Mathcounts, stylized as MATHCOUNTS, is a non-profit organization that provides grades 6-8 extracurricular mathematics programs in all U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and U.S. Virgin Islands. Its mission is to provide engaging math programs for middle school students of all ability levels to build confidence and improve attitudes about math and problem solving.

In Mathcounts, there are four different rounds. There is the Team Round, Target Round, Sprint Round, and Countdown Round. You are only permitted to use a calculator in the Team Round and Target Round. Calculators are not permitted for the Sprint or Lightning Round. The Lightning Round has around 30 questions and aims to test how well you can compute without a calculator. The question get progressively harder on that round. In the Target Round, You are given questions in sets of two four times and are given around six minutes to complete each set. The difficulty is more scattered on this round than the Lightning Round. For the Chapter Competition, in the Team Round, the top four people from your school are on the school’s team and three others compete individually for the All-Star Team. The All-Star Team consists of the top 4 testers from various schools and they create the team that can compete at State Competition. There are ten questions and they are challenging. Only the elected captain from each school can write the answer. In the Countdown Round, the top ten testers compete based on their score. You get one point per each Lightning Round question you answer correctly and two for each Target Round question. The tenth-place scorer competes against the ninth-place scorer and if they win they go against the eighth-place scorer and so on till a winner is determined. The Top Ten From Chapter move on to State and the Top Five from State move on to Nationals. members from the top three teams will move to the next higher level competition.^[3]

Mathcounts also provides numerous math resources for schools and the general public.^[4]

Topics covered include geometry, counting, probability, number theory, and algebra.

Mathcounts was started in 1983 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and CNA Insurance to increase middle school interest in mathematics.^[5] The first national-level competition was held in 1984.^[1] The Mathcounts Competition Series spread quickly in middle schools, and today it is the best-known middle school mathematics competition.^[6] In 2007 Mathcounts launched the National Math Club as a non-competitive alternative to the Competition Series. In 2011 Mathcounts launched the Math Video Challenge Program, which was discontinued in 2023.^[7][1]

2020 was the only year since 1984 in which a national competition was not held, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The "MATHCOUNTS Week" event featuring problems from the 2020 State Competition was held on the Art of Problem Solving website as a replacement.^[8] The 2021 National Competition was held online.^[9]

Current sponsors include RTX Corporation, U.S. Department of Defense STEM, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, National Society of Professional Engineers, 3M, Texas Instruments, Art of Problem Solving, Bentley Systems, Carina Initiatives, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, CNA Financial, Google, Brilliant, and Mouser Electronics.^[5]

The Competition Series is divided into four levels: school, chapter, state, and national. Students progress to each level in the competition based on performance at the previous level. As the levels progress, the problems become more challenging.^[10] Each level has many rounds, always including a Sprint Round (30 questions, 40 minutes) and a Target Round (4 pairs of harder problems with calculator use, 6 minutes each pair).

All students are either school-based competitors or non-school competitors ("NSCs"). Most students participate through their schools, starting with a school-level competition. A student whose school is not participating in the Competition Series starts at the chapter level as an NSC, competing individually.^[10]

In addition to the Competition Series program, students can also participate in the National Math Club program.

The National Math Club program allows schools and non-school groups to start a math club for free. Upon registering, club leaders earn free online access to dozens of games, explorations, and problem sets.

Clubs that meet at least five times during the program year can achieve Silver Level Status, and clubs that complete a creative and collaborative project can achieve Gold Level Status. Clubs that achieve Silver Level and Gold Level can earn prizes and recognition.^[15]

Below is a table documenting each year's winning individual, winning state team and coach, and the location of the national competition.

• American Mathematics Competitions
• List of mathematics competitions