Bernhard Linn Hilmarsson

Bernhard Linn Hilmarsson is an Icelandic software engineer and competitive programmer, currently a Software Engineer at Google in Zurich. In 2017 he became the first Icelander ever to represent his country at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI 2017, Tehran), winning a bronze medal; he went on to lead Iceland's team at IOI 2019. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from Reykjavik University (2017-2020) and an MSc from ETH Zurich (2020-2023), and worked as a Research Engineer at Huawei Zurich (2023-2025) before joining Google. He has authored 32 problems for the Icelandic Kattis judge and has coached ETH Zurich's competitive programming teams.

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• Now a Software Engineer at Google in Zurich (2025-), after ~2 years as a Research Engineer at Huawei Zurich (2023-2025) doing cloud R&D.2025
• Left Huawei's Zurich research lab for Google in 2025 after roughly two years, moving from industry research engineering into a big-tech SWE role - a shift from cloud R&D toward shipping product at scale.2025
• First Icelander ever to compete at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI 2017, Tehran), representing newly-founded Keppnisforritunarfélag Íslands with backing from Reykjavik University.Aug 10, 2017
• Followed a clear 'stay in the game' arc: IOI 2017 contestant -> IOI 2019 national team leader -> ETH Zurich coach of SWERC 2024 champions, keeping competitive programming central across academia and industry.Feb 2024
• Won bronze at IOI 2017 with 173.23 points, ranking 125th/129th overall; was 61st after day one (silver-medal pace) before a weaker day two dropped him to bronze.Aug 5, 2017
• Coached/guided ETH Zurich's competitive programming teams, incl. dETHroners which won SWERC 2024, alongside coach Ahmet Ala.Feb 2024
• Served as Iceland's team leader at IOI 2019 in Baku, transitioning from IOI contestant (2017) to national delegation leadership within two years.2019
• His Icelandic-language footprint is unusually rich for a programmer - MBL news feature, Kattis problem-setting, and Reykjavik University contest wins - suggesting he is a central node in Iceland's small competitive-programming community.Aug 10, 2017
• The Huawei Zurich research role (cloud R&D) between his ETH MSc and Google suggests a research-engineering track that Google then absorbed into a product engineering job.2023
• Studied CS at ETH Zürich (MSc, 2020-2023) and Reykjavik University (BSc, 2017-2020); also presented ETH solutions at NWERC 2021.Nov 2021
• Set the task for Baltic OI 2019 P4 'Tom's Kitchen' (credited 'Bernhard Linn Hilmarsson (Iceland)'), showing international problem-setting reach.2019
• Authored 32 problems on the Icelandic Kattis judge (2.9 avg difficulty), making him a top problem-setter for the Icelandic competitive programming community.