Math Competitions for Kids: Top 2025–2026 Contests for K–12
reviewed by Jo-ann Caballes
Updated on December 17, 2025
Math competitions for kids look great on a college application, but they also help them get excited, build healthy competitiveness abilities, and create a sense of achievement. With so many options out there, you may ask yourself what the best math contests for kids are. I’m an experienced math tutor, and in this guide, I’ll walk you through the top options to join in 2025–2026.
Key points
- Competitions play a big role if your child plans to get into STEM. Universities like MIT, Harwards, Stanford, and Princeton report that a big share of the US students were math competition finalists in middle and high school.
- The Brighterly Math Scholarship is one of the most accessible online competitions for children in financial need in grades 1–9.
- The preparation for math competitions involves working through practice tests, math skills, solving past exams, and participating in math clubs.
Math competitions for elementary students in USA
- Brighterly Math Equity Scholarship for elementary
- MOEMS (Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools)
- NLMC (Noetic Learning Math Contest)
- Math Kangaroo
- Continental Mathematics League
Note: Many Ivy League STEM students get their start in math contests. Universities like MIT, Harwards, Stanford, and Princeton report that a big share of the US students were math competition finalists in middle and high school.
Brighterly Math Equity Scholarship for elementary students
The Brighterly Math Scholarship is one of the online math competitions for elementary students that supports US students in financial need who love math and want to compete. This math competition is open to children regardless of their learning background, and doesn’t require any formal household income documentation.
The Brighterly math competition for kids is a great opportunity for children to show their critical thinking, logic, and problem-solving skills.
Brighterly math and reading platform aims to help young learners compete in a healthy environment, build confidence, and experience learning with expert tutors through a math competition for elementary students.
Applicants must be currently enrolled in a grades 1-8 educational program in the United States (public, private, or homeschooling). To apply, they need to submit a short essay, a letter of recommendation, and a simple statement of financial need.
Submissions are open now–until December 12, 2025.
What is Brighterly?
Brighterly is an online tutoring platform that connects US K9 students with expert math and reading tutors. Brighterly’s approach focuses on 1-on-1 gamified learning.
The platform’s reading and math program is fully adapted to the students’ needs while being 100% aligned with the school’s standards. This provides students with an opportunity to combine at-home learning with the school’s curriculum. Thousands of parents join Brighterly each year, as evidenced by the average TrustPilot score of 4.4.
Brighterly also offers free reading and math worksheets to anyone looking for extra practice, without a sign-up or credit card required. They can also serve as a math competition prep.
MOEMS (Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools)
This national elementary and middle school math competition is a general favorite for its fun social format and rich history. These days, the contest involves over 120,000 students from the US plus 39 other countries.
Grade range: 4–8 (ages 9–14)
What the competition involves:
- Offline competition
- Individual contest
- Students solve mathematical multi-step problems that test logical reasoning and core math skills.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the summer or early fall
- The kids competition is held in winter and spring
Key benefits for students:
- The MOEMS competition exposes children to competitive math and boosts problem-solving confidence.
- Can serve as a stepping stone for more advanced math competitions.
NLMC (Noetic Learning Math Contest)
The contest will primarily test students’ problem-solving skills. For online math competitions like this one, children must work independently without using a calculator to solve creative tasks.
Grade range: 2–8 (ages 7–14)
What the competition involves:
- Online competition
- Individual contest
- Students solve mathematical multi-step problems that test critical thinking and logical reasoning.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is held in winter
- Students register individually or through their school
Key benefits for students:
- Encourages students to use their creativity to apply it to complex problem-solving.
Math Kangaroo
The Kangaroo Math National Competition is another online math competitions. It’s quite universal, as kids of all levels and grades can participate. But note that it is pretty competitive and varied — the questions cover everything from algebra to calculus and other math fields.
Grade range: 1–12 (ages 6–18)
What the competition involves:
- Online competition or in-person competition
- Individual contest
- Students solve mathematical multi-step problems that test logical reasoning and critical thinking.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is held in March
- Be sure to fill in the form by December 15th. Participation is completely free.
Key benefits for students:
- Encourages students to use their creativity to apply it to complex problem-solving.
Continental Mathematics League
CML is an ideal math competition for elementary school and middle school students to boost problem-solving. Children are divided by grades, so they will have to compete against others with a similar level of preparation.
Grade range: 1–12 (ages 6–18)
What the competition involves:
- In-person at-school competition
- Individual contest
- Students solve short mathematical questions in multiple-choice form.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is held in March
- Be sure to fill in the form by December 15th. Participation is completely free.
Key benefits for students:
- Encourages students to use their creativity to apply it to complex problem-solving.
- All grades 6-12 will receive 10 Research/Assessment Opportunities that can be used throughout the next school year.
Math competitions for middle school
- Brighterly Math Scholarship for middle school
- MATHCOUNTS
- AMC8
- The Purple Comet! Math Meet
- Math League
Brighterly Math Scholarship for middle school
The Brighterly Math Equity Scholarship is a middle school math competition for children aged 11–14.
What the competition involves:
- Online competition
- Individual contest
- Students solve multi-step math problems that test logical reasoning and core math skills.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is held in the winter
- Students register individually
Key benefits for students:
- The winners get cash awards and free lessons (winners must commit to attending at least 80% of the free math lessons provided by the Brighterly kids math competition scholarship).
MATHCOUNTS
This one is a national math competition for middle school students. It’s conducted at the school level, with each institution being able to register up to 15 students.
Grade range: 6–8 (ages 11–14)
What the competition involves:
- In-person competition
- Individual contest + teams rounds
- Students solve multi-step math problems that test logical reasoning and core math skills.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is held in the winter or spring
- Students register individually
Key benefits for students:
- Helps build fast problem-solving skills and prepares students for national math competitions.
AMC8
Founded in 1950, the AMC is a renowned math competition for middle school students. Today, over 300,000 participants in 50 states are applying each year. Over 30 countries from all over the world take the AMC to improve their math confidence, interest in learning, and academic success.
Grade range: 6–8 (ages 11–14)
What the competition involves:
- Online or in-person competition
- Individual contest
- Students solve multi-step mathematics problems based on logical reasoning and core math skills.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is held in January
- Students register individually
Key benefits for students:
- Is one of the types of contests that gives students opportunities to qualify for challenges like AMC10/12 or AIME.
The Purple Comet! Math Meet
This middle school annual math competition has been running since 2003. Here, students can choose their team members. Then, they have to work on solutions within a 10-day window. To register, you need to have an adult supervisor.
Grade range: 6–12 (ages 11–18)
What the competition involves:
- Online competition
- Team contest
- Students solve a series of multi-step mathematical problems that test logical reasoning and core math skills.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is held in the winter and spring
Key benefits for students:
- Builds teamwork and mathematical problem-solving in competitive environments.
Math League
Math League is one of the global math competitions for elementary students and middle school students. It has invited over 30,000 children over the last year. Its main philosophy is creating the relevant experience required to learn math.
Grade range: 6–12 (ages 11–18)
What the competition involves:
- Online and in-person competition
- Individual competitions organized and hosted through local schools
- Students solve a variety of short, timed math problems
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is usually held in the winter and spring
Key benefits for students:
- This contest introduces students to competitive math solving
Math competitions for high school students
Note: Many of today’s top researchers, tech founders, and engineers (including university like MIT or Stanford), started as contestants of the math competitions like AMC, AIME, and USAMO.
AMC10/12
The AMC competition is one of the online math competitions for high school students where students from the U.S. and over 30 other countries find solutions to multi-step mathematical problems as per their understanding.
Grade range: 9–12 (ages 15–18)
Format:
- Online and in-person competition
- Individual competitions
- Multi-step logical problems
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is usually held in winter or late fall
AIME
The American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) is a challenging competition offered for those who excelled on the AMC 10 and/or AMC 12.
Grade range: 9–12 (ages 15–18)
Format:
- Qualification only
- Online and in-person competition
- Individual competitions
- Multi-step logical problems, proof-based Olympiad problems
- Highest-level competition in the U.S.
Registration timeline:
- Registration starts in the fall
- The competition is usually held in the spring
How to prepare for math competitions?
To prepare for elementary math competitions (or higher), children have to review past math problems, memorize the standards, and learn to manage exam time.
Here’s what Juliana Perez, the math expert teacher at BASIS Independent Manhattan Upper School, says about reviewing past math problems:
“To succeed, students should approach math contests like sports competitions.”
And here are some tips shared by Stefanie LaPierre, the professional math tutor at BASIS Independent Manhattan Lower School:
“Many math competitions offer preparation tools on their website.”
To prepare for high school math competition, students also have to memorize the standards and learn to manage exam time.
Most questions in any competition come down to how well your kid can operate general math content, so it’s better to study that before competing.
Many kids fail to get to the end of the test. That’s because they try to solve each problem on the first try and get stuck. It especially applies to online competitions for students. The only solution here is to move on to other problems if something seems too complicated.
Now, let’s talk about how to find math competitions.
How to find math competitions?
To find national math competitions, you should first check the information in your school. Most olympiads are either proctored by a school or require a teacher to register participants.
Alternatively, you can use any of Juliana Perez’s tips below:
“To find mathematics contests, I connect with organizations like the Mathematical Association of America for AMC contests.”
Math competitions: Benefits for kids and teens
The main benefits of math competitions are: a fun learning process, boosted confidence, estimation of a child’s proficiency, stimulated creativity, and great value on a resume.
Here’s how Stefanie LaPierre describes the benefits:
“Seeing everyone so excited and proud of themselves was such a special moment.”
But, regardless of the results, sometimes competing is wonderful just to celebrate a love of math.
Conclusion
For elementary or senior students, participating in math events comes with undeniable benefits. It’s how kids start learning math in a more sociable and engaging way.
So, if you’re googling “math competitions near me”, pick any option from the above list. And remember: whenever your kid needs thorough preparation, Brighterly is the place to do it. Book free lesson now and get ready for any competition!
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