The preliminaries will be held in June, and all senior high school students in China can sign up for the competition. The exam is a written one, which is slightly more difficult than the college entrance examination. The preliminaries of the math competition are held in schools all over the country. Students who pass the preliminary round and get a certain ranking can be promoted to participate in the semi-finals. The preliminaries only select candidates who are qualified to participate in the semi-finals, and do not produce any awards, which has no substantive effect on independent enrollment.

The provincial competition was held in early September, which was more difficult than the preliminary competition. When the provinces crossed the line, they won the first, second and third prizes according to the ranking (i.e. the first, second and third provinces). Students who win the first prize in the province will take part in the provincial selection examination and qualify for the provincial team.

The provincial team represented their province in the CMO competition (winter camp). CMO is a national competition, which is divided into gold, silver and bronze according to the ranking. The top 60 gold medals enter the national training team.

After many examinations, six members of the training team will be selected to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), and IMO will also rank the gold, silver and bronze medals according to the results, with the ratio of 1:2:3.