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The Paradigm Challenge
Solve a real social problem however you like, from age four upward, with a large prize pool.
Run by Project Paradigm, with the American Red Cross and other partners
Key facts
- Eligible grades
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Not confirmed. Check the organiser's rules before entering.Project Paradigm sets eligibility by age, not grade. Not converted.
- Official divisions
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Three age divisions judged separately: 4 to 8, 9 to 13 and 14 to 18, set by the oldest team member's age at submission.
Based on the organiser's own divisions.
- Eligible ages
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Ages 4 to 18 on the date the entry is submitted. Three age divisions: 4 to 8, 9 to 13, and 14 to 18. The age of the oldest team member on the submission date determines the team's division.
The previous listing gave divisions of 7 to 10, 11 to 14 and 15 to 18, which was wrong. Entrants need a parent's or legal guardian's permission and must not be residents of a US-sanctioned country.Source, checked 2026-09-02
- Individual or team
- Individual or team · There is no minimum or maximum team size. Single-person teams are permitted. Participants may be on more than one team, teams may submit more than one entry, and members may win more than one cash prize.
- Where it runs
- Online · International
- Entry cost
- FreeNo fee is mentioned in the official rules excerpt; third parties describe it as free.
- Registration deadline
- The current entry period runs from 10:00 a.m. PST on 2 May 2025 to 11:59 p.m. PST on 1 May 2027. Anyone who entered a prior Paradigm Challenge must submit new entries in this period. 234 days leftThe Challenge has used a 1 May deadline with public voting from June to August. Confirm the current cycle on projectparadigm.org.
- Competition dates
- Finalists are selected throughout the cycle as entries come in, and all Finalists are announced on or before 1 June 2027. First place team members in each age division, up to four, with a parent or guardian each, receive a four-day, three-night trip to Los Angeles for the Prize Ceremony.
- Difficulty
- Open to beginnersNo prior competition experience assumed. If you can do the school-level material, you can enter and score points.
- Prizes
- Project Paradigm selects at least 100 entries as Finalists. First, Second and Third Place winners are chosen in each of the three age divisions. The top entries win up to $100,000, and teachers associated with the top 100 entries win grants of up to $5,000.Prizes have ranged from a grand prize in the tens of thousands down to smaller awards, distributed across roughly a hundred entries and three age divisions. The breadth of the prize list makes the odds far better than most competitions of this scale.
What The Paradigm Challenge is
The Paradigm Challenge invites students to address a real social problem with any kind of solution: an invention, an app, a campaign, a piece of art, a piece of writing. The annual theme changes and has covered home fires, waste reduction and biodiversity. Three age divisions run from age seven upward, and the prize pool reaches into six figures across roughly a hundred winners, which makes the odds unusually good.
How the competition works
Any format that addresses one of the challenge areas: posters, videos, inventions, public messages, community events, websites, mobile apps. Finalists are judged on effectiveness, feasibility, originality, presentation and collaboration; for single-member teams, collaboration is judged on work with non-team members.
Eligibility notes
Open worldwide. Entries may be individual or in teams of up to three, with an adult mentor listed.
Is The Paradigm Challenge right for you?
- Experience needed
- None. Divisions start at age seven and the format is deliberately open.
- Time commitment
- A few weeks.
- What you actually do
- You find a real problem within the theme and propose something that would actually help, in whatever medium suits you best.
A good fit if
- You are younger than most competitions allow
- You want good odds rather than one winner in thousands
- You would rather choose your own format than fit someone else's
Probably not for you if
- Students who want a rigorous technical or academic challenge
Common mistakes
- Proposing something impressive but not feasible. Feasibility is an explicit scoring criterion.
- Ignoring the collaboration criterion when entering alone; explain who you consulted.
- Missing the public voting window, which is a real component of the finalist round.
How to register
- Read the year's theme and pick a problem you have actually seen, not an abstract one. Judges score effectiveness and feasibility.
- Choose a format that suits you. An invention, an app, a campaign, a video and a piece of writing are all acceptable.
- Register with an adult mentor listed and submit before the spring deadline.
- If you reach the finalist round, mobilise your community for the public vote.
What skills you need
- Problem identification
- Solution design
- Presentation
- Feasibility thinking
- Collaboration
Recommended resources
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Project Paradigm
The current theme, rules, divisions, judging criteria and past winning entries.
Past problems and materials
Only materials the organiser or an authorised archive publishes openly are listed here.
- Past winning entries
Published galleries of previous winners across all three divisions.
Frequently asked questions
How young can you enter?
The youngest division starts around age seven, which is unusually young for a competition with prizes at this scale. Most competitions in this directory start at grade 6 or later.
What are the odds?
Better than almost anything comparable. The Challenge has distributed prizes across roughly a hundred entries per year rather than naming a single winner, and it runs three separate age divisions.
Reviews, tips and resources from other students
Posts are public. Do not share your full name, school, address or contact details.
Something out of date?
If a deadline, fee or eligibility rule on this page no longer matches the official site, flag it and it goes into the review queue.
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