Washington State High School Knowledge Bowl Championship

Annual in-person academic competition in Washington State for high school teams organized by WA KB, with written and oral rounds covering a wide range of academic subjects. It is held in March at Wenatchee High School with school-size-based classification brackets.

The Washington State High School Knowledge Bowl Championship is a prominent annual academic competition organized by Washington State Knowledge Bowl (WA KB) for high school students across Washington State. Held in March at Wenatchee High School, the tournament features teams competing in written and oral rounds across diverse subjects such as math, science, history, literature, language skills, music, geography, current events, and general knowledge. The competition emphasizes teamwork, quick thinking, broad knowledge, and academic excellence, with schools grouped by size classification to ensure balanced competition.

Competition Details

Judging Criteria

Scoring is based on performance in a written round followed by multiple oral rounds. The state tournament begins with a 50-question multiple-choice written round completed collaboratively by the whole team within 35 minutes. Following this are four preliminary oral rounds, each with 50 questions where four team members compete head-to-head against other teams. Teams earn one point per correct answer with no penalty for incorrect guesses, encouraging strategic guessing. The top teams from preliminaries advance to semi-final and championship oral rounds, also consisting of 50 questions each. Substitutions of team members are allowed at the halfway point in oral rounds. Winners are determined by total match points accumulated throughout.