According to the rules accepted by the initiators of BOI, teams of these European countries are invited as regular participants. Moreover, the host country may invite guest participants as well. Enlarging or decreasing the set of BOI countries can only be adopted by consensus.

   The goal of BOI is to motivate secondary school students from East Europe to get more interested in informatics and information technology in general, test and prove their competence in solving problems with the help of computers, exchange knowledge and experience with other students of similar interest and qualification and establish personal contacts with young people of the East European region.

   In addition, BOI may provide training for the students participating in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) and initiate discussion and co-operation in informatics training in the secondary schools of East European countries.