By registering, participants were assigned a Putnam Identification Number (PIN), which they needed in order to participate in the competition on December 4. Participants (undergraduate students) registered for the competition once a supervisor from their institution registered. The competition took place on Saturday, December 4, proctored in-person on campuses across the US and Canada. The competition returned this year to its standard format after a year curtailed by the pandemic, featuring an individual competition and a team competition with awards and prizes. Prizes are awarded to the participants with the highest scores and to the departments of mathematics of the five institutions the sum of whose top three scores is greatest. Although participants work independently on the problems, there is a team aspect of the competition as well. Now the competition has grown to be the leading university-level mathematics examination in the world. The Putnam began in 1938 as a competition between mathematics departments at colleges and universities. During each session, participants work individually on 6 challenging mathematical problems.

The competition consists of two 3-hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The Putnam Competition takes place annually on the first Saturday of December. The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is the preeminent mathematics competition for undergraduate college students in the United States and Canada.

Registration key for zoom math 500