Patna: Students from Patna have secured the top two national positions in the second online round of Phase I of the CCCC Cryptic Crossword Contest 2026, organisers said on Sunday.
Playing solo, Dhairya Pandey of Don Bosco Academy, Patna, claimed the highest national ranking, while a team from Delhi Public School (DPS), Patna – Nanya Dev Singh and Hemang Chandra – finished second. Third place went to Avani Fiske and Mudraa Paidarkar of SES Gurukul, Pune.
The competition, now in its 14th year and widely known as CCCC, is being held online, with the final round of Phase I scheduled for April 26. Participants can compete either individually or in two-member teams, with registrations still open.
Among state-level performers, Harsh Raj and Pratyush Kumar of Darbhanga Public School topped the Bihar rankings, while Rohan Maheshwari and Mehransh Singh Saluja of DPS Neelbad led in Madhya Pradesh. In Telangana, the top spot went to Roshini Vallabhaneni and C.N. Harsitha of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Public School (Vidyashram).
Top-performing solo participants included Soumyajit Ghosh of Vision International School in West Bengal, Chethan of Narayana Junior College in Andhra Pradesh, and Suhana Banu of Tinsukia Bengali Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Assam.
In Delhi, Pulkit Gupta and Manya Gupta of Adarsh Public School emerged as state toppers, while Ishani Majumdar and Praneela Dithya Reddy Kalluru of SES Gurukul led in Maharashtra. Other leading teams included Urvi Dev and Samara Aurora of National Public School, Koramangala, in Karnataka, and Devishi Tyagi and Aarav Chamola of DAV Public School, Dehradun, in Uttarakhand.
In Punjab, Ahnad Kaur and Divya Dhiman of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, retained their position at the top of the state rankings for a second consecutive round. In Tamil Nadu, B. Akshita and Pranati P. of DPS Coimbatore secured first place.
City-level toppers included teams from Bhagalpur, Delhi, Bhopal and Bengaluru, reflecting broad participation across the country.
Described by organisers as the world’s largest school crossword contest, the competition follows a hybrid format. Participants who qualify from Phase I will advance to Phase II, conducted online, with successful contenders then invited to New Delhi for the offline grand finale later this year.
The contest is supported by the Rural Electrification Corporation, a public sector enterprise focused on India’s energy infrastructure.
