What is a Math Battle?

A Math Battle (mathboj ) is a team-based competition usually held among high-school students and associated with math olympiads.
It’s not just about solving problems — it’s about thinking fast, explaining clearly, and outsmarting your opponents.

A Math Battle includes both a problem-solving stage and a presentation to the jury stage.

• The problem-solving stage is a four-hour team effort aiming to solve as many problems as possible.
• During the presentation stage, two competing teams must explain and defend their solutions, analyze the solutions of the opposing team, point out mistakes and shortcomings of the counterpart.
• For solving a problem, a team receives a certain number of points (maximum 12), which can be reduced if there are mistakes or flaws. The problem can be even transferred to the opposing team if they correctly point out the mistakes of the counterpart.
• The jury assigns scores based on accuracy and presentation.

Math battle procedures and rules

Preparation:

Teams receive the same set of problems and solve them in their rooms within a set amount of time (usually from after breakfast until lunch).

The battle itself:

• Captains' Contest: The captains solve a problem proposed by the jury, and the team whose captain first gives the correct answer has the right to issue a challenge on one of the unsolved problems.
• Challenge and Report: One team challenges another on a specific problem. The challenging team provides a presenter, and the challenged team provides an opponent.

Round procedure:

• Report: The presenter explains the solution at the board.
• Opposition: The opponent may ask questions and point out mistakes or “gaps” in the solution to the jury.
• Patching "gaps": If the opponent finds mistakes, their team has the right to “patch” them by offering its own fix for the flaws in the report.
• Role switch: Sometimes the teams switch roles, with the presenter becoming the opponent and vice versa.
• Scoring: After the round, the jury announces how many points each team earned, taking into account the correctness of the solution and the errors found.
• Continuation of the Mat(c)h: Teams continue challenging each other on other problems until all are considered or until one team refuses to issue further challenges.
• Results: At the end of the math battle, all points are tallied, and the team with the highest score is declared the winner.