Senior Maths Challenge 2026
The 2026 UKMT Senior Maths Challenge takes place on Wednesday 7 October 2026. It’s a 90‑minute first‑round challenge for students aged 16‑18 (keen younger students can enter too).
New for 2026: the format has changed
For the first time in 2026, the Senior Maths Challenge is 22 multiple‑choice questions plus three “000‑999” questions, where you give an exact three‑digit answer, still within 90 minutes. The last three questions are no longer multiple choice, so you can’t narrow them down from the options or take a guess: you have to work out the exact answer, much closer to the Kangaroo and Olympiad style. It’s worth practising that kind of precise, no‑safety‑net problem before the day.
How to prepare
Start with the video, which walks through everything you need to know about the Senior Maths Challenge. Then practise real past questions with video hints and solutions for free in Get Ready for the Senior Maths Challenge, go further with the Go for Gold course, or join a live class. There’s more on our main Senior Maths Challenge page.
What score do you need?
The Senior Maths Challenge is marked out of 125: you start with 25 marks, gain 4 for each correct answer and lose 1 for each wrong one. As a rough guide, in 2025 you needed about 6 of the 25 questions for Bronze, 8 for Silver and 12 for Gold (12 also qualified you for the Senior Kangaroo), and around 20 for the British Mathematical Olympiad. In marks, that was 46, 57, 72 and 104. Boundaries are set fresh after each paper and may shift with the new format, so treat these as a guide. You can see every year on the Senior Maths Challenge grade boundaries page.
How to register
The Senior Maths Challenge is sat at school, so the first step is to ask your maths teacher whether your school takes part. Official information about the competition can be found at the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge page.
After the challenge
Once you’ve sat the paper, you’ll be able to check your answers with our answer checker, and we’ll add the 2026 paper, video solutions and grade boundaries here as soon as they’re released. If you do well you may qualify for the follow‑on rounds: take a look at how to prepare for the Senior Kangaroo and the British Mathematical Olympiad.