International Chemistry
Challenge: ChemX
A rapid-paced, critical-thinking chemistry competition for high school scholars β built to test how you think under pressure, not how well you memorize a test bank.
Our Mission
To create an explicit opportunity for students who are eager to delve into chemistry β through a competition that emphasizes critical-thinking-based problem solving rather than memorizing test banks. ChemX assesses data and graph analysis, multi-step problem solving, and conceptual understanding.
Our Vision
We started ChemX because dedicated, accessible chemistry competitions for Egyptian students were scarce, and established international contests carry entry fees that put them out of reach. We're building the alternative: rigorous, free, and open to the world.
What makes the challenge distinct
Every part of ChemX is designed around one idea: chemistry rewards the ones who understand it, not the ones who memorized it fastest.
International Participation
Open to high school scholars anywhere in the world, sitting the same exam in English.
University Partnerships
Academic oversight from working chemistry professors, not competition organizers alone.
Academic Excellence
Questions built around conceptual understanding, stoichiometry, kinetics, and equilibrium β not rote recall.
Global Networking
A community of scholars who compete once and stay connected long after results are announced.
Research Mindset
Pace-based, data-and-graph-driven questions that mirror how real chemists actually work.
Recognition
Gold, Silver, and Bronze honors awarded on a 1:2:3 ratio among qualified finalists.
Competition Overview
ChemX is a chemistry competition designed for chemistry-fascinated high school scholars, built around rapid-paced problem-solving and critical thinking. It's an online theoretical exam: competitors work through a large number of questions in a short window, so conceptual understanding matters far more than memorized formulas. The competition runs across a Preliminary Round and a Final Round, hosted on a purpose-built online exam platform.
Why We Built It
ChemX exists to close two gaps we saw firsthand through our STEM Egypt Chemistry Club membership: a lack of dedicated chemistry competitions that are valid and accessible for Egyptian students, and the high entry fees required to compete in established international contests. More broadly, chemistry education tends to focus on testing and examination performance rather than encouraging students to genuinely explore the subject β ChemX is built to reward the exploration instead.
What ChemX Assesses
Rather than testing how much you've memorized, ChemX assesses how you think under pressure. Every question is built around three skills: data and graph analysis, multi-step problem solving, and conceptual understanding β the same skills that separate a good chemist from a good memorizer.
Exam Format
Two rounds, each scored as a full rapid assessment within a one-hour window.
Preliminary Round
An online rapid assessment across six sections β General Chemistry, Stoichiometry, Thermodynamics & Kinetics, Organic, Inorganic, and Acids & Bases. Scores from this round determine who advances to the Final Round.
Final Round
The same six sections at greater depth and Olympiad-level difficulty. Finalists are ranked internationally and classified into Gold, Silver, and Bronze honors on a 1:2:3 ratio.
Full Section Breakdown
40 questions in 60 minutes. This round qualifies roughly 1β10% of participants for the final round.
| Section | Questions | Focus Area |
|---|---|---|
| General Chemistry Concepts | 10 | Atomic structure, bonding, periodic table |
| Stoichiometry & Calculations | 7 | Mole, yield, equations, ratios |
| Thermodynamics & Kinetics | 10 | Gas laws, equilibrium, energy, kinetics |
| Organic Chemistry | 4 | Functional groups, naming, reactions |
| Inorganic Chemistry | 5 | Periodic trends, compounds, ions |
| Acids & Bases | 4 | Graphs, tables, analysis |
| Total | 40 / 1h | Full rapid assessment |
45 questions in 60 minutes, at Olympiad-level difficulty. Finalists are classified Gold, Silver, and Bronze on a 1:2:3 ratio.
| Section | Questions | Focus Area |
|---|---|---|
| General Chemistry Concepts | 10 | Atomic structure, bonding, periodic table |
| Stoichiometry & Calculations | 8 | Mole, yield, equations, ratios |
| Thermodynamics & Kinetics | 10 | Gas laws, equilibrium, energy, kinetics |
| Organic Chemistry | 5 | Functional groups, naming, reactions |
| Inorganic Chemistry | 6 | Periodic trends, compounds, ions |
| Acids & Bases | 6 | Graphs, tables, analysis |
| Total | 45 / 1h | Full rapid assessment |
Syllabus
Seven core areas of chemistry are in scope for both rounds.
Concept Understanding
The foundation every other section draws on β reasoning about structure and behavior rather than recalling isolated facts. Questions in this section test whether you understand why atoms and compounds behave the way they do, not just whether you can name them. Expect questions that ask you to predict behavior from first principles: given an element's position on the periodic table, what would you expect its bonding, reactivity, or ionization energy to look like?
- 01 Atomic structure & periodicity
- 02 Chemical bonding models
- 03 Periodic table trends
- 04 Reading data tables & graphs
Stoichiometry
Quantitative relationships between reactants and products, under time pressure. This section tests whether you can move fluidly between moles, mass, and volume, and whether you can carry a calculation through several linked steps without losing track of what's limiting the reaction. Expect multi-step word problems where one wrong ratio early on throws off everything downstream β precision and speed both matter here.
- 01 Mole concept & conversions
- 02 Balancing equations
- 03 Limiting reagent & yield
- 04 Molar ratios in multi-step problems
Thermodynamics
Energy changes that drive β or resist β a reaction. This section covers how gases behave under changing pressure, volume, and temperature, and how to track energy as it moves into or out of a system across a reaction. You'll need to read and interpret energy diagrams quickly, and reason about whether a process happens spontaneously or needs energy input to proceed.
- 01 Gas laws
- 02 Enthalpy & Hess's law
- 03 Entropy & free energy
- 04 Energy diagrams
Equilibrium
What happens when a reaction stops moving forward and starts moving both ways. This section tests whether you can set up and solve for an equilibrium state, and predict how a system responds when it's disturbed β by changing concentration, pressure, or temperature. Expect ICE-table problems and questions that ask you to reason qualitatively about shifts before you ever touch a calculation.
- 01 Equilibrium constants
- 02 Le Chatelier's principle
- 03 ICE tables
- 04 Heterogeneous equilibria
Acids & Bases
Analysis-heavy questions built around graphs, tables, and titration data. This section leans hardest on data interpretation of any topic in the syllabus β reading a titration curve to identify the equivalence point, working out a buffer's capacity, or judging relative strength from a given Ka or Kb. You'll be expected to move between pH, pOH, and concentration comfortably and quickly.
- 01 pH & pOH calculations
- 02 Titration curves
- 03 Buffers
- 04 Strong vs. weak acids/bases
Kinetics
How fast a reaction happens, and what controls that speed. This section tests whether you can determine a rate law from experimental data, reason about reaction mechanisms and rate-determining steps, and explain how catalysts and activation energy change the picture. Expect to extract rate constants and reaction orders directly from graphs and tables rather than being handed them.
- 01 Rate laws & order of reaction
- 02 Reaction mechanisms
- 03 Catalysts & activation energy
- 04 Rate data from graphs
Electrochemistry
Chemistry that moves electrons β and the final-round frontier for most competitors. This section covers how redox reactions are balanced and driven, how galvanic and electrolytic cells are built and read, and how standard electrode potentials predict which reactions happen spontaneously. Expect Nernst-equation problems that connect concentration directly to cell voltage.
- 01 Redox reactions
- 02 Galvanic & electrolytic cells
- 03 Standard electrode potentials
- 04 The Nernst equation
Eligibility Criteria
Open to high school students worldwide
Ages 14 to 18
Individual participation
Meet the Leadership Team
ChemX is guided by an academic board of working chemistry researchers, and run day-to-day by the STEM Egypt Chemistry Club.
AAProf. Dr. Ahmad Mahmoud Mohammad Alakraa
PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY Β· FACULTY OF SCIENCE Β· CAIRO UNIVERSITY Β· ACADEMIC SUPERVISORA researcher in nanotechnology and electrochemistry, Prof. Alakraa earned his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cairo University, with further research at Pennsylvania State University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His work centers on nanomaterials, renewable energy, fuel cells, hydrogen production, water treatment, and environmental remediation, with publications in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, and the Journal of Power Sources.
RZProf. Richard N. Zare
MARGUERITE BLAKE WILBUR PROFESSOR IN NATURAL SCIENCE Β· STANFORD UNIVERSITY Β· SCIENTIFIC ADVISOROne of the world's leading researchers in physical chemistry and chemical physics, Prof. Zare earned his B.A. in Chemistry and Physics and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics, both from Harvard University. He has made pioneering contributions to laser chemistry, molecular reaction dynamics, analytical chemistry, and mass spectrometry, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Member, U.S. National Academy of SciencesOrganization Team
The STEM Egypt Chemistry Club members running ChemX day to day.
Kyrillos Yousef
Founder & Executive OrganizerHamza Awad
Technical ManagementCompetition Timeline
Seven milestones from registration to the awards announcement. Dates marked TBD will be confirmed as they're finalized.
Registration Opens
Applications open to eligible high school students worldwide.
Registration Closes
Final deadline to submit a completed registration form.
Preliminary Round
40-question online exam, 60 minutes, qualifying 1β10% of participants.
Preliminary Results Announcement
Preliminary round results and final-round invitations released.
Final Round
45-question Olympiad-level exam, 60 minutes.
Final Results Announcement
Final scores compiled, international ranking published, and Gold, Silver, and Bronze honors announced on a 1:2:3 ratio.
Partners & Prizes
ChemX Winners
Finalists classified into Gold, Silver, and Bronze honors on a 1:2:3 ratio, based on Preliminary Round (/40) and Final Round (/45) scores.
Gold
Top finishers of the Final Round
Jerry Etornam Kudaya
Eyad Islam Sayed Saleh Elshafey
Nguyα» n Ngα»c Thanh PhΖ°Ζ‘ng
Abhik Das
Niranjan Mahesh Barhate
Emmanuel Dogbe
Menna Allah Mohamed Zakarya Ahmed Saleh Elbanna
Malak Ahmed Elshafey
Silver
14 finalists
Joseph Abdelmasih Naeem Obied Mansour
Rana Amer
Morris Deladem Doe
Athena Richter
Rudraksha Tripathi
Judy Hazem Abdelhamid Elshafey
Sai Umbarkar
Marco Osama
Ishaan Abburi
Yafet Ameha
Yasmeen Mosleh Mosleh Mohamed Youssef Al-Abyad
Eyad Mohamed Kamal
Rudra Minar Khatu
Judy Wael Mohamed
Bronze
Rounding out the finalist ranking
Mensah Addai Michael
Thiranan Kanran
Shuvarthi Chattaraj
Aarav Jawa
Abiyaalini
Aarav Kumar
Abdalmalek Mohannad Haj Abdalaziz
Yousef Ahmed
Mahmoud Youssery Mahmoud
Kit Hornett
Yassin Hany Mokhtar
Emmanuel Oduro Osei
Represent ChemX at your school
Ambassadors help spread the word about ChemX in their own school or city β organizing info sessions, answering questions from classmates, and building the community ChemX is meant to create.
Leadership Experience
Run your own outreach plan and report back on what worked.
Community Building
Connect fellow students who want to go deeper into chemistry.
Networking Opportunities
Meet ambassadors from other countries and schools.
Official Certificate
A signed certificate of ambassadorship from ChemX.
International Recognition
Listed as part of the official ChemX ambassador network.
Direct Line to Organizers
First access to updates, partner news, and prize announcements.
Ambassador Application
Check Your Invitations
Enter your ambassador code to see how many people have registered using it.
Frequently Asked Questions
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