Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Hindi · Class 8
International Hindi Olympiad (IHO) Class 8: syllabus, dates and exam pattern (2026–27)
Everything you need in one place — the exact NCERT chapters this paper tests, its published exam dates, the registration window, and the full marking scheme. Updated for the 2026–27 session.
Last verified against Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF)'s own site on 26 September 2026. Exam dates re-checked on 28 September 2026.
2026–27 exam dates
Date 1
23 November 2026
Date 2
22 January 2027
Two dates, not three, and Classes 3 to 10 only — SOF runs IHO on a shorter schedule than IMO, ISO or IEO, which get three dates each and run to Class 12. Your school picks one of the two and the whole class sits it together. SOF publishes three sentences about that choice, all in the paragraph above its own schedule table and all worth knowing before your coordinator commits: "Schools may select one date for conducting an Olympiad exam in their school", "There are separate question papers for different dates", and "Change of date is not permitted". So the two dates are not two attempts, and they are not the same paper twice. They are one sitting, chosen once.
Registration: SOF publishes a rule, not a date, and IHO is no exception: "Schools may send registrations by 30 days before the chosen date of each exam." So there is no national IHO deadline a family can write in a calendar — there is arithmetic on a date your school has not necessarily picked yet. If your school picks 23 November 2026, registrations must reach SOF by 24 October 2026. If it picks 22 January 2027, by 23 December 2026. Both figures are ours, derived from SOF's rule and SOF's own exam dates; SOF states neither. Checked as a negative on the same read rather than assumed: the strings "last date", "deadline", "cut off", "cut-off", "registration clos" and "final date" appear zero times on that page. Registration is through the school, and SOF has no individual route for any paper it runs. The money, in SOF's own words on its IHO participation page: schools in India, Bhutan and Nepal pay SOF ₹170 per student per olympiad including GST, and the school may charge up to ₹30 more per student towards teachers' honoraria and its own costs; outside those countries the figures are US$11 and US$1. A school pays nothing to become a registered exam centre. SOF also states that no fee is payable for a student suffering any major physical disability, or for an Indian student whose parent was martyred during defence operations. The school's coordinator fills a School Registration Form and a Student Registration Sheet and must get them to SOF's office before the last date for submission, and SOF generates the roll numbers from that sheet. Ask your coordinator which of the two dates the school has chosen — that single answer is the only cutoff that applies to you.
The deadline is set by your school, not by you
Most parents find the exam date and assume they have until then. The registration window closes long before it, and for some papers it has already started closing. Here is how it actually works.
- Your school registers your child and your school picks which of the 2–3 dates the class sits. The family does not choose.
- For SOF papers, registrations must reach SOF exactly 30 days before that chosen date — and once the school has chosen, the date cannot be changed.
- Most bodies register through the school. These do not have to: CREST (online, no published cutoff), Unified Council — directly for NSTSE itself at ₹350 against ₹150 through a school, and on three online sittings, NSTSE-Online, UIMO-Online and UIEO-Online, at ₹354 each including GST — Indian Talent Olympiad on its individual online route (its own later dates — Slot 1 closes 30 October), and Humming Bird (online, ₹150 a subject, no published cutoff — its two dates are picked as you register). CREST is the simplest of them. SilverZone also runs an individual registration form alongside its default school route; which papers it offers we have not been able to confirm.
Closing next
SilverZone Foundation — Every SilverZone paper
Registration closes 30 September 2026
The body publishes this date but has not marked it final — confirm with your school before treating it as fixed.
SOF ISO (Science) — if your school picks 30 October 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 30 September 2026
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) — School route — Set B
Registration closes 10 October 2026
SOF IEO (English) — if your school picks 17 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 18 October 2026
SOF IHO (Hindi) — if your school picks 23 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 24 October 2026
Or read the full calendar on the site — no sign-up
Every deadline in this box was re-read against the exam body's own website on or after 28 September 2026. Each table carries its own source link and its own date. Bodies do move dates, so check against the body's own site before you act on one.
Exam pattern
How the IHO paper is structured
| Section | Questions | Marks per question | Section total |
|---|---|---|---|
| खंड-1 — शब्द और व्याकरण बोध (Word and grammar) | 35 | 1 | 35 |
| खंड-2 — रचनात्मक बोध (Creative comprehension) | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| खंड-3 — मेधावी खंड (Achievers Section) | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| Total | 50 questions | — | 60 marks · 60 minutes |
Three things in this table are worth planning around, and the first one is not in the table at all. SOF IHO is a ONE-LEVEL exam. Its participation page says so outright — "SOF अंतरराष्ट्रीय हिंदी ओलंपियाड एक स्तर पर आयोजित किया जाता है", the SOF International Hindi Olympiad is conducted at one level — and the pattern table on each class's syllabus page is headed LEVEL1 with no second table beneath it. IMO, ISO and IEO all have a second level; this paper does not, so there is no qualifying bar to aim at and the score on the day is the whole result. Second, मेधावी खंड, the Achievers Section, is 5 questions at 3 marks: a tenth of the questions carrying a quarter of the marks, and SOF names no topics of its own for it — it is higher-order questions drawn from the other two sections, so it rewards depth on the same material rather than a wider syllabus. Third, and this is what decides how a family should prepare, शब्द और व्याकरण बोध is 35 of the 60 marks on its own. Grammar and word knowledge are the paper. Three more of SOF's own statements about how it runs: the medium of the exam is Hindi, it is held during school hours, and the question papers follow the syllabi of boards including CBSE, ICSE/ISC and the state boards. One presentational note, so the table is not read as a running order: SOF's own pattern table lists मेधावी खंड first because it numbers the sections by प्राथमिकता, priority, while its participation page numbers the same three खंड-1, खंड-2 and खंड-3 in the order shown above. Same three sections and the same marks, two orderings. The English half of each section name is ours, added so the table is readable either way; the Hindi is SOF's own.
SOF publishes a current-class versus previous-class split for IMO and ISO and publishes none for IHO, so nothing is claimed here. Do not carry the 60/40 figure across from the maths and science guides on this site — it is a statement SOF makes about those papers and not about this one. What SOF does say about this paper's sources is broader and vaguer, and it is on the syllabus page in Hindi: the questions follow NEP 2020, NCF 2023, NCERT and CBSE guidance and the protocols of the national and various state boards, and any change or reduction in a syllabus will be reflected in the actual question papers — while each level, it adds, takes a school's annual syllabus into account without being directly tied to it.
Syllabus
Hindi syllabus mapped to NCERT Malhar (Class 8, 2026-27)
Ch 1. स्वदेश (कविता) — गयाप्रसाद शुक्ल 'सनेही'
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named on SOF's list — feeds काव्य-गुण and रस, which SOF lists nowhere
Ch 2. दो गौरैया (कहानी) — भीष्म साहनी
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — feeds गद्यांश reading, though खंड-2 asks for अपठित passages
Ch 3. एक आशीर्वाद (कविता) — दुष्यंत कुमार
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — feeds पद्य comprehension
Ch 4. हरिद्वार (पत्र) — भारतेंदु हरिश्चंद्र
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — पत्र-लेखन is composition, and IHO is 50 multiple-choice questions
Ch 5. कबीर के दोहे
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — feeds सधुक्कड़ी vocabulary and भारतीय साहित्य एवं संस्कृति (खंड-1)
Ch 6. एक टोकरी भर मिट्टी (कहानी) — माधवराव सप्रे
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — feeds कहानी comprehension
Ch 7. मत बाँधो (कविता) — महादेवी वर्मा
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — its अलंकार work is the one place the book meets SOF's new Class 8 item
Ch 8. नए मेहमान (एकांकी) — उदयशंकर भट्ट
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — एकांकी-लेखन is composition; the form itself is on no SOF list
Ch 9. आदमी का अनुपात (कविता) — गिरिजा कुमार माथुर
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — feeds पद्य comprehension
Ch 10. तरुण के स्वप्न (उद्बोधन) — सुभाषचंद्र बोस
Olympiad syllabus label: Not named — भाषण-लेखन is composition, not an IHO question type
Class 8 is the first year SOF's खंड-1 list moves, and it moves in exactly three places against the list Classes 6 and 7 share. अलंकार is ADDED, making sixteen items where those two have fifteen. शब्द एवं वाक्य is REPLACED by शब्द-विचार. अशुद्धि संशोधन एवं विराम-चिह्न is REPLACED by वाक्य-रचना एवं विराम-चिह्न. Everything else is unchanged, and खंड-2 — अपठित गद्यांश, अपठित पद्यांश, मुहावरे एवं लोकोक्तियाँ — is identical at all three classes, as is खंड-3, which names no topics of its own. Read the second replacement carefully, because it is a trade rather than a widening: error correction comes off the list and sentence construction goes on, so a child who drilled अशुद्धि संशोधन last year is not being asked for it by name this year. The full Class 8 list, in SOF's order: भाषा-विचार, वर्ण-विचार, शब्द-विचार, संधि एवं समास, शब्द-भंडार, उपसर्ग एवं प्रत्यय, संज्ञा, सर्वनाम एवं विशेषण, काल, क्रिया एवं कारक, लिंग एवं वचन, अविकारी शब्द, वाक्य-रचना एवं विराम-चिह्न, अलंकार, गिनती एवं महीनों के नाम, भारतीय साहित्य एवं संस्कृति. On the book, the picture is the same as at Class 7 and the numbers are larger: SOF names not one Malhar chapter, 28 of the 42 topic rows on the Grade8_Hindi sheet sit in chapter 99, व्याकरण — ओलंपियाड, a chapter the book does not have, and not one of the 14 rows attached to a real chapter is a grammar topic. Four of those fourteen are composition — पत्र-लेखन, एकांकी-लेखन, भाषण-लेखन and the rest — and IHO asks 50 multiple-choice questions, so composition practice does not convert into marks on this paper however good it is. The one place book and paper genuinely meet is chapter 7, मत बाँधो, whose अलंकार work is exactly SOF's new sixteenth item. Counted against SOF's own list: 14 of the 16 खंड-1 items have a row on our sheet — भाषा-विचार as भाषा, बोली व लिपि; वर्ण-विचार; शब्द-विचार; संधि एवं समास as संधि-विस्तार plus समास; शब्द-भंडार, which our sheet splits five ways into पर्यायवाची, विलोम, अनेकार्थी व श्रुतिसमभिन्नार्थक शब्द, भ्रामक पर्यायवाची and एक-शब्द प्रतिस्थापन; उपसर्ग-प्रत्यय; संज्ञा; सर्वनाम; विशेषण; काल; क्रिया and कारक; लिंग and वचन; अविकारी शब्द as अव्यय; वाक्य-रचना एवं विराम-चिह्न as वाक्य के भेद, पदबंध, पद-परिचय and विराम-चिह्न, with अशुद्धि-शोधन still carried even though SOF has taken it off the Class 8 list; and अलंकार. The two we do not claim are गिनती एवं महीनों के नाम and भारतीय साहित्य एवं संस्कृति as a named topic — searched across every field of the Grade 6, 7 and 8 sheets rather than the topic titles alone, and both return zero at all three classes. The remaining honest gap is खंड-2: the sheet has no row for अपठित passages as a skill of their own, because our comprehension rows are anchored to chapters a child has already read. That section is 10 of the 60 marks, so work unseen passages from a separate source.
Try it yourself
Today's hindi question
Practice
Practice in the IHO format
No — OlympAI does not publish a practice paper for this exam. OlympAI’s question bank covers maths, science and English. We hold no Hindi questions yet, so there is no Hindi paper to give you — for this body or any other.
Frequently asked questions
Related guides
Other olympiad syllabus guides
Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 7
IHO Class 7 — hindi syllabus, dates and pattern
Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 6
IHO Class 6 — hindi syllabus, dates and pattern
Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 8
ISSO Class 8 — social science syllabus, dates and pattern
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) · Class 8
ITO-M Class 8 — maths syllabus, dates and pattern
Keep reading
Guides that answer the next question
SOF ISO vs SilverZone iOS: which science olympiad to pick
Two science olympiads, and their registration windows close on the same day — 30 September 2026. But one of those dates is published and the other is worked out from a rule, and the two papers reward opposite habits. Here is the side-by-side for Classes 6, 7 and 8, and what to do if your school offers neither.
SOF ISSO vs SilverZone iSSO: which social science olympiad
Two papers with almost the same name, built on opposite principles: SilverZone iSSO spreads its marks evenly across the five themes of your child’s book, SOF ISSO puts 45 of its 50 questions in one undifferentiated section and draws 30 per cent of them from last year. Their calendars barely overlap, and a third body takes a family without the school. Here is the side-by-side for Classes 6, 7 and 8, read off each body’s own surface on 29 September 2026.
Or see every 2026-27 exam date and registration cutoff in one table, or browse all the papers we cover.
Practice these exact chapters, free
Up to 20 olympiad-pattern questions a day free, in each subject, and 200 a day on a paid plan — for Class 8 hindi, generated from the same NCERT chapters above and written to the shape of the real olympiad papers, then automatically checked before they can be served, the hardest ones re-solved by a second model that has to agree.
Start free