Seventeen problems which have to be solved are selected by the International committee after the international meeting. These problems are made public in August, latest September. Than students are free to prepare solutions for most of these problems. In March or April in participating countries the national rounds are organized - to select the best students for the international meeting. The methods vary from country to country - where a good tradition and a lot of interesting students exist, the rules from the International tournament are adopted. In other countries individual students are selected.
In the international meeting, every state has the right to participate with one group of students - a team. During the meeting, these teams meet in groups of three, where every team is challenged by an other one to present a solution to a specific problem; the challenging team presents a critique (opposition) for the solution and the third participating team makes a short review about both presentations. Also a short discussion is part of the performance. After this, an assembly of scientists - a jury evaluates the performance of all teams.
Five rounds are performed during the whole meeting, so every team has the possibility to present the solution of five problems. The three best teams have at the end the opportunity to present a solution of their own problem during the final - the best team becomes a winner.
