UW Math Olympiad @MathMaddicts

Logistics

UW Math Olympiad @ MathMaddicts will take place on Sunday, June 7th at the Speyer School (925 9th Ave). To be eligible for the competition, all of the below conditions need to be satisfied

  1. The student needs to have been in 6th or 7th grade in 2025 – 2026 academic year

  2. The student needs to arrive by 12:00pm at the latest. We will not be able to accommodate late arrivals given the format of the competition, and the student will have to miss this year’s event.

  3. The student needs to stay until 3:15pm at the earliest (no student will be able to leave the competition early)

Because of the oral format, there is a limited capacity based on the number of judges we have. The rules above have been created to accommodate as many interested 6th – 7th graders as we can – and even with that, we anticipate we will not be able to meet all of the demand. No exceptions will be made.

Registration is required; registration (link) will open at 9am on April 2nd and close at 11:59 pm on April 30, 2026. If your child is on the waitlist, we will let you know by May 27th if your child has secured a spot, and we apologize in advance we are unable to accommodate your child. 

Attendance of the Math-M-Addicts program is not a prerequisite to participating in the competition.

Rules and format

This style of Olympiad is likely to be quite different from any other type of mathematical contest you have experienced. Initially, you will be given a set of 5 problems to solve over 3 hours. If you solve 3 or more of the initial 5 problems, you will be given 2 additional harder problems. The number of points you get is simply the number of problems you solve.

This is an individual oral Olympiad. This means that when you solve a problem, you will discuss your solution with a judge. After you explain your answer, the judge will decide whether or not your solution is correct. If your solution is incomplete, the judge will help you understand why your solution is incomplete. At that point you will have an opportunity to go back to your desk and continue to work on the problem, and try to present it again. Each student will have 3 attempts to present each problem to the judges; students will not be penalized for the number of attempts.

Our judges are friendly mathematicians who have volunteered their time on a Sunday to talk about math with you! They want to be there, and they want you to succeed as you work on these problems.

The rules will also be explained on the day of the Olympiad, and any additional questions will be answered during the opening ceremony.

To give a sense of the contest, here are a couple of sample questions from last year’s University of Washington Math Olympiad: 

  • There are 19 people standing in a circle, facing the center. Each person is either a knight or a liar. Knights always tell the truth and liars always tell lies. Each person says, “Out of the four people to the right of me, at least two are knights.” How many knights could there be in the circle?

  • In the faraway land of Artinia, all roads are one-way roads. According to the law of the land, for any two cities A and B, if there is a one-way road from A to B, then a one-way road from B to A is not allowed. The Ministry of Transport wants a budget to build one more road. They notice that no matter where the road is built, it will be possible to drive from any city to any other city. Prove that it is already possible to drive between any pair of cities in Artinia without adding the new road.

Expected Schedule

Time Activity

11:30–12:00 Registration

12:00–12:15 Opening ceremony (parents leave by 12:15)

12:15–3:15 Problem solving time (pizza will be available at 1:15)

3:15–3:45 Free time + students finish presentations

3:45–4:30 Presentation of solutions (parents can rejoin at 3:45)

4:30–5:00 Closing ceremony / awards

On the day of the event, bring scratch paper, writing utensils, and a nut-free snack. If you would like to bring a simple scientific calculator, you are free to do so, but you shouldn’t need one.

Cost

Free for participants, including the pizza

Interested in being a judge? Please let us know using this link: Registration for UWMO judges 

Time requirement: Sunday, June 7th, 12:00pm – 4pm at the Speyer School plus one online 1 60-90 minute session beforehand, at which problems and solutions will be discussed.  

Acknowledgements

This event is made possible through a close collaboration between us (Math-M-Addicts) and the University of Washington Math Circle, hosts of the UW Math Olympiad since 2010. We gratefully acknowledge their partnership.

FAQ

Can I register for the UW Math Olympiad @MathMaddicts if I am not in grades 6–7?

We are accepting applications from students in grades 6 and 7 only.

Do I have to live in New York to participate in the New York Oral Math Olympiad?

No, you just have to be able to attend the competition in person on June 7th, 2026.

Is registration required? Is there a capacity limit?

Registration is required. Due to the nature of the competition, capacity is limited and depends on the number of judges available. Registration will close once we reach this limit, after which a waitlist will be maintained in case spots open up.

Are there prizes?

During the awards ceremony, the top scorers will be given certificates to commemorate their achievement.

What is the best way to prepare for the UW Math Olympiad @MathMaddicts?

Remember that this competition is very different from other competitions, in that you need to explain your answers carefully and clearly so that the judge is convinced that you are correct. The best way to prepare for anything is to practice. This means solving problems (from any source), and trying to explain your answers carefully to a parent, teacher, or friend! Tell them to be skeptical, and if they don’t understand, take that to mean that you should improve your explanation, not that they are less capable than you.

If you’d like to practice with actual UW Math Olympiad @MathMaddicts problems, check out the UW Math Circle Archive or a book called Math Out Loud: an Oral Olympiad Handbook which contains practice problems and worked solutions from the first 10 years of the UW Math Olympiad. 

I have a different question.

Please contact UWMO@mathmaddicts.com and we will try to answer it to the best of our abilities.