Process and Rounds

Qualification Round

The Qualification Round is the first stage and consists of five astronomy problems: A, B, C, D, and E. The problems encompass a wide range of topics, varying in difficulty and discipline. The problems range from knowledge in astronomy to astrophysical calculations to make sure that everyone finds interesting problems to work out!

View Qualification Round 2025

Points and Submission

The problems will test your astronomy and astrophysics skills. All participants of the Qualification Round will receive participation certificates. Each problem gives 5 points, and you need to score at least 15/17/20 points (Junior/Youth/Senior, see age groups ) to qualify for the Pre-Final Round.

The submission deadline is Sunday, 24 August 2025, 23:59 UTC+0.

In order to avoid connection issues, upload errors, and other problems, please submit your solution before the official submission deadline (24 August 2025). The solution file may be typed digitally (recommended; e.g., TeX), or it may be a clear picture of your handwritten notes. If you have multiple pictures, you may use an online tool to combine the pictures into a single PDF file. Make sure that you write your name, school, city and date of birth correctly! The details will be used for all certificates. There are no fees or registration costs to participate in the Qualification Round.

Submission Form

Announcement of Results

The results of the Qualification Round will be announced on Monday, 8 September 2025. You will receive an email about the results; however, you can also check your participant account for your results, performance report, and certificates online. Please log into your participant account so as not to miss any critical information:

Login for Participants

1

Pre-Final Round

Participants who solved the Qualification Round successfully are qualified to participate in the Pre-Final Round. The problems will be more challenging but also more engaging!

Problems and Points

The Pre-Final Round consists of six problems that vary in difficulty, points, and subject. There are three types of problems that give you four, six, and eight points:

2x Basic Problems (4 Points): The Pre-Final Round includes two basic problems (lower difficulty).
2x Advanced Problems (6 Points): The Pre-Final round includes two advanced problems (higher difficulty).
2x Research Problems (8 Points): The Pre-Final round includes two research problems: These problems require you to read two short scientific research papers and to learn about recent scientific results in order to solve the problems or questions. This will give you the chance to get in touch with scientific research while solving the problems.

It is possible to reach up to 36 points in total. Participants need to score at least 16/20/24 points (Junior/Youth/Senior, see age groups ) to qualify for the Final Round.

Process and Submission

All participants who are qualified and registered for the Pre-Final Round will receive the problems via email or via their participant account on Thursday, 2 October 2025. From that day on, you have four days until Sunday, 5 October 2025, to solve as many problems as possible. You can submit your solution online via a dedicated submission form. You can choose if you would like to submit the solution as a handwritten version or as a digitally typed document. We recommend writing the solution in the blank space on the problem sheets of the Pre-Final Round. Please highlight your final solutions.

Registration and Costs

If you succeed in the Qualification Round, you can choose to participate in the Pre-Final Round by registering from your participant account. This educational opportunity comes with diverse costs, including those for human resources, technical infrastructure, materials and more. While our sponsors cover some of these expenses, we need to ask participants to cover this year's Pre-Final Round registration costs of 11 EUR to make ICSC on an international level possible. Financial aid is available to assist socio-economically disadvantaged participants. The registration costs are necessary to provide the resources required to run a competition at this scale, including evaluation, in particular, for the comprehensive Pre-Final Round. There are no other costs involved. You can find detailed information about the registration costs here:

Registration Costs Flyers

FAQ: Can I only participate in the Qualification Round and not in the Pre-Final Round? Yes, you can participate in the Qualification Round and receive your participation certificate and not register for the Pre-Final Round. However, in this case, you miss the opportunity to participate in any further rounds.

The registration deadline for the Pre-Final Round is Tuesday, 30 September 2025.

2

Final Round

Participants who have solved the Pre-Final Round successfully are qualified to participate in the Final Round: a multiple-choice online exam with 20 questions.

Exam and Points

The Final Round consists of a single exam with 20 multiple-choice questions requiring knowledge about astronomy and astrophysics, in particular related to the Qualification and Pre-Final Round. Finalists have 60 seconds for each question. There are four possible answers to every question (only one is correct). A correct answer equals one point. There are no negative points for incorrect answers. The awards and prizes are given to the finalists with the most points in the Final Round. If multiple participants have the same score, the points from the Pre-Final Round (and Qualification Round) are used to determine the final winners.

All final exams take place on Tuesday, 28 October 2025.

Teacher Registration / Self-Recording

Finalists take the exam via a dedicated online exam portal (https://icscompetition.org/exam). The online exam is conducted in the participant's school, where a teacher supervises each finalist. All finalists have to select a teacher who agrees to supervise the exam. We will send all required information to the selected teacher who has time to conduct the 20-minute exam on Tuesday, 28 October 2025. The teacher has to make sure that the finalist does not cheat and does not open any other browser tabs, websites, programs, or computer windows during the exam. Participants can also record their exams with a video camera or smartphone and upload the video. In this case, no teacher is needed.

The results of the Final Round will be announced on Monday, 3 November 2025.

Further information on all rounds and the competition can be found here: Official ICSC Flyer 2025

3