University of Toronto professor of Mathematics Ignacio Uriarte-Tuero stands for a portrait following the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition in Toronto, on Dec. 6, 2025 . The Canadian Press/Cole Burston
Undergraduate students across North America sat down on Saturday to write a gruelling six-hour math exam, many of them unlikely to solve a single problem.
The notoriously brutal William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is more of a mathematical sporting event than an academic test. The annual exam attracts thousands of students, most of whom are unlikely to score more than three points out of possible 120.
