School Guidelines
Welcome to the National Geography Bee! Below is everything you need to know about hosting the
two-phase
school competition.
For comprehensive instructions and sample questions, view the full School
Competition Guide here.
Eligibility & Timeline
The National Geography Bee is a competition for high schools across the United States. Every eligible student in grades 9, 10, 11, or 12 at your school should have an equal opportunity to participate.
NOTE: For middle schools hosting the competition, eligible students are defined as those currently in grades 6, 7, and 8. Middle school competitors will not advance to any further rounds after their school bee.
The school level-competition will be divided into two phases, which must take place between January 3 and February 26, 2027. We strongly encourage administering the first phase during class time to maximize accessibility.
Phase One | Online Assessment
Phase One consists of 50 multiple choice questions and takes just 30 minutes. It will be conducted online using our own platform, to which you will receive the link on January 3.
How to Host
- The assessment must be held in-person where a teacher can monitor the students. Students cannot complete Phase One remotely.
- Students will need a device and a stable internet connection.
- Students must enter a custom access code assigned to your school, along with their full name and grade level.
- Teacher Responsibilities: Ensure students start at the same time if in the same session, do not access other webpages, and do not compromise the integrity of the exam.
Advancing to Phase Two
Once students complete the assessment, you will be able to view all scores using our secure portal. The top 10 students at your school will advance to Phase Two.
Phase Two | School Bee
Phase Two is an oral, in-person event for your top 10 students and should take no more than one hour. You will receive the Phase Two packet on January 3. This will include moderating instructions, the question script, and a scoresheet.
Competition Format
- Rounds 1–5: Questions are worth one point each. Individual rounds have a 10-second time limit for verbal answers. For group questions, students have 15 seconds to write their answers on whiteboards or paper before revealing them to the moderator. The five students with the highest scores remain after Round 5.
- Rounds 6–10: Questions are worth two points each. The top two students after Round 10 advance to the Championship Round.
- Championship Round: Scores reset to zero. This is a best-of-five series of questions posed simultaneously to both remaining students. The winner is declared School Champion.
How to Host
- Teacher Responsibilities: Notify advancing students, schedule a date/time (no later than February 26, 2027), and ensure students do not compromise the competition's integrity.
- We recommend conducting the event with two personnel: one to moderate and one to keep time and score. Audiences are welcome!
- After the bee, you will complete an online form to report your champion. The champion will then be invited to the virtual national qualification test in early March, where they will compete for a spot in the National Finals in Boston, Massachusetts in late April 2027!
Sample Questions
To help your students prepare, here are a few examples of questions based on those asked at last year's school-level competition.
Phase One Examples
Phase One will consist of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered in 30 minutes. Our questions are designed to distinguish what level students are performing at. Many questions will have an obviously wrong choice.
Hatch chiles are a ubiquitous ingredient in the distinctive cuisine of a border state that has combined Spanish, Mexican, and Native influences into dishes such as stuffed sopapillas, green chile stew, and carne adovada. Name this state, whose capital at the foothills of the Rockies is the nation’s oldest European settlement west of the Mississippi River.
Answer: E) New Mexico
The landscape architect Charles Eliot played a role in the creation of the first U.S. national park east of the Mississippi River. Name this park in Maine, which is home to Bass Harbor Head Light, most of Mount Desert Island, and the first sunrise in the contiguous United States.
Answer: A) Acadia
The Hagia Sophia was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian as a church in this city around the year 360, before it was later converted to a mosque by the Ottomans. Name this city, split by the Bosporus into European and Asian sides.
Answer: B) Istanbul
Most of the critically acclaimed 2018 movie Crazy Rich Asians takes place in this Southeast Asian city-state at the very tip of the Malay Peninsula. Name this island country, one of the richest countries in the world per capita, which has large Chinese, Tamil, and Malay communities.
Answer: E) Singapore
Haile Selassie served as emperor of this country from 1930 to 1974, defending it against invasion by Italy and becoming revered in the Afro-Jamaican Rastafari faith. Name this landlocked country along the East African Rift, whose official languages include Amharic, Oromo, and Tigrinya.
Answer: B) Ethiopia
Phase Two Examples
Phase Two consists of both oral individual questions and written group questions.
On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr and former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton fought one of the most famous duels in American history. Hamilton was fatally wounded in the duel in Weehawken, a town adjoining Hoboken and the Hudson River in which state, nicknamed the “Garden State”?
Answer: New Jersey
The Central Valley, the United States' largest valley and its most productive agricultural zone, is known for its cultivation of almonds, grapes, tomatoes, olives, and many more fruits, vegetables, and nuts. This valley lies around the San Joaquin River in which state?
Answer: California
In March 2025, the year’s most devastating earthquake struck near the large city of Mandalay, killing over 5,000 people in this country as well as 103 in neighboring Thailand. Name this country, the largest by area in mainland Southeast Asia.
Answer: Myanmar
Pato, a ball game played on horseback, derives its name from the Spanish word for “duck,” since early versions of the game used a live duck in a basket rather than a ball. Since a declaration by Juan Perón in 1953, pato has been the national sport of which large South American country that borders the Río de la Plata?
Answer: Argentina
The city of Karbala is home to the Imam Husayn Shrine, built after a battle between the Umayyad Caliphate and the followers of Husayn Ibn Ali in 680 CE. The shrine, one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, is located in which Arab country—drained by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—where Kurdish is an official language?
Answer: Iraq
Language isolates are languages that have no relationship to any other known language. The Basque language is believed to be the most-spoken language isolate in the world, with over 800,000 speakers. Most Basque speakers live in a region known as the Basque Country, located along the Bay of Biscay, between France and which other country?
Answer: Spain
After Russia, the world’s second-largest producer of diamonds is a landlocked nation that is currently under the longest stretch of uninterrupted democratic governance in Africa. Name this southern African country that contains the Okavango Delta, a major wildlife and big game hotspot.
Answer: Botswana