National Spanish Bee
Varsity & Junior Varsity Divisions

Competition Format

For the Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions, the National Spanish Bee is a one-stage competition, consisting solely of the National Championships.

The sole stage of the National Spanish Bee for the Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions is the National Championships, which for the 2026-27 academic year will take place online on Saturday, May 15. A full schedule of all events at the National Championships is available here (please see both tabs on the file). We hope that you will be able to join us for this unique opportunity to play a national championship level academic quiz competition en Español!

No qualification is required – the National Spanish Bee National Chapmionships is open to any student in grade 9-12, though students should be comfortable with their level of Spanish before competing, as all questions will be read entirely in Spanish. Students in grades 9-12 do not have separate classifications based on their Spanish ability (as is the case for students in grades 8 and younger). Instead, students compete in one of two age-based divisions: Varsity (grades 11 and 12) and Junior Varsity (grades 9 and 10). All students will play three preliminary round matches using standard International Academic Competitions buzzer-based online rules with 30 questions each. There will then be either one or two playoff rounds. One playoff round will be played if there are 30 students or fewer in an age division; two playoff rounds will be played if there are 31 or more students in an age division. The exact number of students who make the playoffs will be a function of the total number of registrants.

For the Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions, the National Spanish Bee consists of standard 3-5 sentence quiz bowl ” pyramidal tossup-style” questions; i.e. paragraph-length, with clues presented in descending order of difficulty. Note that the beginnings of the questions will not only feature harder content, but somewhat more complex grammar and more advanced vocabulary on average than the end of the questions. Thus the questions test for Spanish language comprehension, as well as for content mastery. All questions for the Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions will be about the Spanish-speaking world – at this level, it is reasonable to expect that players can be familiar with 100+ such topics. Please be sure to review the subject distribution of questions for the National Spanish Bee for further details.
The Junior Varsity Division of the National Spanish Bee is only open to students in 9th and 10th grade; younger students should explore how the National Spanish Bee works for them.

Official Rules on Spanish Language Answers

If answers have well-known Spanish equivalents, then the Spanish language word must be given, though the English or original language will be prompted. If the answer is a person’s name, then the original language name or English equivalent may be given. If there is a common Spanish equivalent, that will also be accepted, but Spanish names should not be translated unless this is a common practice with the name. Some reasonable leeway is permitted; the ultimate determination will be provided in the acceptability directions provided to the reader.

1. 1. For example, a question where the answer is “George Washington” should be replied to as “George Washington” (not “Jorge Washington” [sic], which would be considered incorrect and not promptable, as this is not the practice with this name in Spanish).
   2. For example, a question where the answer is “Thomas Aquinas” can be replied to as the English “Thomas Aquinas,” the Spanish “Tomás de Aquino,” or the Italian “Tommaso d’Aquino” – all would be considered correct.
   3. For example, a question where the answer is “Sweden” [sic] should be replied to as “Suecia” – and not as Sweden or Sverige, but those answers would be prompted by saying “I need the Spanish word.”)

The cost to compete at the 2027 National Spanish Bee National Championships is $54. Registration for the National Championships of the National Spanish Bee will open in November and run through early May on this page.

For all questions on the 2027 Varsity & Junior Varsity National Championships, please email help@iacompetitions.com.