One way to talk to us — WhatsApp.
No email form, no phone tree, no Slack or Discord. Everything we do goes through a single mentor channel on WhatsApp — one-on-one routing, response within 24 hours, free for grade 7-12 students worldwide.
- One-on-one, not a broadcast. A real mentor — a former IOL participant now studying linguistics or computer science — replies to you directly. No bot, no group blast.
- No account games. No email capture, no newsletter trap, no “upgrade to premium.” You scan, you ask, you get a real answer.
- Any country’s olympiad. NACLO, UKLO, OzCLO and the rest — the mentor points you to the right starter problems for wherever you compete.
Scan the QR — that’s it.
Open WhatsApp on your phone, go to the QR scanner (Android: three-dot menu → Linked Devices → Link a device; iOS: Settings → Linked Devices), and scan the QR on the right. The mentor will receive your request and reply within 24 hours.
When you message, please mention: your school year (grade 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12), whether you’ve solved an IOL or national-olympiad problem before, and what brought you to the club (e.g. upcoming national selection / general curiosity / school encouragement). The mentor uses this to match you to the right cohort and starter problem.
If you don’t yet have a WhatsApp account, the app is free on iOS and Android. Account setup takes about two minutes; WhatsApp is available in most languages worldwide.
IOL Club mentor
The first four messages.
Welcome & orientation
Within 24 hours of your scan, the mentor sends a short welcome message and a one-page orientation describing how the cohort works.
Starter problem match
Based on your school year and prior experience, the mentor sends a starter problem from the past archive that’s calibrated to your current level.
Cohort schedule
Once you’ve worked the starter problem, you receive the weekly walkthrough schedule and an invite to the cohort group chat (small, mentor-moderated).
Weekly rhythm
From there, the rhythm is one walkthrough per week, one new problem per week, and ongoing mentor access. That’s the entire system.
Clear up two common assumptions.
WHAT WE DOFree mentor-led prep
- +Match you to a starter problem calibrated to your school year and prior experience
- +Run weekly walkthroughs on WhatsApp covering all five problem categories
- +Route you to national olympiads (NACLO, UKLO, OZCLO, etc) based on your country
- +Connect you with alumni if you want to hear how past contestants prepared
- +Send weekly bulletins with IOL news, contest schedules, and editorial updates
WHAT WE DON’TWhat we won’t sell or do
- ×Paid coaching — the mentor cohort is volunteer-run; no fees, no upsells, no membership tiers
- ×Admissions consulting — we don’t write personal statements, recommendation letters, or college applications
- ×Issue official IOL medals or certificates — only the IOL Board does that
- ×Provide solutions during active contests — the academic-integrity policy applies and is strictly enforced
- ×Share your contact information with third parties — the WhatsApp channel is end-to-end private to the mentor
Prefer to ask in Chinese?
Our sister community at iolc.org.cn runs the same model in Mandarin: same archive, same problem walkthroughs, same mentor-routed cohort. If you’d rather work in Chinese, scan the QR on their contact page instead. The two communities cross-link content and share mentor exchanges, so you’re not picking sides — you’re picking your working language.
The English (this site) and Chinese (iolc.org.cn) communities are run by overlapping volunteer teams; mentors rotate between cohorts seasonally so newer students see consistent annotation style across both languages.
What we collect, what we don’t, and how to remove your data.
When you scan the WhatsApp QR and message the mentor, the only thing we collect is your WhatsApp number (visible to the mentor only) and whatever information you choose to share in your messages. We do not use email addresses, do not run mailing lists, do not pass data to third parties.
If you want your data removed from the mentor channel: message the mentor with the word “remove” and we delete the WhatsApp conversation within 48 hours. For the full privacy policy and PIPL/GDPR alignment, see /privacy/.