The students compete as individuals, and must sit through intensive theoretical and laboratory examinations.
For their efforts the students can be awarded a medal (gold, silver or bronze) or an honorable mention.
[3] Actively participating countries include Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
[4] The new system, designed by Cyril Isenberg and Dr. Gunter Lind was based on a relative number of contestants for each type of award, instead of the score boundaries defined by percentage of the best contestant's score.
The old system remained in power for APhO since the beginning up to 9th APhO in Mongolia, where the leaders voted for replacing it by a new award system suggested by Dr. Eli Raz from the Israeli delegation.