In December 2011, Barkov was chosen to play for Finland as the youngest Finnish player in the Ice Hockey World Junior Championships. During the quarter-final match on 2 January 2012 against Slovakia, Barkov became the second-youngest player to score a goal at the World Juniors at the age of 16 years and 4 months. The record is held by Kazakhstan's Viktor Alexandrov, who set the record in 2001 at age 15.