Building Confident Problem-Solvers Through Math Contests
A structured, fully online math contest platform trusted by families and designed to work seamlessly for schools—with low overhead and meaningful insights.
North Star Contests offers grade-specific math challenges for students in JK-Grade 8. Built as a modern successor to traditional math contests, it blends engaging problem solving with clear reporting, certificates for participation, and recognition for both achievement and growth.
Designed to Work for Schools — Loved by Students
Predictable Contest Rhythm
Five well-spaced contests across the school year—easy to plan around existing academic calendars.
Zero-Headache School Onboarding
Enroll entire classes or grade levels in minutes using a simple CSV upload. No manual account creation.
Clear, Actionable Reporting
Post-contest insights highlight content areas, and provide a custom school report snapshot for sharing with administration.
Recognition for Growth and Achievement
Certificates for every participant, merit badges for milestones, and prizes for top performers.
Free Practice & Warm-Up Questions
Optional practice questions for independent learning, math clubs, or quick classroom warm-ups.
A Gentle Path to Advanced Competitions
Designed as a low-stakes training ground for competitions like AMC and COMC.
How the Contests Work
Enroll
Schools or families enroll students in minutes and receive access codes by email. Bulk Excel upload available for schools.
Participate
Students complete the contest independently within a fixed online window—at school or at home.
Review Results
Certificates, rankings, and actionable reports are released immediately after the contest window closes.
Awards & Recognition
We celebrate both achievement and grit in the North Star Contests. Please refer to the Results & Recognition page under FAQs for details of our awards and recognition program.
Certificate of Merit
Top 20% students in each contest are awarded with a Certificate of Merit. A physical certificate is mailed to the schools for students in the school track and a digital certificate is issued for home schools and independent track.
Distinction Medals
Top 10% students are awarded with a distinction medal based on their performance over the entire school year. Three best contest scores (or annual score) are taken for each student to calculate the final score.
The North Star Grit Honour Roll
All students who have attempted at least 10 questions on 12 or more weeks from the personalized practice module with 50% or higher accuracy and have scored more than 50 percentile in any contest are awarded the North Star Grit Honour Roll ribbon.
North Star School of Excellence
Top 10% schools in each grade based on the best 3 contest scores of 5 top-performing students in a country receive the prestigious "North Star School of Excellence" plaque to celebrate their commitment to math education.
Online Leaderboard
All students eligible for Certificate of Merit or The North Star Grit Honour Roll feature on our online leaderboard.
Certificate of Participation
All students who write the contest receive a digital Certificate of Participation which they can download from their dashboard
Where Math Meets Real-World Problem Solving
Give students the chance to go beyond formulas and rules—they get a stage to practice critical thinking, creativity, and confidence.
Our Math contests feature diverse, engaging questions that build competition spirit and self-confidence by recognizing students through school, regional, national, and international rankings.
What Teachers Are Saying
Educators across Canada trust North Star Contests to challenge and inspire their students.
"Thank you so much for organizing this contest. Myself and the students were very excited to participate! I also wanted you to know how much I appreciate the ease of sign-in for the students! This is great, especially when working with the younger ones!"
— Math Contest Coordinator, New Brunswick
"The Teacher Insight Report was a game-changer for me. After the first contest I could see exactly which concepts my class was struggling with — I used it to plan the following week's lessons. It's the kind of data I usually spend hours trying to pull together myself."
— Grade 5 Teacher, Ontario
"The students were truly energized by the North Star contest. The very next day, they were already asking for more problems to solve! What impressed me most was their persistence — they really enjoyed working through the tougher questions. Instead of asking for answers, they wanted to figure things out on their own until they got that 'aha' moment. It's been a fantastic alternative to the Caribou contest and keeps them genuinely engaged."
— Grade 6 & 7 Teacher, Nova Scotia