Aleksij has liked math for as long as he can remember. Although his journey eventually led him to an IMO gold, he felt most thrilled when he was first crowned national champion. This year he took on an added role as a problem selection committee member. He has already been reading about higher math for a while, and shares the book that first got him into it. Aleksij likes music, anything with “algebraic” in its name, and teaching – he explains the “Mathemathon” he started at his school.

We caught up before he started university (interview edited for length and clarity):