What is amazing about the IOIs is that the high school students who participate have a more broad and deep understanding of algorithms in graphs and networks, c

What is amazing about the IOIs is that the high school students who participate have a more broad and deep understanding of algorithms in graphs and networks, combinatorics, dynamic programming, recursion and number theoretics than pretty much any CS student in a college/university with exception of perhaps PhDs. Indeed, you don't find many CS students devouring Knuth's TAOCP just for fun!!! However back in the day when I also participated in Nationals and this sort of competitions I always favored Cormen's Intro to Algorithms over Knuth's, but that was just a matter of personal preference. Overall kudos to this young man and I hope he keeps it up. And I also encourage everybody to take a look at past IOI problems (they are online) and their solutions and even attempt solving them, it is an amazing feeling when you are able to crack even one!