Waimaths Competition Practice Questions

What is Waimaths?

In Term 3, Year 7 to Year 11 students from schools across Waikato, New Zealand compete in teams of three to solve 20 tricky maths problems in 45 minutes.
The competition, run by the Waikato Maths Association, has been a highlight of the maths calendar for over 30 years!

To succeed, students must demonstrate rapid mental maths skills, creative problem-solving, excellent teamwork, and strategic decision-making—knowing when to skip difficult questions can be just as crucial as solving them!

How to prepare?

The best preparation is plenty of practise!

We’re collaborating with the Waikato Maths Association to offer past problem sets in an interactive online format that tracks student progress.
As a starting point, we’ve included five sets of 20 past competition questions for each year level.

Additionally, we're developing easier word problems organised by topic to help Year 5–8 extension students gradually build the necessary skills for tackling the complexity of actual WaiMaths problems.

All WaiMaths practice resources are freely available to member schools of the Waikato Maths Association.

How can you access the practice questions?

Students and teachers simply sign in with their school email address to start practising immediately.

Coming soon...

We’re currently developing the following resources to support teachers and learners:

• Hints and solutions to the past competition problems.
• A teacher dashboard to track student progress.
• A curriculum navigation tool to explore the new maths curriculum in a mobile-friendly format.
• Mental maths practice aligned with the old IKAN test.
• Maths assessments aligned to the new curriculum:
  • Timed tests to replace the IKAN test.
  • Topic tests to complement or replace e-asTTle.

Stay tuned—there’s more to come!