Event Information

College Puzzle Challenge is an annual puzzle-solving contest held simultaneously on college campuses across North America. Teams compete by racing to solve puzzles with prizes awarded to the fastest teams at each school.

This year, College Puzzle Challenge will be held at ten universities in the United States and Canada. The participating schools, and the locations where the opening ceremonies will take place are:

• Carnegie Mellon University - Wean 7500
• Columbia University - Davis Auditorium, Shapiro (CEPSR)
• Cornell University - Upson B17
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Grier Room (34-401)
• Stanford University - Packard 101
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - SC (Siebel Center) 2405
• University of Michigan - East Room, Pierpont Commons
• University of Texas at Austin - Welch 2.246
• University of Toronto - Bahen 1190
• University of Washington - More Hall (Auditorium 220)

This year, College Puzzle Challenge will be held on Saturday, November 10^th, 2007. The event runs for 12 hours continuously and starts at all locations at the same time. In local time, the event starts at:

• Noon (12:00 PM) EST
• 11:00 AM CST
• 10:00 AM MST
• 9:00 AM PST

Participants should arrive 30 minutes early. See the FAQ for more information.

College Puzzle Challenge is designed for computer engineering, computer science, and mathematics students, but it is open to any undergraduate or graduate students attending one of the participating universities. College Puzzle Challenge is funded by Microsoft's college recruiting department, but the event is organized by Microsoft employees who are alumni of the participating schools, not by recruiters. While we'll be happy to take your résumé and pass it on to your school recruiter, our goal is to make sure everyone has a good time.

Because it's fun! College Puzzle Challenge is an exciting and challenging way to exercise your skills in computer science, mathematics, linguistics, problem-solving, and a host of other disciplines. Solving a challenging puzzle based on obscure clues is surprisingly satisfying and is great preparation for facing other problems in education and in industry.