com/deedydas/status/2079409461874332066) (x.com, discussion)
7. [NVIDIA AI on X: Nemotron 3 Ultra graded 30/42 by IMO team](https://x.com/NVIDIAAI/status/2079642933058244704) (x.com, discussion)

## Changes

- 2026-10-07: Science block: kind: other (not a long-open problem; listed with other AI science results, not in the open-problems count)
- 2026-09-29: Added science block (science & math tab)
- 2026-09-29: Added primary/secondary links during a verification pass
- 2026-09-29: Added post link(s) (1) from Google/DeepMind + math posts pass
- 2026-09-29 (filed): Created

## Related

- 2026-07-16: [Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3, a 2.8T-parameter open-weights multimodal model](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-16-moonshot-kimi-k3/index.md)
- 2026-05-20: [OpenAI model disproves Erdős's 80-year-old unit distance conjecture](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-05-20-ai-disproves-erdos-unit-distance-conjecture/index.md)
- Archived: 2 posts, listed in https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores/index.json