Math and physics competitions

The standard way to show quantitative rigour on an application to an American university, and the qualifying route to the AIME and the olympiad path beyond it. Twenty-five questions in 75 minutes on advanced algebra, geometry, number theory and combinatorics. For 2026/27 the A versions run November 5, 2026 and the B versions November 13, 2026. October 15, 2026 is the final registration deadline for a school that has never hosted before, so if no school near you offers it, ask a math teacher to sign up as a competition manager well ahead of that.

Your teacher registers the school by October 22 (October 15 for shipped exams); the contest is written October 29, 2026. Independent registration opens around September 16 only if your school is not participating. Top scorers are invited to the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad.

The CEMC's November contests, with full-solution questions alongside short answers. A step up from Pascal, Cayley and Fermat and a common route toward the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge. Schools order by October 22, 2026 for the November 18, 2026 contest.

You are paired with a U of T math graduate student, postdoc or professor and work on a research project in a field of math you choose, from January to May. Meetings can be online, but the January reception and the May showcase happen in person in Toronto, so an Alberta student needs two trips. The top projects are presented at the Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. Applications open November 3 and close December 1, 2026.

The CEMC entry point to competitive mathematics before Euclid, with a separate contest for each of grades 9, 10 and 11. Twenty-five multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, graded in three parts of increasing difficulty. A good first contest and the standard way Alberta students build toward Euclid and the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge. Canadian schools order by February 9, 2027 for the February 23–24, 2027 contests.

Canada's best-known senior high school mathematics contest, written each year by more than 25,000 students worldwide. Ten questions in 2.5 hours, mixing final-answer and full-solution problems. Results carry real weight in University of Waterloo admissions and scholarship decisions. Ask a math teacher to register the school. The ordering deadline is March 11, 2027 for the April 6, 2027 contest.

Four-question contests where the written solution counts, not just the answer: good practice for proof-style problems. Schools order by March 11, 2027 for the April 7, 2027 contests.

A team math contest for six students, run as an in-school event on or after April 14, 2027, or at the University of Waterloo by lottery. Schools order the in-school version by April 12, 2027; the Waterloo lottery closes November 19, 2026.

An observing group rather than a research placement. Members learn the constellations and the bright star names, follow the moon phases, keep an observation logbook, sketch or photograph the night sky, and work through the RASC observing certificates from the easy targets up to the faint ones thousands of light years out. The group meets monthly on a Friday evening at the Wilson Coulee Observatory just south of Calgary, and on Zoom, breaking for the summer. A RASC youth membership lets you use the observatory site on your own time; you register by emailing the youth group coordinator. The Edmonton Centre has no equivalent youth stream.

Two fully funded weeks at Perimeter Institute for Grade 11-12 students serious about theoretical physics, with travel, room and meals covered. Perimeter did not run ISSYP in 2024 and has not posted a 2026 or 2027 session, so check with Perimeter before planning on it.

A national physics exam for senior high school students, written at your own school. Your teacher arranges it through the CAP provincial coordinator.

Applications close in mid-March each year, and the 2026 round closed 13 March. Teams of high school students propose an experiment to run on a real particle-accelerator beamline at CERN, and winning teams travel to carry it out.

Specialized summer math camps, research workshops, and advanced problem-solving seminars hosted in partnership with UAlberta and UCalgary. Exposes students to university-level mathematical research and connects them with professional mathematicians.

Registration opens in mid-March; the exam is written at your school on the first Thursday of May. A demanding open-ended physics exam from the University of Waterloo that rewards months of independent study.

The route to Team Canada at the International Physics Olympiad. Students qualify by writing the CAP High School Prize Exam (usually mid-April), and top scorers are invited to the national training camp at UBC in May, where the team is selected. High scorers who miss the May camp can join the online Canadian Junior Physics Olympiad camp in August. Talk to your physics teacher, since schools are notified each spring.

Part I is written in November and Part II in early February; your school registers you. The Alberta High School Mathematics Competition is the province's longest-running math contest, run by the U of A.

A one-hour, 30 question physics contest that opened to the rest of Canada in 2026, when OAPT extended its invitation beyond Ontario schools. Questions run from easy to difficult and reward physical intuition rather than formula memorization, which makes it a useful bridge between Physics 20 and the far harder CAP Prize Exam. Free to enter and non-programmable calculators are allowed. The 2026 contest ran May 20; a teacher can register the school up to a week before contest day.

Your teacher registers the school by late February; the exam is written between mid-March and early April. A 40-question multiple-choice physics contest run by the American Association of Physics Teachers, open to schools worldwide.

A residential summer program in university-level mathematics, where students choose their own classes and work on problems with mathematicians. It is free for Canadian families with household incomes under $100,000 USD, with need-based aid above that; aid never affects admission. Dates and location for 2027 are announced in December.

Six weeks of deep work in number theory with about 80 high school students and 25 undergraduate counsellors, built around proving results yourself. Applications for 2027 close at the end of February 2027. Aid for Canadian students is case by case, and every applicant can compete for the full-scholarship Breakout Fellowship.

A six-week residential summer of number theory built on proving everything yourself, at Ohio State or Indiana University. About 60 first-year students per site are admitted, roughly 15% of applicants. The 2026 deadline was March 8; the program aims to fund every admitted student who needs aid, though aid for international students is limited.

Canada's astronomy olympiad: solve around six astrophysics theory problems within a set window and send in your solutions. Top scorers go to a national training camp and a team selection test for Canada's team at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics.

A multiple-choice math contest written the same day at centres across Canada, with its own paper for grades 11–12. The 2026 contest ran Sunday, March 22, with registration closing February 23 (early-bird price to February 9). Grade 11 and 12 students with strong results over several years can earn awards of up to $1,000.

A free weekly math enrichment program run by Waterloo's CEMC, exploring topics beyond the curriculum through short lessons and problem solving. The Grade 9/10 online section meets Wednesday or Thursday evenings (Eastern Time, so late afternoon in Alberta). Register September 10–28, 2026.

A free online team math contest held every year since 2003: pick a start time in the ten-day window and solve 30 problems ranging from easy to extremely hard. In 2025, more than 12,000 students on 4,000 teams from 80 countries took part.

An international team contest where high school students pick one of several open-ended real-world problems, build a mathematical model and write up their solution as a report. Teams have 14 consecutive days in the contest window to download the problem, work on it and submit electronically, under a teacher advisor.

Live online problem-solving courses for strong math students, with a 90-minute lecture and an hour of problem solving each weekday for three weeks. Students choose from three sessions and can take one, two or all three. The 2027 application rounds have not opened; earlier rounds cost less and get better course choice.

A free online math competition in three rounds: a qualification round, a pre-final round and a final. Problems test creative problem solving rather than advanced curriculum, and there are separate categories for younger high school students, senior high school students and adults, with certificates and over US$1,500 in prizes.

A free summer program in the physical sciences run by Queen's University's astroparticle physics institute, with an online group for students outside Kingston. Over twelve afternoons you practise asking questions, forming hypotheses, experimenting and analysing data in astronomy, chemistry and particle physics, and students can join their instructors' research projects before presenting at the end. Sessions run 1:30 to 4:30 PM Eastern, which is 11:30 to 2:30 in Alberta. Apply with a one-page letter and a teacher's letter of support; the 2026 deadline was in May.

A free, student-run team physics competition with olympiad-level problems. Since 2020 it has drawn more than 10,000 competitors from over 80 countries. The 2026 contest was one round over a weekend, with short-answer, long-answer and simulation experiment problems. Past papers, solutions and standings are posted on the site, which makes it good practice for the Canadian Physics Olympiad.