The IMO Champion: Full Score, 3 Golds in 5 Attempts, Recently Accepted by MIT}

Recently, the IMO has been truly lively.

However, the main focus of discussion has been AI's performance at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

Recently, besides overseas giants like OpenAI and Google, the domestic ByteDance Seed team also announced their IMO results:Our specialized formal mathematical reasoning model, Seed Prover, solved 4 out of 6 problems completely and provided partial proofs for another, earning a silver medal score of 30 points, officially recognized by IMO.
On the human competition stage, there is a contestant whose performance is considered a "miracle".This year, five contestants worldwide achieved a perfect score of 42/42. One of them is Warren Bei, an 11th-grade student from Canada.

All six problems were solved correctly, a rare achievement. IMO, one of the most challenging competitions for high school students globally, sees only a few students achieving full marks each year. These top students are often national champions, have trained for years, and have internalized advanced mathematics.

Warren Bei is one of them, and the only full-score contestant in his team.

^{The full list of the Canadian IMO team, with Warren Bei scoring a perfect 42 points, ranking 12th overall.}

Warren Bei’s IMO journey is a textbook example.

• In 2021, at just seventh grade, he participated for the first time and won a silver medal (21 points).
• In 2022–2023, he continued to improve, winning two gold medals consecutively.
• In 2024, he earned another silver, with slight fluctuations but quickly regained his form.
• In 2025, he achieved a full score of 42/42, tying for first place globally.

Over five years, he earned three golds and two silvers. He often mentions in interviews, “I enjoy these problems; they make me curious and thoughtful. I love the quiet, pure reasoning time.”

      ^{This chart shows Warren Bei’s achievements in recent years at IMO.}

Although mathematics is his main focus, he is also interested in physics and computer science. He represented Canada at the 2023 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), winning a silver medal, and plans to compete again in 2025.

He believes these disciplines share a common core—structured thinking based on axioms, involving problem modeling and solving.

He once described the relationship between math and programming: “Physics writes the world into formulas, and programming writes ideas into code.”In spring 2025, MIT sent Warren an early admission offer. This not only recognizes his past achievements but also highlights his future potential.

^{Official Instagram of West Vancouver School District congratulates Warren Bei on winning the CMO and being accepted early by MIT.}

Regarding his future, Warren remains open-minded.

In interviews, he admits he’s still unsure what mathematicians do in their work, so he might choose math or computer science in college but will decide later after learning more.

He says, “The world is always changing. I prefer to start from now rather than reverse from a fixed goal.”

Warren lives in West Vancouver, British Columbia, and attends Rockridge Secondary School, known for excellent student performance in BC.

As a child, he loved logic puzzles and science books. An accidental participation in a math competition sparked his passion for math, which grew from that success.

He gained public attention in ninth grade—2021—when he won the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO), becoming one of the youngest winners.

CMO is considered one of Canada’s most prestigious and challenging academic contests, usually for experienced high school students, but Warren was still in middle school.

This victory marked the start of his winning streak over the next few years.In 2023, he reclaimed the CMO title and defended it successfully in 2024. In 2025, he won his fourth CMO gold with a score of 27 out of 35.

However, Warren sees the medals and scores differently. “The point of the competition isn’t the medals but the focus and joy of solving unfamiliar problems for hours. Math contests are about the process, not the score.”

He believes each problem is a new challenge worth deep thinking and creativity, not easier over time. When asked how he handles the hardest problems, he philosophically responds, “The difficulty is because you don’t know how to solve it yet. The challenge is temporary. The key is to generate ideas intuitively and keep trying.”

Reflecting on how math competitions have shaped him, he says they’ve exposed him to deep mathematical topics, improved problem-solving skills, and helped him make like-minded friends, fueling his curiosity about the unknown.One of his idols is Martin Gardner, one of the most influential science popularizers of the 20th century. His favorite books are “Winning Ways” and “GEB (Gödel, Escher, Bach),” because they weave simple ideas into complete theories.As John Horton Conway, one of the authors of “Winning Ways,” said, “When I discovered hyperreals, I realized that playing games is itself mathematics.” Conway was also famous for creating the “Game of Life” and was a close friend of Gardner.For young people just starting in math competitions, Warren offers advice: “Every seemingly far-fetched solution hides a deep insight that makes it natural and reasonable. The key is to find it.”^{Referenceshttps://x.com/thegautamkamath/status/1947388513768349808
https://notes.math.ca/en/article/unveiling-the-cmo-champion-an-exclusive-interview-with-warren-bei/
https://ceoweeky.ca/warren-bei/}