IMONST 1 REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!
We are pleased to announce that the registration for IMONST 1 2026 is now open and currently in Early Bird Registration Phase!
Quick Navigation
About IMONST
International Mathematical Olympiad National Selection Test, or IMONST, is a mathematical competition that is also a pathway to select top students to represent Malaysia in various mathematical competitions, including the most prestigious math competition in the world, the International Mathematical Olympiad.
IMONST is an open competition that students from all over Malaysia are invited to join. Participants are exposed to challenging problems that require creative and mathematical thinking to solve.
IMONST 2025 is the sixth year of IMONST, with the first five receiving warm receptions from teachers, parents, and students from all corners of Malaysia. We hope to provide a competition that is not only challenging but also memorable and will instill a healthy mathematical culture among the participants. We are committed to providing content that will be helpful not only for the students but also be beneficial for parents and teachers.
We are happy to announce that IMONST will be eligible for PAJSK marks! You can view the official letter from the Ministry of Education here.
Key Dates
| Event | Date |
| Early-Bird Registration opens for IMONST 1 | 21 January 2026 |
| Early-Bird Registration ends | 1 May 2026 |
| Registration closes for IMONST 1 | 7 August 2026 |
| IMONST 1 | 28 August 2026 |
| IMONST 1 Result | 25 September 2025 |
| IMONST 2 | 10 October 2026 |
| Bengkel IMO (BIMO) 1 | November 2026 – December 2026 |
| BIMO 2 | January – February 2027 |
| BIMO 3 | Mac 2027 |
| BIMO 4 | April 2027 |
| 68th International Mathematical Olympiad | July 2027 |
Eligibility
Everyone is welcome to participate in IMONST 1, subject to eligibility. These are the categories:
| Category | Level |
| Beginner* | 9 years old and younger |
| Pioneer | 10 years old to 12 years old |
| Junior | 13 years old to 15 years old |
| Senior | 16 years old and older |
Everyone (including international students and adults) is welcome to join IMONST 1, but participation in IMONST 2 and BIMO will be on an invitation-only only.
For IMO, only eligible participants with these criteria will be invited:
- Must be a Malaysian citizen;
- Must be attending school in Malaysia;
- Must be, at the time of IMO 2026, under 20 years old, and not a university student.
* We recommend that you register your students/children in this competition only as an early exposure for them. We advise you not to put high expectations upon them, especially when they are in the early stages of growing up.
For international students:
If you are awarded a medal in IMONST1, you can opt to join IMONST2 as well. Your paper will be graded normally, but your result won’t count towards the overall ranking.
If you are awarded a medal in IMONST2, you are welcome to join BIMO as an observer (meaning that you can attend lectures and not take any selection tests).
Registration
Registration date will be announced soon, and it can be done through ContestHub. There are two types of registrations:
- Individual registration: Registration and payment must be made individually. Participants will receive login information directly.
- Registration under school (preferred): Registration and payment are to be done by an assigned teacher/person (under individual registration but multiple participants can be registered via one registration account). Login info will be provided to the teacher/person, who will distribute them to each participant.
We will provide the user’s manual guide for registration to ensure that the registration process will be smooth for the participants.
Fee
Registration under school: The early-bird registration fee is RM45 per participant. The normal registration fee is RM50 per participant.
Individual registration: The early-bird registration fee is RM54 per participant. The normal registration fee is RM60 per participant.
Competition Procedure
(IMONST 1)
- Competition Day: Friday, 28 August 2026
- Time: 08:00AM – 10:00PM
- Duration: 2.5 hours
- Contest webpage: http://imonst.imo-malaysia.org
Requirements
Since IMONST is an online competition, students need an internet connection and a device (preferably a desktop or laptop computer, but phones and tablets can also be used). Please make sure your internet connection is stable; otherwise, you will lose time if it is interrupted.
At a minimum, prepare a pen and paper for your calculations. All IMONST problems can be solved without a calculator.
You are NOT allowed to refer to any book or any website. The use of a calculator is PROHIBITED. IMONST is NOT an open-book competition.
IMPORTANT: You must sit for the competition alone, without the help of another person. If there is any evidence of collaboration or assistance from other people, you will be disqualified and blacklisted from all future IMONST.
Format
Format of IMONST 1
- Time: 2.5 hours.
- The participants in the Beginner, Pioneer, Junior, and Senior categories will receive different papers, and the rankings are done separately for all categories.
- There are 30 problems in total. There will be Malay and English versions of the problem.
- The problems are divided into 4 parts, in increasing order of difficulty:
| Part | # of problems | # of points for each problem | Type of problem |
| A | 10 | 1 | Conceptual |
| B | 10 | 3 | Easy to Intermediate |
| C | 10 | 6 | Intermediate to Hard |
- For each problem, you only have to submit the answer. The answer to each problem is a non-negative integer.
- No mark is deducted for a wrong answer.
- The maximum number of points is (1 + 3 + 6) x 10 = 100 points.
Format of IMONST 2
- Time: 4.5 hours.
- There are 6 problems, each worth 7 points. There will be Malay and English versions of the problem.
- To get full points for each problem, you must write a complete solution, with the correct mathematical reasoning. You can either write the solution in Malay or English.
- A suggested reading assignment will be distributed to all participants 3 weeks before the competition.
Syllabus and Sample Problems
IMONST covers various topics, including but not limited to:
- Number Theory: Properties of Integers, Primes, Divisibility, Modulo Arithmetic.
- Algebra: Algebraic Expressions, Factorization, Equations, Polynomials, Inequalities, Sequences, Functions.
- Combinatorics (Counting): Basic Counting, Pigeonhole Principle, Permutations and Combinations.
- Geometry: Measurements (Angles, Lengths, Areas, Volumes), Circles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Polygons, Similar Figures, Geometric Transformation.
Reading Materials
There are many books, videos, and websites that you may use for IMONST preparation.
For newcomers, we recommend these texts as reference:
- A Beautiful Journey Through Olympiad Geometry by Stefan Lozanovski: Chapters 1-6
- Junior Problem Seminar by David A. Santos.
Both of these texts are available legally online for free.
Sample Problems
You may download the sample paper below. The sample papers contain typical mathematics olympiad problems and have a similar level of difficulty to the actual IMONST paper.
IMONST 1 Sample Paper 1 (with Answers)
IMONST 1 Sample Paper 2 (with Answers)
IMONST 1 Sample Paper 3 (with Answers)
IMONST 1 2020 Questions (with Answers)
IMONST 1 2021 Questions (with Answers)
IMONST 1 2022 Questions (with Answers)
IMONST 1 2023 Questions (with Answers)
IMONST 1 2024 Questions (with Answers)
We are introducing the Beginner category for the first time; thus, here is the first sample paper to help students, parents, and teachers with their preparation and expectations. More sample papers for the Beginner category will be uploaded in the future.
Beginner Sample Paper (with Answers)
Visit the IMO Malaysia Facebook page for videos discussing the problems from the sample paper.
Results & Certificates
Only participants who sit for the IMONST 1 exam will be provided a certificate.
No medals will be given for IMONST 1. Instead, each participant will be provided a performance grade. The medals will be then given in IMONST 2. For this year, we will hand out physical certificates to the medalists after the result is announced.
After the result is announced, you will receive an electronic certificate and a personalized score report. The score report contains detailed results and an analysis of your performance relative to other contestants.
Grading System
| Grade | Score Range |
| Stellarity (S) | 85 – 100 |
| Excellence (A) | 70 – 84 |
| Honours (B) | 60 – 69 |
| Commendable (C) | 50 – 59 |
| Merit (D) | 40 – 49 |
| Participation (E) | 0 – 39 |
Participants who received Grade S will be invited to join IMONST 2 for free.
Selection for IMONST 2
Selection for IMONST 2 is based on the IMONST 1 scores.
Stellar students from IMONST 1, across all categories (Beginner, Pioneer, Junior, and Senior), will be selected for IMONST 2. Medals will be distributed to the top students in each category with a ratio of Gold : Silver : Bronze = 1 : 2 : 3. The total number of medals shall not exceed 80
Although the IMO requires a high level of mathematical maturity, the Malaysian IMO training program focuses heavily on training younger students, who will have more years to prepare for the Olympics in the future (the youngest IMO participant from Malaysia was 12 years old).
Our commitment to inclusiveness: To promote diversity in the Olympiad program, 10% of the slots in IMONST2 are reserved for students who excel in IMONST1 and belong to a historically underrepresented demographic (e.g., gender, socioeconomic background, geographical area) in the Olympiad training program.
What’s Next
The top winners of IMONST2 will be invited to the IMO 2026 training program. The Olympiad training program takes place from November 2025 to April 2026 and consists of:
- online and offline workshops;
- homework assignments;
- participation in several international mathematical competitions.
Benefits
For top winners:
- You will get an opportunity to attend the Malaysian Olympiad training program
- You will have a chance to represent Malaysia in genuine, credible international mathematics competitions, including the most prestigious math competitions in the world. Many former olympiad participants from Malaysia went on to study at the world’s top universities.
For students and teachers:
- Certification is an important part of co-curricular activities such as IMONST. Hence, every participant will receive an electronic certificate.
- The IMONST certificate is highly valuable, as it is a national-level event involving the country’s top mathematical talents.
- Students can apply their knowledge of mathematical theories and skills to solve interesting problems and assess their performance relative to their peers in the country.
- Contribute back to the community by proposing problems, providing solutions, and training the next generations.
FAQ
Q: The IMONST sample problems are too difficult for primary school students.
A: That is generally correct. However, there are very talented primary school students (especially those with some math competition background) who would be able to do well. We’d like to allow them to join the IMO program, and hopefully join the IMO in future years.
Q: I am a non-citizen / non-resident of Malaysia. Am I eligible for IMONST?
A: You are more than welcome to join and participate in IMONST, but please note that you cannot join the Bengkel IMO as a participant since only Malaysians can join the IMO team.
Q: How can I contribute to the IMO Committee or the future participants?
A: There are many ways that you can contribute to the growth of the Olympiad community in Malaysia. Please contact us through email (contact@imo-malaysia.org) or Whatsapp (011-54081455—Zafree) so that we can discuss this further.
Contacts
You can also join the IMONST Official Group on Telegram for questions.
Alternatively, email us at contact@imo-malaysia.org
For information and updates, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
To speak or message with our customer service representatives, please contact them at:
011-26814143 (Mr. Haziman)
011-55715015 (Mr. Syukor)
011-54081455 (Mr. Zafree)
018-3920204 (Mrs. Surie)
018-3604143 (Mrs. Jannah)
About Us
This is the official website of the Malaysia International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) Committee, which is responsible for selecting, training, and managing the Malaysian team to the IMO.
IMO Malaysia 