Vietnamese teen aces physics test that stumps even China's Olympians

A 17-year-old from Hanoi scored full marks on the theory exam at the 2026 International Physics Olympiad, becoming one of the first two Vietnamese students ever to do so.

Nguyen Nhat Minh took gold at the competition, held July 4 to 12 in Bucaramanga, Colombia, with a perfect 30 out of 30 on the theoretical section.

The only other contestant to match him at the same exam was Vu Nguyen Nguyen, an 11th grader from Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted.

Their scores carried Vietnam's five-member team to a top-seven finish among the 85 competing countries and territories, the best result in the country's IPhO history.

The four golds and one silver equaled Vietnam's 2017 haul, but no contestant that year scored perfect on theory.

Perfect theory scores are extremely rare, even for powerhouse teams like China's, said Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Cong Toan, a vice principal at Minh's school who has worked with Olympiad students for 15 years.

"My goal was gold, but I never thought I could get a perfect theory score. I'm very happy, surprised and delighted," Minh said.

Minh studies in the specialist physics track at the High School for Gifted Students at Vietnam National University in Hanoi. He entered as the only one of more than 600 applicants to earn a perfect 10 on the subject exam.

He picked up physics in middle school and led the physics team in the former Long Bien District of Hanoi by eighth grade.

This year he won first prize at the national student competition and cleared the ministry's regional and international selection rounds. He then took silver and topped the Vietnamese team at the Asian Physics Olympiad in May.

The team trained at Hanoi National University of Education. Minh drilled by working through years of past Asian and international papers, studying how each question was built and how to pull the key data out of long problems.

For the practical section he stayed in the lab past the dormitory curfew and slept there on some nights.

Mechanics, optics and calculation-heavy problems were his strengths. Abstract questions about the universe gave him the most trouble.

He aimed to sleep before 12:30 a.m. and was usually the first on the team to turn in, often telling teammates to rest.

Nguyen Nhat Minh with his IPhO 2026 gold medal. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Nhat Minh

Minh found this year's papers gentler than in previous years, built around familiar phenomena with few tangled questions.

The essay-based theory paper opened with a mechanics problem split into three scenarios. "I opened the paper and hit my strong suit right away, so I was quite excited," he said.

The final theory question asked him to prove a formula linking magnetism and heat. He rated it the hardest and spent an hour on it, weighing approaches before sticking with his own.

In the practical exam a broken water valve cost him about 10 minutes while organizers repaired it, and he judged one of his results well off the true value.

"Luckily the problems didn't affect my composure or my results much," he said.

Toan has taught Minh since the end of ninth grade and credits his edge to pairing physics fundamentals with strong mathematics on complex problems.

"When I heard Minh had won gold with a perfect theory score, I was happy but not really surprised, because I believed he could handle those problems," he said.

The trip was Minh's first long-haul flight. In Colombia he met competitors from dozens of countries and tried local dishes made from ants.

He now plans to focus on English and sit for certificates ahead of a future application to study abroad.