Primary maths challenge practice papers
Free papers in the primary challenge's shape, with every answer and its working. Print one for a timed 45 minutes, or sit a new one online and see the marks straight away.
Pick a paper
Year 5
A first go for Year 5: number puzzles, patterns and logic, the last five harder.
Year 6
The challenge at its own level: harder puzzles in the second ten and the last five.
How the challenge works
- Questions
- 25: the first 20 with five choices, A to E, then 5 with no choices given
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Marks
- 1 for each right answer: 25 in all
- Wrong answers
- Nothing is taken off
- Allowed
- Rough paper only: no calculator or ruler
- Who sits it
- Primary pupils aged 9 to 11, mostly Years 5 and 6
Schools enter their pupils, and the challenge is sat in school in the autumn term. The questions get harder as the paper goes on, and the highest scorers are invited to a bonus round later in the school year.
Answers and working
Every printed paper above ends with its answers and the working for each one. Online, your first finished paper shows the answers to its first ten questions; full answers for every online paper will come with our UK practice packs.
Questions parents ask
- What is the primary maths challenge?
- A maths competition for primary pupils aged 9 to 11, run by the Mathematical Association and sat in school. It is meant to be fun: puzzles and problems rather than sums, and the highest scorers are invited to a bonus round.
- Are these the real past papers?
- No. Every question here is written by us, in the challenge's published shape. Past papers belong to the Mathematical Association, and we are not connected with it.
- How do the last five questions work?
- Questions 21 to 25 have no choices. Your child works out the answer and writes it on the line. Online, they type a whole number.
- How should my child practise?
- Sit one paper in a quiet 45 minutes with no calculator, then talk through each question missed using the working. Drawing a picture or trying small numbers first often cracks the harder ones.