Glossary
What is vibe coding?
Vibe coding is programming by talking to AI models, which write most of the code while the person steers the project: decides what to build, reviews what comes back and corrects course until it does what they wanted. It is the practice the olympiad is named after and what every project entered in the IOOVC has in common.
What changes in practice
Instead of typing code line by line, you describe what you want in plain language, the model writes it, and you test it, point out what went wrong and ask for the fix. The work stops being typing and becomes direction: deciding what to build, what to accept and what to throw away.
You do not need to know everything about programming to vibe code, but you do need to know what you want and to check that it is really done. The human part is the review: opening what came back, using it, finding what broke and correcting course.
Vibe coding is not generating code and shipping it
In the IOOVC the committee signs in to every project with the test login and password from its description and uses what was promised. Two of the four criteria look at exactly that: how it works (whether what you promised actually works, with attention to UI/UX, smoothness and usability) and polish (bugs, instability, accessibility and security problems). A project that only looks finished loses points on both.
That is why the definition includes reviewing and correcting. The model writes most of the code; the responsibility for what goes live stays with whoever steers.
What the IOOVC counts as vibe coding
There is no required toolchain and no proof of process: what you enter is the project, with a name, a description and a URL (a YouTube video is optional), and it is scored on the four criteria, from 0 to 100.
The project can be new or started before the olympiad, built solo or as a group, in any field. The only formal requirements are that it works with its interface in English and carries test credentials in the description.
When this matters
You saw the term in a video, a job post or a thread and want to know whether it is what you already do with an AI assistant.
You want to start a project without knowing how to program and are deciding whether that counts as real programming.
You are about to register for the IOOVC and want to confirm that the way you build fits the definition.
Our position
The IOOVC was built for people who have already figured out that agentic programming is here to stay: people who like to build, to have ideas, to get things off the ground. Here vibe coding is neither a shortcut nor a fad; it is the way of building the olympiad exists to score, with feedback and visibility.