Rules

Divisions

CCAMB will have two divisions: Division I and Division II. The two divisions will have different sets of problems (potentially with some overlap) and different prize pools.

• Division I is intended for more experienced students and will cover high school contest-level algebra, geometry, combinatorics, and number theory. This includes logarithms and complex numbers but no calculus concepts.
• Division II is intended for students with not as much contest experience and aims to be beginner friendly. Division II will cover a similar set of topics as Division I, but it won't include logarithms and complex numbers.

Teams with at least 3 members who have qualified for AIME 2025 must participate in Division I. Other teams are allowed to choose between Division I and Division II.

Contest Format

1. All problems will be in short-answer format and all answers will be integers.
2. Contestants are not permitted to use any aids besides writing utensils (pencils and pens), erasers, and blank paper that we will provide. The prohibited items include, but are not limited to: calculators, phones, and geometric tools such as rulers, compasses, and protractors.
3. For all tests, problems are roughly in order of difficulty. However, students are encouraged to skip around as difficulty is subjective.
4. All problems are weighted equally on the Team, Individual, and Tiebreaker Rounds, with no penalty for guessing. The scoring for the Lightning Round is explained below.

CCAMB consists of 3 main rounds: Team, Lightning, and Individual. The top individuals of each division will participate in the Tiebreaker Round (details below). The contest format is as follows:

Lightning Round

The Lightning Round has 5 sets of 4 problems, to be solved in a total of 40 minutes. Sets will be ordered roughly in increasing difficulty. Students will work in teams of 4.

Initially, each team is given a set of 4 problems and will receive the next set of problems only after they submit answers to the previous set. The final set contains estimation problems, where the formula to calculate the score is given in the problem. Please visit our archive for a sense of what these estimation problems might look like.

Teams will be required to turn in set 4 when 35 minutes have passed. Teams may turn in set 4 before 35 minutes have passed to start working on set 5 if they wish.

Each problem is worth 10, 12, 14, and 16 points in sets 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively, and the maximum possible score for an estimation problem is 20 points.

Tiebreaker Round

The Tiebreaker Round is 15 minutes long and has 4 equally weighted problems which are ordered roughly in increasing order of difficulty. Students who are among the top ten, or those competing to be within the top ten in each division will take this round.

Students will submit answers live by handing in submission slips. Students may attempt the problems in any order and submit as many answers as they wish; however, we will not tell you if your submission is correct or not. We will take the last submission for each problem as a student's final answer, even if they changed a right answer to a wrong answer.

Ties will only be broken between those with the same score on the Individual Round. Students will be ranked first based on the number of problems solved in the Tiebreaker Round, and then based on the time of their last correct submission (the earlier the better).

Scoring

Individual score is the number of problems correct on the Individual Round. Ties will be broken by the Tiebreaker Round.

Team score will be calculated based on Individual, Lightning, and Team Round results. First, we will calculate your team's Individual Round score as the average score amongst team members (notably, teams with less than 4 competitors won't be penalized). Then, we will normalize your team's score for each round to be between 0 and 1 by dividing by the maximum score amongst all teams for that round and division. Finally, we'll weight the rounds as follows: Team Round 30%, Lightning Round 25%, Individual Round 45%.

Prizes

Medals will be awarded to the top ten individuals and the top three teams of each division. Competitors that qualify for the Tiebreaker Round but end up being tiebroken out of the top ten will receive an honorable mention.

The Rising All-Star award will go to the top performing team in Division I that has not competed in CCAMB in the past three years. The Rookie All-Star award will go to the top performing team in Division II that has not competed in CCAMB in the past three years.

Problem Appeals

FAQ