Definition
Plain language
The most prestigious U.S. high school math competition, requiring full written proofs.
As stated in the literature
The USA Mathematical Olympiad, a six-problem proof-based competition used as a benchmark for olympiad-level mathematical reasoning in AI systems.
Why it matters: Because it demands genuine proofs rather than numerical answers, it's a much harder bar for AI math systems than competitions like AIME.
For example, a USAMO problem might ask the student to prove that a certain inequality holds for all positive reals, with full rigor.
Heard on the show
“5 by more than twenty points on standalone benchmarks — crosses the human gold-medal threshold on both the twenty-twenty-five International Math Olympiad and the twenty-twenty-six USAMO.”Episode 133 — How MiniMax Turned a Reward-Hacking Disaster Into Olympiad Gold