There will be five group prizes in each competition, with the prize money of $500,400,300,200 and 100 in turn, $0 for the first place and $50 for the second place. Followed by five encouragement awards, no bonuses regardless of ranking. Only the name of the school and the name of the contestants are published for praise. There are five individual first prizes, each with a prize of $250, and they are recognized as members of Putnam Society by American Mathematical Society. Five second prizes, each with 100 USD. There are twenty or thirty encouragement awards below, and the names and school names are announced to praise them. In addition, the list of other individuals before entering 100 was published, which is convenient for colleges and universities to recruit graduate students in the future. The highest score of individual first prize (per session 1 student) is provided by Harvard University with Putnam research degree and scholarship.

In the United States, due to the active advocacy of famous mathematicians boekhoff and Polya, 1938 held Putnam junior college students' mathematics competition, and many topics were within the scope of middle school mathematics. The top five people in the Putnam competition can become Putnam members. Among these people, there are many outstanding figures-Fields Prize winners Mountford, Milnor, Quinlan and Nobel Prize winners Feynman and Wilson. From 1972, the American Mathematical Olympics was held to prepare for the international Mathematical Olympics, and the proposition level was also very high. Finally, the selected national team members received training at West Point Military Academy and other places, and went to the White House with their parents for an interview with the President.