The role of Olympiads in the preparation of students of higher educational institutions

The topic of youth participation in professional competitions and Olympiads is revealed. The main attention is devoted to the analysis of the performance of students of the Far Eastern Federal University in the All-Russian Student Olympiad “I am a Professional”. When conducting a study using the non-parametric method of Spearman’s rank correlation, a comparative analysis of participants - winners of medals from the best universities was carried out, as well as data on medals won by FEFU students was analyzed and areas in which students achieved espe- cially high results and became diploma winners in various years of the Olympiad were considered. The findings of the study can serve as a basis for taking measures and developing strategies to support and encourage student participation in professional competitions and olympiads, as well as improve their performance.