India wins one gold and three bronze at International Linguistics Olympiad 2026

India won one gold and three bronze medals at the International Linguistics Olympiad 2026 in Romania, with another Indian student receiving an honourable mention.

The competition brought together school students from more than 40 countries. Unlike traditional Olympiads, the International Linguistics Olympiad does not require participants to have studied linguistics beforehand. Students solve problems involving unfamiliar languages using logic, pattern recognition and reasoning.

According to IIIT Hyderabad, Shrilakshmi Venkatraman won the gold medal. Aarav Anil Rao, Nishanth Shankar Lakshmanan and Advay Misra won bronze medals, while Soham Amit Pednekar received an honourable mention.

India has participated in the International Linguistics Olympiad since 2009. The national team is selected through the Panini Linguistics Olympiad.

For the 2026 selection process, 525 students registered for the first round and 338 appeared for the qualifying test in February. Selected students then attended a 10-day residential camp at IIIT Hyderabad from May 31 to June 10.

The camp included lectures, mentoring sessions, problem-solving exercises, mock Olympiads and tests. The final team was selected based on performance in the second-round test, followed by additional training before the students travelled to Romania.

The competition requires students to identify patterns and work out the structure or grammar of languages they may have never encountered before. The skills developed through the programme can also be applied to areas including artificial intelligence, natural language processing and language technology.

IIIT Hyderabad has mentored the Panini Linguistics Olympiad since 2015.

With the latest results, India has won 37 medals at the International Linguistics Olympiad, comprising six gold, nine silver and 22 bronze medals.