Purple Comet Math Meet

The Purple Comet Math Meet is a free, international mathematics competition designed for middle and high school students. Teams of from one to six students overseen by an adult supervisor compete online by submitting solutions to a list of mathematics problems. There is a ten-day window during which teams may compete, choosing a start time most convenient for them. The problems range in difficulty from fairly easy to extremely challenging. In 2022 over 12,000 students competed on over 3998 teams from 62 countries.

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The middle school contest consists of 20 mathematics problems to be completed in 60 minutes. The high school contest consists of 30 mathematics problems to be completed in 90 minutes. The problems for the middle school contest cover topics in arithmetic, elementary algebra, elementary geometry, simple counting and probability, and facts about prime factorizations and divisibility of numbers. The problems for the high school contest cover a wider range of topics including advanced algebra, geometry, combinatorics, probability, trigonometry, conic sections, functions, and so forth. No problems from either contest require techniques from calculus.

• The contest is designed for teams of students from anywhere in the world enrolled in middle school or high school (or local equivalent), or home-schooled students who are at a comparable level. Non-competitive teams are open to any participants regardless of grade or age.
• All competitive middle school team members must be students who have not yet completed the eighth grade (or local equivalent), and who are under the age of 16 as of the date of the competition.
• All competitive high school team members must be students who have not yet graduated from secondary school (or local equivalent), and who are under the age of 20 as of the date of the competition.
• Each team must have an adult supervisor (age 21 years or older) who is able to monitor the team to ensure that competition rules are being followed. An adult supervisor may supervise more than one team.
• Competitive teams may register in the large school category, the small school category, or the mixed team category. All students from a large school team or a small school team must be enrolled as students in the same school. The school size should be determined from the size of the student population from which potential team members have been drawn. Some schools are spread out over a campus comprising several buildings. If a team could be composed of students from across the entire campus, then the entire campus should be considered when calculating the school size. Mixed teams are designed for home schooled students, students who all attend the same regional mathematics club, or some other non-school organization. All the students from a single mixed team must have residences within 150 miles (240 kilometers) of each other. Some exceptions to this distance rule may be made for some teams in special cases at the discretion of the contest coordinator, but permission must be obtained before that team begins the competition.

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• April

• Supervisors must register at the contest website by clicking on the SUPERVISOR LOGIN link.
• Supervisors may register teams for the competition during the team registration period which begins February 1 and continues through the end of the competition.

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• Registration opens February 1