By J. S. Moreau
In 2015, a printing error occurred. The Day Two booklets for Section B (seats 112–145) contained a completely different set of problems—problems that, by all accounts, were impossible. One question allegedly asked: "Prove or disprove the existence of a finite number that is its own successor, using only the axioms of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory and a haiku about entropy." natplus contest
This is not a standardized test. This is not a drill. This is the —known to its survivors simply as NatPlus . The Day Two booklets for Section B (seats
Zhang has a point. In the past decade, NatPlus finalists have gone on to win eight Rhodes Scholarships, three MacArthur "Genius" Grants, and one Nobel Prize (Chemistry, 2025, Dr. Elena Okonkwo, who credits her NatPlus training for teaching her "how to hold two contradictory hypotheses in my head without panicking"). As of this writing, the 2026 NatPlus National Finals are two weeks away. The official website has posted a single, cryptic line: "This year, the answer is not a number. And you will not write it down." This is the —known to its survivors simply as NatPlus
Welcome to the most relentless, beautiful, and brutal academic contest you have never heard of. The NatPlus Contest was founded in 2008 by Dr. Helena Voss, a cognitive psychologist and former International Math Olympiad gold medalist. Her frustration was simple: existing contests, she argued, measured retrieval speed and narrow expertise. They rewarded the student who had memorized the most, not the one who could think the deepest.