Academic teams are divided into 6 squads, corresponding to the areas of Math, English, Science, Fine Arts, Social Studies, and Interdisciplinary.
Questions are of a general nature within each category.
Each team member can participate in at most 2 squads plus Interdisciplinary - in other words, a team member can be part of as many as 3 squads as long as one of them is the Interdisciplinary squad. Each portion of the competition consists of 15 multiple-choice questions. During this time, squad members may confer, and the squad captain must indicate the squad's answer to the question on the answer sheet. A proctor then checks the answer and updates the squad's score. The squad with the most correct answers wins.