The Qualifying Quiz
In your Mathcamp application, you will need to include your solutions to this year's Qualifying Quiz: a set of challenging and intriguing problems, and the centerpiece of the application.
When students apply to Mathcamp, we want to get them immediately hooked on cool problems that make you think about math in a new way. We also want our Admissions Committee to get to know candidates not based on test scores, but on reading their mathematical writing. So each year, we write our own entrance exam: the Qualifying Quiz.
New for 2026
This year, we're changing the way we collect and assess Qualifying Quiz solutions: we're asking not only for the solutions, but also, for each problem, your scratchwork and the list of resources you used.
We realize that keeping and uploading your scratch work as you go will introduce an extra layer to your process of working on the QQ problems. (This is an inevitable byproduct of this change.) It brings the QQ a little closer to a testing environment, and it might mean that you have to adjust your habits a little bit. But what it creates for us is a new window into how each applicant solved the problem. It not only helps prevent academic integrity issues, but gives us better information about how each applicant thinks about mathematics.
When we read each Qualifying Quiz, we'll start by assessing just the solutions; that's your final product. But having the scratchwork means that if and when we need additional information, we don't have to ask you for it: it's right there. And your scratch work can show partial progress, mathematical intuition, and problem-solving approaches even when you haven't fully solved a problem, so it helps you, too, for us to have access to it. At the end of the process, both the Mathcamp Admissions Committee and the broader Mathcamp community will have confidence that the students we bring to camp are meant to be there. We think that the extra layer of complexity (for you and for us!) is a price worth paying. Thank you in advance for helping us.
Visit the Qualifying Quiz section of our website for the instructions, this year's questions, and lots more.
We hope you enjoy the Quiz problems!
