Adithya Balachandran ’25 works on a problem at the 43rd Annual MIT Integration Bee in January. Students who place in the top 16 on a 20-minute, 20-question test qualify for the first round, in which four students compete to solve each integral. Then eight students advance to a seeded single-elimination playoff bracket.

“With the timer running down, I focused on mentally running through potential strategies to simplify the integral into something I knew how to evaluate more easily,” says Balachandran, who also qualified to compete in the 2023 bee. “The need to think fast is what makes the Integration Bee so exciting.”

When competitors are tied, the round moves to a speed-based sudden-death format with easier integrals and the fastest solver prevails. Brian Liu ’25 won three sudden-death rounds to become 2024’s Grand Integrator.

Balachandran says the unique mathematical tradition is “a truly wonderful experience for math enthusiasts like me to channel our love for calculus.”

Want to test your own integration skills? Set a timer for 20 minutes and take the 2024 qualifier test. Then check your work here.