Integral Cup Season 2 · Chennai · 11–12 October 2026
More than a rank.
A weekend to remember.
From an offline qualifier at college to a final round where I bid my own time for more questions. This is the story of my journey to All India Rank 6.
A rank captures the result. It does not capture the two days that led up to it.
Integral Cup Season 2, organized by STEMvibe and sponsored by Jane Street, took me from a college qualifier to Chennai, and eventually to the final round at IIT Madras. I finished with AIR 6. But the journey included much more: meeting the other finalists, an Estimathon, dinners together, and a comeback after a first round that did not go my way.
The road to Chennai
Round 1: an offline beginning
The first round was held offline at our respective colleges, with more than 7,500 participants. I did well and secured AIR 22, earning a place among the top 500 students selected for Round 2.
Round 2: six questions, forty minutes each
The next round moved online. There were six questions, each with a 40-minute window. I secured AIR 24, which put me among the 40 finalists invited to IIT Madras for the Grand Finale.
What had started as a competition at college now meant a trip to Chennai and two days alongside the other finalists.
The welcome, the team, and the evening
The first day began with the finalist prize kit distribution ceremony. It was the start of the finale experience: receiving our kits and being there together as finalists.
Next came the Estimathon, organized by Jane Street. Our team finished 5th out of 12 teams. After the individual qualifying rounds, it was a chance to work through a challenge together.
We ended the day with a special dinner at Taj Vivanta, Chennai. The next day would be about the competition, but this evening was part of what made the whole experience so memorable.
Three rounds. Three very different decisions.
On the second day, we were taken to IIT Madras for the Grand Finale. Across its three rounds, the challenge kept changing: first choosing a set of questions, then working at pace, and finally deciding how much time an extra question was worth.
Round 1: choosing before solving
We had three hours and a set of 29 questions. In the first ten minutes, we had to choose the questions we would attempt, with our selection adding up to exactly 16 marks. Easy questions were worth one mark, medium questions two, and hard questions four.
The question selection was itself part of the challenge. I did not make it into the top-ten pool in this round, so I went into Round 2 in the bottom-thirty pool.
Round 2: finding my way back
This round tested pace. There were 20 questions: ten easy, five medium, and five hard. Each question was displayed for 30 seconds. The time allowed was 2.5 minutes for an easy question, 3.5 minutes for a medium question, and 4.5 minutes for a hard question. Every question carried the same marks.
I finished among the top four students in the bottom-thirty pool, earning a place among the 11 students in the final round. After missing the top-ten pool earlier, making it through here was a turning point in my finale.
I had missed the first cut.
I still made the final round.
The final round: time became currency
The final round gave everyone two hours, with one hour available as a time currency to bid on questions. We all had four base questions. Seven additional questions were displayed for bidding.
Winning more questions meant giving up solving time: the time we bid would be deducted from our two-hour allocation, with a maximum total bid of one hour. More questions offered more opportunities, but left less time to work through them.
That made the final feel different from a standard paper. It was not only about solving the questions in front of me; it was also about deciding which extra opportunities were worth the time they would cost.
At the end of that round, I finished 6th overall.
From 7,500+ participants to the Grand Finale at IIT Madras.
What stays with me
After the final came the prize distribution ceremony for the winners and the special prizes, followed by another special dinner. It was a fitting finish to two full days.
Looking back, I will remember the rank, but also the shape of the journey: making it through the qualifiers, meeting everyone in Chennai, working as a team at the Estimathon, missing the first cut, and then earning my way back into the final.
Thank you to STEMvibe for organizing Integral Cup, Jane Street for sponsoring it and organizing the Estimathon, and everyone who was part of those two days. It was such a memorable experience for me.
Until the next challenge,
Bhavishy