By J. S. Moreau
A four-hour, 100-question multiple-choice exam. Sounds easy? The twist: each question has between 3 and 10 correct answers. Partial credit is a myth. You either circle the exact combination of letters—A, C, E, G—or you get zero. One former finalist, Priya Chandrasekhar (2022), describes it as "taking a Scantron test while someone randomly changes the locks on the answer key." natplus contest
Zhang has a point. In the past decade, NatPlus finalists have gone on to win eight Rhodes Scholarships, three MacArthur "Genius" Grants, and one Nobel Prize (Chemistry, 2025, Dr. Elena Okonkwo, who credits her NatPlus training for teaching her "how to hold two contradictory hypotheses in my head without panicking"). As of this writing, the 2026 NatPlus National Finals are two weeks away. The official website has posted a single, cryptic line: "This year, the answer is not a number. And you will not write it down." Sounds easy
In 2015, a printing error occurred. The Day Two booklets for Section B (seats 112–145) contained a completely different set of problems—problems that, by all accounts, were impossible. One question allegedly asked: "Prove or disprove the existence of a finite number that is its own successor, using only the axioms of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory and a haiku about entropy." You either circle the exact combination of letters—A,
One thing is certain: 400 brilliant, terrified, sleep-deprived students will walk into that hall. They will sit in perfect silence. They will face the Variable.