Putnam Competition

2024 Putnam Day at SFU

Are you an SFU undergraduate who relishes a challenge? The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is held on the first Saturday of December each year. In 2024, a total of 3988 undergraduates from 477 institutions in Canada and the USA entered the competition. Wikipedia has a good overview of the Competition.

The Putnam isn't easy. Typically more than half the entrants in any year score 0, 1 or 2 points — out of a possible 120! Yet the questions don't assume anything beyond standard undergraduate mathematics. Success in answering questions requires persistence, originality, and crystal-clear expression of ideas.

Interested?

Try your hand at a few problems from previous Putnam Competitions to see what it's all about.
Register for the writing-intensive course MATH 480W, The Art and Craft of Problem Solving.
To be included on the SFU Putnam email list and to be notified of problem-solving activities throughout the year please contact me.

Ten SFU students participated in the 2024 Putnam Competition. Results are expected in February 2025. Training for the 2025 Putnam will begin in the Summer.