Patna: The October leaderboard of the A-Clue-A-Day (ACAD) national online crossword contest has been released, with Shradha Shree of St Michael’s High School, Patna, emerging as the overall topper. She was followed by Dhairya Pandey, also from St Michael’s, and Saptak Gupta of Delhi Public School, Patna, in second and third places respectively — a clean sweep for Patna schools.
ACAD, organised by Extra-C, a Patna-based non-profit that promotes knowledge-based learning, is India’s longest-running daily online crossword competition. One cryptic clue is uploaded each day on www.crypticsingh.com, and participants must submit their answers by the following day. Points are awarded for both speed and accuracy, with leaderboards updated monthly.
In the college category (ACAD Plus), Samriddhi Sinai Salgaonkar of Goa Dental College claimed first place, followed by Om Kumar Jha of NIT Manipur, Araria, and Shivam Kumar Jha of S.D.D.N.G. Government High School, Forbesganj.
In the senior category, for participants aged 60 and above, Kolluru Koteswara Rao of Hyderabad topped the table, with R. Nagendra Prasad of Bengaluru and N. Rangaswamy of Chennai in second and third.
Meanwhile, in the global category, Samit Kallianpur of Secunderabad led the rankings, ahead of Ramakrishnan Krishnan of Chennai and Harish Kamath of Bengaluru.
Launched in 2014, ACAD now spans multiple categories — school, college, senior, and global — and recognises top performers with certificates, prizes, and invitations to national crossword events, further strengthening India’s growing puzzle community.
