Aleksij has liked math for as long as he can remember. Although his journey eventually led to IMO gold, his biggest thrill was being crowned national champion. This year he took on an added role as a problem selection committee member. Aleksij has already been reading about higher math for a while and shares the book that first got him into it. He 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):