New Delhi: The second practice round of the National Inter-College Crossword Expedition (NICE 2025) witnessed enthusiastic participation from students across India, with Goa Dental College’s Samruddhi Sinai Salgaonkar emerging as the national topper. The round, hosted on the official contest portal, nice.crypticsingh.com, drew hundreds of participants showcasing their puzzle-solving prowess and lateral thinking skills.
Salgaonkar, an experienced player of both ACAD and NICE contests, claimed the top spot nationally, followed by IIT Kanpur’s Nikhil Pothuganti and Muhammed Akmal Harif. IIT Kanpur reaffirmed its dominance by sweeping top positions across national, zonal, state, and city categories, underscoring the institute’s culture of analytical excellence.
In the Awaiting College Admission (ACA) category, Bhargav Vinayak from Ludhiana, the reigning champion of the National Inter-School Crossword Contest (CCCC), continued his winning streak by securing the first position. Many participants in this group are awaiting their board or entrance exam results and are expected to join universities later this year.
In the zonal categories, winners included Prachinanda Sahoo from S.S.D. Mahavidyalaya, Cuttack (East Zone); Gondaliya Nisarg Vitthalbhai from Dr. S & SS Ghandhy GEC, Surat (West Zone); Anusha Gupta from IIT Kanpur (North Zone); Jaswanth Neerukattu from Santhiram Engineering College, Kurnool (South Zone); and Barsha Debnath from Women’s College, Tripura (North-East Zone).
State-level winners featured participants from across the country, including Granth Kothari of IIT Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Raushan Kumar of Gaya College of Engineering (Bihar), Kuhu Goel of BITS Hyderabad (Telangana), and Sajai Sathiendran of SNS College of Technology, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), among others.
City-level winners included Mehal Khandelwal from Vikram University, Ujjain; Shivani Kumari from GEC, Vaishali; and Mahalakshmi N from SASTRA, Thanjavur, further highlighting the contest’s wide reach.
The spotlight now turns to the scoring round, set to commence on May 18, which promises to be a closely fought phase as anticipation builds among participants.
