What Is Math Kangaroo? Levels, Scoring and Format

See what the tasks look like: ten free Math Kangaroo practice questions from real past papers, no account needed.

Math Kangaroo is an international multiple-choice mathematics contest for school students in grades 1 to 12. It is olympiad-style in the thinking it asks for — puzzles, diagrams, unusual setups — and school-shaped in who sits it: children and teenagers, in grade levels, on one timed paper rather than a multi-day proof contest.

The basics

Origin. The first Kangaroo challenge was held in France on 15 May 1991. It was created by two French teachers, André Deledicq and Jean-Pierre Boudine, after a visit to colleagues who ran the Australian Mathematics Competition — hence the name.
Who runs it. The international association Kangourou sans Frontières (KSF) was founded in 1994 by teachers from ten countries and registered in Paris in January 1995. National organisers run the day in each member country. In the USA that is Math Kangaroo USA, a non-profit.
How big. Wikipedia's article on the contest lists 84 participating countries in 2022. In the USA, Math Kangaroo USA reports 60,504 participants in 2026.
When. Once a year, in March. Math Kangaroo USA lists its next individual competition for March 2027.
How long. 75 minutes in the USA. Other countries set their own time limit, typically somewhere between 50 and 75 minutes.
Levels. Six: grades 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10 and 11–12.
Format. Multiple choice, five options per task. In the USA, grades 1–4 get 24 questions and grades 5–12 get 30.

How it is scored

Each paper is split into thirds. In the first third every task is worth 3 points, in the middle third 4, in the last third 5. Later tasks are the hard ones, and they move the total more.

In the USA, that is the whole system. Math Kangaroo USA's scoring page says there are no starting points and no deduction for a wrong answer. A 24-question paper (grades 1–4) has a maximum of 96, and a 30-question paper (grades 5–12) a maximum of 120. A blank answer and a wrong answer both add nothing.

Many other countries use the international KSF rules, which add two things: you start with one point per task, and each wrong answer costs a quarter of that task's value. The start points exist to offset the penalty, so the floor is 0 and a 30-task paper runs from 0 to 150. Guessing is a real decision under those rules and a free one under the USA rules. If you are sitting the contest outside the USA, read the instructions on the paper you are handed that day.

The detail, with worked examples, is in Math Kangaroo scoring.

A contest, not a curriculum test

Most school maths tests check whether you can perform techniques the syllabus named. Kangaroo papers check whether you can use those techniques on a problem that does not announce which technique it wants. The items are multiple-choice. The thinking is not. You still have to notice the invariant, count the cases, or read the diagram before any of the five letters is worth picking.

That is why people call it olympiad-style without it being an olympiad in the IMO sense. There is no proof paper. There is a booklet of short tasks, a time limit on the day, and a ranking that follows from points. The skills overlap with contest maths — careful reading, diagram literacy, not panicking on the last third — but the format is open to a much wider group of students than a proof olympiad.

It is also why a high score in class does not automatically mean a high Kangaroo score. Classroom tests often reward reproducing a method you were just taught. Kangaroo rewards noticing. You can be fluent at the syllabus and still lose time on a picture that hides a parity argument.

What a paper feels like

Early tasks are meant to be reachable. Later tasks are meant to separate. Diagrams are not decoration: a large share of items cannot be read as text alone. If the figure is a grid, a folding net, a clock, or a pile of cubes, the figure is the problem. Counting, symmetry, and "what stays the same if I move this" show up constantly. So do short combinatorics and number tricks that a syllabus might not have a chapter for.

The answer is a letter. There is no "show your working" box, because the papers do not grade working.

Where My Path fits

My Path is a practice product. We are not affiliated with Kangourou sans Frontières, Math Kangaroo USA or any national organiser. We do not take entries, publish rankings, or sell contest registration — registration, fees, dates and venues belong to the organiser in your country.

What we offer is practice on real past-paper items. The free practice pages give ten tasks per level, answerable without an account. The configurable sittings live on the Practice shelf of Education: you pick a grade level, a size of 10, 20 or 60, a timer (off, relaxed or exam mode), and the usual controls — feedback now or at the end, skip, flag, topic filter. Education needs the Student or Monthly plan; see plans.

Two facts about our bank, so nobody mistakes it for the contest:

It covers five of the six levels, 3–4 through 11–12. There are no grade 1–2 items.
The papers come from more than one edition, so lengths are a property of our bank rather than of "the contest". Our Level 5–6 papers have 30 tasks for 2020–2021 and 24 tasks for 2022–2025; Math Kangaroo USA uses 30 for grades 5–6.

Each item carries the 3, 4 or 5 points its paper gave it, and the review screen shows a weighted score: points earned as a share of points possible, not ticks over items. We apply no wrong-answer penalty, which matches the USA rules. There are more details in Math Kangaroo scoring.

Why people practise it anyway

Because the format is learnable. You can get faster at reading a stem that is trying to trick you. You can get better at not spending six minutes on a 3-point opener. You can learn that Mixed Problems are a real topic, not a leftover bin, and that the picture is often the whole question.

Those are practice effects. They show up on the next session, and they may show up on contest day. They are not a guarantee of a rank. Parents often want a number that means "ready", and there isn't a clean one. A useful substitute is local: at this level, with a timer on, can the student reach the last third of a 20-item sitting? Can they retry the misses the next day and get them right? How to prepare is a plan built on that.

How this relates to General Math

General Math is the unpinned maths practice test: the whole bank, one grade band per sitting, topics including algebra, geometry, statistics, number, fractions, and Mixed Problems. Kangaroo items live in that bank, so General Math can serve them when the filters match. The Kangaroo card pins the family so you stay inside contest-shaped items.

If the misses are "I didn't have the technique", add General Math in the same grade. If the misses are "I had the technique and still misread the picture", stay on Kangaroo and filter Mixed Problems.

A short glossary

Level. The grade grouping of the paper: 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10, 11–12. One per sitting on My Path, never mixed.

Thirds. How points are assigned: first third of the tasks 3, middle 4, last 5. The thirds follow the paper's length — on a 24-task paper they are eight tasks each, on a 30-task paper ten.

Maximum (USA). 96 for grades 1–4, 120 for grades 5–12.

Starting points and penalty (KSF international rules). One point per task to start, minus a quarter of a task's value per wrong answer. Not used in the USA, and not used on My Path.

Mixed Problems. The topic label for puzzles that do not sit in a named strand. Not a data error.

If you want to practise here

Start with the level that matches the paper you will sit — grades 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10 or 11–12. Ten real past-paper tasks each, answers and working shown, no account and no payment. That is enough to find out whether the 3/4/5 weighting is costing you points.

If you then want longer sittings, a timer and the configurable session, that is the Kangaroo card on Education, on the Student or Monthly plan via plans. The contest itself remains the contest, run by other people, on a date we do not own.