Abstract The efficient utilization of the available resources in modern parallel computing systems requires advanced parallel programming expertise. However, parallel programming is more difficult than sequential programming. To alleviate the difficulties of parallel programming, high-level programming frameworks, such as OpenMP, have been proposed. Yet, there is evidence that novice parallel programmers make common mistakes that may lead to performance degradation or unexpected program behavior. In this paper, we present our cognitive parallel programming assistant (PAPA) that aims at educating and assisting novice parallel programmers to avoid common OpenMP mistakes. PAPA combines different IBM Watson services to provide a dialog-based interaction (through text and voice) for programmers. We use the Watson Conversation service to implement the dialog-based interaction, and the Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech services to enable the voice interaction. The Watson Natural Language Understanding and WordsAPI Synonyms services are used to train PAPA with OpenMP-related publications. We evaluate our approach using a user experience questionnaire with a number of novice parallel programmers at Linnaeus University.