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# These ratings are subjective

Linguistics problems have incredibly subjective difficulty judgements. In fact, difficulties are so unknown that the people who write the contests make no (or very little) effort to try to order them in any meaningful way.

As a corollary, you should not take what's written here as gospel; anyway, it's probably a bad idea for you to do problems by difficulty[1]. I find this more useful for myself, but since I went through this effort anyways I decided to publish it. But if you find this useful regardless, all the power to you.

# Notation

All problems are rated on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "very easy" and 10 being "very hard". Some caveats:

# IOL

YearP1P2P3P4P5Ind. avg.Team
IOL20032Transcendental AlgebraKsenia Gilyarova4Arabic ArithmeticIvan Derzhanski3Basque DatesAlexandre Arkhipov2AdygheYakov Testelets1FrenchBoris Iomdin2.42Tocharian / Subscripts / VerbsSvetlana Burlak; Maria Rubinstein; Boris Iomdin
IOL20043KayapoPeter Zubkov1Swift News AgencyBoris Iomdin
Leonid Iomdin
4LatinSvetlana Burlak
Ilya Itkin
2LakhotaIvan Derzhanski5ChuvashBoris Iomdin3.04ArmenianAlexander Berdichevsky
Boris Iomdin
IOL20055TzotzilBoris Iomdin3LangoKsenia Gilyarova3MansiIvan Derzhanski3YorubaIvan Derzhanski5LithuanianAlexander Lubotsky3.86FiguigMaarten Kossmann
Alexander Lubotsky
IOL20063LakhotaPyotr Arkadiev2CatalanBoris Iomdin5KhmerSergey Dmitrenko3UdiheBoris Iomdin3NgoniOlga Fyodorova3.26American Sign LanguageAlexander Berdichevsky
IOL20073BrailleAlexander Berdichevsky3MovimaDmitry Gerasimov6GeorgianYakov Testelets2NdomIvan Derzhanski4Turkish and TatarIvan Derzhanski3.64HawaiianOlga Fyodorova
IOL20084MicmacBozhidar Bozhanov5Old NorseAlexander Piperski6Drehu and CemuhîKsenia Gilyarova3Copainalá ZoqueIvan Derzhanski5InuktitutBozhidar Bozhanov4.67FanqieTodor Tchervenkov
IOL20097SulkaEvgenia Korovina
Ivan Derzhanski
2Maninka and BamanaIvan Derzhanski3BurmeseIvan Derzhanski
Maria Cydzik
5Old IndicAlexander Piperski5NahuatlBozhidar Bozhanov
Todor Tchervenkov
4.46VietnameseBoris Iomdin
IOL20102BudukhIvan Derzhanski3DrehuKsenia Gilyarova1BlissymbolicsAlexander Piperski1mRNA SequencingAlexander Berdichevski2RomanschBoris Iomdin1.87MongolianBoris Iomdin
IOL20115MenomineeIvan Derzhanski5FaroeseAlexander Piperski2VaiOlga Kuznetsova6NahuatlLiudmila Fedorova11EAN-13Hugh Dobbs5.88Sanskrit PoetryAdam Hesterberg
IOL20126DyirbalArtūrs Semeņuks4Umbu-UnguKsenia Gilyarova5BasqueNatalya Zaika5TeopMaria Konoshenko4RotumanBoris Iomdin
Alexander Piperski
4.87LaoBoris Iomdin
IOL20134YidinyBozhidar Bozhanov
Ivan Derzhanski
9Tundra YukaghirIvan Derzhanski5PirahãArtūrs Semeņuks5MunaKsenia Gilyarova1TelepathyBoris Iomdin4.89GeorgianIvan Derzhanski
IOL20144BenabenaIvan Derzhanski4KiowaAleksejs Peguševs5TangutIvan Derzhanski6EngenniArtūrs Semeņuks10GbayaBoris Iomdin5.87ArmenianBoris Iomdin
Ivan Derzhanski
IOL20155Nahuatl and ArammbaMilena Veneva6KabardianPeter Arkadiev7SoundexAlexander Piperski5WambayaKsenia Gilyarova2Somali MasafoAlexander Piperski5.08Northern SothoBoris Iomdin
IOL20167Aralle-TabulahanKsenia Gilyarova7LuwianTae Hun Lee6Kunuz NubianAleksejs Peguševs9IatmülArtūrs Semeņuks5JaqaruIvan Derzhanski6.810TaaDanylo Mysak
IOL20176BiromMilena Veneva10AbuiAleksejs Peguševs5KimbunduBruno L'Astorina3Khom script/LavenTae Hun Lee5MadakIvan Derzhanski5.86Emoji/IndonesianBoris Iomdin
IOL20185CreekAleksejs Peguševs2HakhunPeter Arkadiev4TerênaAndrey Nikulin9Mountain Arapesh (Bukiyip)Aleksejs Peguševs6AkanKsenia Gilyarova5.29Mẽbêngôkre, Xavante and KrĩkatíAndrey Nikulin
IOL20196YonggomIvan Derzhanski5YurokBoris Iomdin
Samuel Ahmed
6Book Pahlavi scriptAndrey Nikulin4West TaranganElysia Warner5NooniSamuel Ahmed5.211Rhythmic GymnasticsAnna Danilova
IOL20219EkariAleksejs Peguševs10ZuniElysia Warner
Samuel Ahmed
4KilivilaSamuel Ahmed3AgbirigbaEimear McKnight7RikbaktsaAndrey Nikulin6.610Garífuna, Lokono and Kari’ñaAndrey Nikulin
Milena Veneva
IOL20225UbykhPeter Arkadiev11AlabamaIvan Derzhanski5Nǀuuki (Nǁng)Eimear McKnight
Samuel Ahmed
4ArabanaTom McCoy6Proto-Chamic, Phan Rang Cham and TsatTung-Le Pan6.29ManchuMinkyu Kim
IOL20235Guazacapán XinkaSamuel Ahmed4ApurinãKsenia Gilyarova5Coastal MarindDavid Hultman6Plains CreeLidija Stanovnik
Aleksejs Peguševs
8SupyireAleksejs Peguševs5.68Murrinh-pathaBoris Iomdin
Milena Veneva
IOL20246KoryakIvan Derzhanski6HadzaSamuel Ahmed6KomnzoAida Davletova11DâwJoão Henrique Oliveira Fontes5YanyuwaDan-Mircea Mirea6.89LexicostatisticsAndrey Nikulin
Milena Veneva
IOL20252DzongkhaVlad A. Neacșu7GaahmgDavid Hultman5KuriaEimear McKnight4KewaSamuel Ahmed2KaqchikelDan-Mircea Mirea4.09Camling and BantawaSamuel Ahmed

# APLO

YearP1P2P3P4P5Avg.
APLO20196IkMinkyu Kim8UrarinaYung-Jui Yao6Mee (Ekari)Tsuyoshi Kobayashi5HebrewAalok Sathe6Old Turkic scriptJaeyeong Yang6.2
APLO20207IaaiRujul Gandhi6WalmanSamuel Ahmed10Koyra ChiiniJaeyeong Yang4TübatulabalRujul Gandhi
Shardul Chiplunkar
7MantauranYung-Jui Yao6.8
APLO20217PitjantjatjaraVlad A. Neacșu10Cushillococha TicunaTsuyoshi Kobayashi6Osmanya script/SomaliMinkyu Kim7HdiChih-Chun Wang5SandaweShen-Chang Huang7.0
APLO20225PanaráJoão Henrique Fontes11WayuuVlad A. Neacșu7JarawaraHoju Cha
Jaeyeong Yang
10NgkolmpuJi Hun Wang
Minkyu Kim
7MiskitoChih-Chun Wang
Vlad A. Neacșu
8.0
APLO20239YimasVlad A. Neacșu
Tamila Krashtan
4KtunaxaJerome Jochems1KobonVlad A. Neacșu
Michał Boroń
7InanwatanKazune Sato8KombaiFarhan Ishraq
Jerome Jochems
5.8
APLO20245TutubaTsuyoshi Kobayashi8Wemba WembaVlad A. Neacșu8BambaraOh Haenaem6MairasiKazune Sato
Minkyu Kim
7Chungli AoVlad A. Neacșu6.8
APLO20255Misantla TotonacTamila Krashtan6LoomaVlad A. Neacșu5TangsaMinkyu Kim
Zdravko Ivanov
9MakoArul Kolla8KhasiJaeyeong Yang6.6
APLO20266Ja’a KumiaiArul Kolla6HiakiKazune Sato
Tsuyoshi Kobayashi
3NgitiMinkyu Kim
Vlad A. Neacșu
11LulamogiJi Hun Wang8BangimePanawat Tiacharoen
Faraz Ahmed
6.8

  1. Since there is no way to judge a problem's difficulty just by sight, using difficulty to decide which problems to attempt may hinder your ability to develop this skill for yourself. Anyway, there are quite few problems in general, so you should try to use them wisely! ↩︎

  2. I was planning to make a so-called "quality rating", but I honestly think that such fine-grained distinctions in quality are not really necessary. Essentially, there are some problems I like, and everything else kind of blends in (okay, there are some problems I don't like, but I don't feel the need to shame them publicly). ↩︎