The Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO) is Canada’s premier national advanced mathematics competition.
Competitors require an invitation from the Canadian Mathematical Society in order to participate.
The Canadian Junior Mathematical Olympiad (CJMO), also by invitation only, is held at the same time for students up to grade ten. The CJMO is not as challenging as the CMO, however some problems may appear in both competitions.
These 3-hour competitions are held each March at a selected time and date. All official participants write at the same time and are proctored by their local school faculty or staff.
The top students at the CMO can readily expect great scholarship and recruitment offers from universities. They will also be short-listed for the selection for Team Canada at the International Mathematical Olympiad!
2025 Olympiads
Status updates:
( Mar 7 )
The competition has completed and marking is now underway. We estimate we will have results by the end of the month and will email all students and proctors as soon as they are ready.
We have now released the Problem Set in PDF form for anyone to download and try the questions. We’ll post the Official Solutions in due course through this web page.
( Mar 6 )
The official competition has completed.
Proctors, please scan and upload your students’ work to us promptly following the directions in your earlier email.
( Mar 5 )
The competition is ready to start at noon EST Thursday. Students should be ready to go. Proctors will have access to the Problem Set fifteen minutes before start time as described in your earlier email.
Online/Zoom students should connect to their zoom links 20 minutes before start time. Follow the instructions in your earlier email.
( Mar 1 )
Proctors have been emailed the response booklets for their students. Proctors will get access to the questions at 11:45AM on Thursday, EST (fifteen minutes before the competition starts).
Zoom-proctored students have been emailed instructions for preparing to use Crowdmark and connecting to Zoom at the appropriate time. These students have also been sent an invitation by Crowdmark to the CMO/CJMO 2025 event (this allows them to set up their account on Crowdmark). They are encouraged to use the “Practice and Upload Check” exercise before Thursday to ensure they have no technical difficulties or misunderstanding which could impair them during Thursday’s competition.
( February 27 )
All invitations have now been sent out.
( February 24 )
CMO and CJMO invitations based on the results of the Repêchage have all been sent out.
( January 27 )
CMO invitations based on COMC results and pre-qualifiers have all been sent out. If you expected an invitation but don’t have yours, check your spam folder and/or check with your teacher.
( January 8 )
CMO invitations based on COMC results and pre-qualifiers will be sent out in late January.
CMO invitations based on Repêchage results will be sent out in late February.
CJMO invitations will also be sent out in late February.
Archive
CMO - Canadian Mathematical Olympiads
How to Earn an Invitation
All students require an invitation from the Canadian Mathematical Society in order to participate. Typically 75-100 students are invited each year to write the CMO and a further 20 students are invited to write the CJMO.
Invitations are normally sent out in February.
COMC – Canadian Open Mathematical Challenge
The primary way students to come to our attention to be considered for a CMO/CJMO invitation is by doing very well on the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC) in October. We normally invite the top fifty (approx) qualifying COMC students to write the CMO.
CMO Qualifying Repêchage
The next 75 (approx) top qualifying COMC students are invited to write the Repêchage. This is a “take home” week-long exercise held in February. Up to twenty students are selected from this group to write the CMO.
CJMO Invitations
After the Repêchage is complete, we select students for the CJMO. Anyone invited to the CMO is not invited to the CJMO. Remaining Repêchage writers who are in grade ten or less are invited to write the CJMO (normally the maximum is twenty such students). If additional spots are available, then the best qualifying COMC students in grade ten or less, who didn’t get invited to the CMO or Repêchage, are invited.
Alternate Competitions
By traditional arrangement, the top winners from the Alberta High School Mathematics Competition (Part II) and from le Concours de l’Association Mathématique du Québec (AMQ – secondaire) are invited to write the CMO.
Students we’ve invited to represent Canada at the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) or the Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad (APMO) are normally also invited.
Preparing for the Olympiads
It is important to emphasize that any student who is invited to write the Olympiads should be aware that success will require mathematics at a higher level than is taught in most schools, and therefore should prepare specifically for the competition.
The CMS has several resources available for competitors. The most important resource are the publicly-available Problem Sets and Solutions from previous years.
Eligibility
In order to be an official participant, all competitors:
- must be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident of Canada (but not necessarily residing in Canada currently),
- must not have formally enrolled at a university or any other equivalent post-secondary institution and must not yet have graduated from high school (or equivalent),
- must be currently attending school full-time since the start of the current school year,
- must be less than 20 years old as of June 30 of the year of the Competition.
Additionally, the CJMO requires that competitors must be in grade ten or earlier.
Students who choose to write the Competition agree to allow the CMS to publish their names and schools when announcing contest results.
Prizes and Awards
Official competitors compete for the right to be named the CMO Champion (or CJMO Champion). We also recognize the Silver, Bronze and Honourable Mention competitors as appropriate each year. Typically, this is at least six students for CMO and fewer for CJMO.
The CMO Championship Cup is a full-size trophy that permanently commemorates the Champions. There is no equivalent for the CJMO. The Cup is normally loaned to the CMO Champion’s school to display for a year
Prize Money
Each year a pre-budgeted amount is allocated from the Canadian Mathematical Society and its members and sponsors. Normally, this prize pool is divided up to ensure the CMO Gold medalist gets CAD$2000 (unless there are ties) and Silver, Bronze, and Honourable Mentions also get prize money in decreasing amounts per person.
The CJMO is similar but with considerably smaller cash prizes.
Matthew Brennan Award for Best CMO Solution
In 2021 the CMS and the mathematical community lost one of our most valuable members. Matthew represented Canada twice at the International Mathematical Olympiad, earning a bronze medal in 2011 and a gold medal in 2012. He returned to the IMO as deputy leader observer in 2014 and 2017, and was the leader in 2019. Matt was passionate about Olympiad math, and had served on the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad committee since 2014. He also contributed extensively to problem creation and selection.
In Matthew’s honour, the CMS has created the Matthew Brennan Award for Best CMO Solution. It is awarded every year to the student(s) who have written the best solution to a single problem on that year’s CMO. Their solution will be included in the official solutions, and they will receive a monetary prize.
