USAAIO 2025 · Round 1 (set)
The 2025 USA-NA-AIO Round 1 is the online qualifying round for Team-USA / North-America selection. It is a mixed theory + coding test administered through the Beaver-Edge AI Institute forum. Each problem is split into many small parts (up to 18) that progressively scaffold from a one-line definition to a full implementation + analysis.
Round metadata
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Round | Round 1, online, mixed theory + code |
| Problems | 3 published (P1–P3) + 2 reconstructed (P4–P5) [verify against source] |
| Duration | Multi-week window [verify exact dates] |
| Hardware | Contestant's laptop; CPU-only friendly |
| Allowed | NumPy, scikit-learn, PyTorch, pandas. No external APIs. |
| Scoring | Each problem is 100 pts; total Round 1 is 500 pts (assuming 5 problems) [illustrative] |
Problems
Linear recurrence & complexity
Fibonacci-like recurrence: compute, implement recursively + iteratively, derive closed form, use matrix exponentiation. (Existing walkthrough.)
Affine transformations & neural network basics
From y = Wx + b by hand to multi-layer compositions and a small classifier
training loop.
Data exploration and a classical ML pipeline
Load a tabular dataset, build a summary function, then run feature engineering and a model across 18 graded parts.
Convolutional networks on a small image set [reconstructed]
Skeleton consistent with the Round-1 syllabus: train a small CNN on a supplied image dataset, report training curves and test accuracy.
Transformer attention & a tiny language model [reconstructed]
Skeleton consistent with the Round-1 syllabus: derive scaled dot-product attention by hand, then implement a 2-layer encoder.
How to use this set
- The published problems are graded in parts. Earlier parts are warm-ups; later parts ramp into full implementations. Read all parts of a problem before starting — the late parts often expose what the early parts were preparing you for.
- Sit each problem under a 90-minute clock once. Round 1 has a generous multi-week window in reality, but timed practice exposes which sub-skills are slow.
- For P4 and P5 (reconstructed skeletons), treat them as syllabus-style mocks. Update them once the official PDFs publish.
- Solutions go in the forum threads under each problem-part. Compare yours after attempting.