Competition Date and Locations
The Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS Competition is held in February each year at a suitable venue in Northern Virginia. held on February 7, 2026 at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, VA. It has most recently featured approximately 420 Mathletes from 40 schools (public, private, parochial and home) plus a number of Non-School Competitors.
The top two teams and top four students who are not on the top two teams from each of Fairfax and Northern Virginia Chapters along with the winning team and top four students who are not on the winning team from the George Washington Chapter will advance to compete at the Virginia State MATHCOUNTS Competition which is held in March at a designated location within Virginia.
Location and schedule information will be provided here in advance of the annual competition.
Additional Information
To participate in the 2026 MATHCOUNTS competition, schools and non-school competitors (NSCs) must first register on the MATHCOUNTS Foundation’s website. Participating students, or Mathletes, typically compete as members of their school. A student can register as a non-school competitor only if the student’s school is not registered for the competition.
The MATHCOUNTS competitions consist of four separate rounds: Sprint, Target, Team, and Countdown. In total, these rounds are designed to take about three hours.
- Sprint – This written round focuses on speed and accuracy. The Mathletes have 40 minutes to complete 30 questions without the use of a calculator.
- Target – This round tests each Mathlete’s ability to problem solve and use mathematical reasoning. It consists of eight individual problems, presented as four pairs (with six minutes allow for each pair), and calculators can be used.
- Team – Members of each school team (typically 4 Mathletes) collaborate to solve 10 problems in 20 minutes with the use of calculators.
- Countdown – This is a fast-paced oral contest in which selected Mathletes compete one-on-one in a single-elimination tournament. Mathletes are allowed 45 seconds to solve a problem without use of calculators. In this competition, this round does not count towards the standing of either the Mathlete or the team, but it is always very exciting.
More information and sample problems for each round are available at the MATHCOUNTS competition page.
From each chapter, top teams and students advance to the Virginia state competition which is held in March.
The four highest scoring individuals at the state competition advance to the national contest in May. The state team is coached by the coach of the state competition’s winning team.