Patna: Students from Patna, Kerala and Chennai have emerged as winners in the March 2026 edition of the ACAD QUAD online crossword challenge, organisers said.
Dhairya Pandey of Don Bosco Academy, Patna, and Shraddha Shree of St Michael’s High School, Patna, secured first place in the ACAD School and ACAD College categories respectively. Jacob Brahmakulam from Thrissur, Kerala, topped the ACAD Senior category, while Ramakrishnan Krishnan of Chennai won the ACAD Global category.
In the school category, Dilkhus Kumar and Bittu Kumar, both from Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Residential School in Begusarai, Bihar, finished second and third respectively.
In the college category, Samriddhi Salgaonkar of Goa Dental College and Tisha Taneja of IIT Madras secured second and third positions.
For the senior category, R Uma and N Rengaswamy, both from Chennai, finished second and third. In the global category, Samit Kallianpur of Secunderabad and Mona Sogal of Bengaluru secured the second and third spots.
The A-Clue-A-Day (ACAD) challenge, launched in 2014, is an online daily crossword contest designed to engage participants through a mix of learning and recreation. Over the years, it has evolved into a four-segment competition in response to growing participation.
Organised by Extra-C, a civil society initiative, the contest runs annually from February 1 to October 31 and is hosted on its official website.
While the school and college categories cater to students, the senior category is open to participants aged 60 and above, and the global category allows anyone worldwide to take part.
Participation in the competition is free, with registered users able to attempt daily crossword challenges. Organisers said top performers are awarded prizes across categories as part of the initiative to promote learning through interactive engagement.
