International History Bee & Bowl / US National History Bee & Bowl

The Bee is an individual competition and the Bowl is a team event whose players must all attend the same school. A regional Bee runs 30 buzzer questions per round across three preliminary rounds plus a final. The Bowl fields up to four players at a time over four quarters: quarter one is 10-point tossups, quarter two adds team bonuses, quarter three is a 60-second eight-question lightning round that the other team can pick up, and quarter four uses power-marked tossups scoring 30, 20 or 10 by how early you buzz.

Only for high school students entering the individual History Bee on its own; students who also play in the History Bowl are exempt. The ORQE is 50 multiple-choice questions in 20 minutes covering world history across periods and regions, and roughly 60 percent of test takers advance to a regional. There is no hard deadline and separate versions run in fall and late fall, so taking it early frees you to plan the regional calendar.

Use the online regionals. IAC runs several each year, such as the Mid-Winter Online History Bee and Bowl on February 13-14, 2027, which is open regardless of state as long as the student has not played that question set in the same academic year. Online results qualify students for nationals exactly like in-person ones. For an Irvine family it is the cheapest way to play a full-format event before deciding whether to travel.

Finishing in the top 50 percent of your age division at a regional qualifies you, and students may play up to seven regionals in a school year, online or in person. The 2026-27 season has two national championships: Varsity and JV on April 23-24, 2027 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia, and the middle and elementary divisions on May 27-31, 2027 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. Roughly the top 30 to 35 percent at nationals reach the elimination rounds.

Yes. At the high school level there is Varsity for grades 11-12 and Junior Varsity for grade 10 and below. Below that, divisions are split grade by grade: 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd grade and under, covering K-12 overall. Because the brackets are that fine, younger students never face high schoolers directly, which is part of why it works well as an entry point for upper elementary students.

Elementary and middle school regionals run $54 per event, with a $10 late surcharge. For the online Mid-Winter History Bee and Bowl on February 13-14, 2027, early registration closes February 5 with late registration accepted through February 8 at an added fee. National championship fees are listed on the official Nationals page. Students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch at school can apply for QB4ALL financial assistance, which the organizers publicize directly.

Memorizing dates pays poorly. Buzzer questions are written hardest clue first, so the skill is identifying the era, region and type of figure from the first two sentences. When reading history, deliberately note unique identifiers - a person's distinctive nickname, the one place an event could have happened. The organizers publish past national question sets; sorting them by theme into a running error log beats untargeted drilling, and this practice fits well into the time left over from a regular history or AP course load. For the Bowl, assign subject areas in advance across ancient, European, American, Asian and African, and cultural history.

IHBB results are the pathway in: students who perform well at IHBB events earn eligibility for the International History Olympiad, which is held every two years, with the next edition scheduled for July 2027. For a student serious about history, that means regionals and nationals are not isolated events but the first steps on a route that extends to the international level, and a result worth citing on a UC application - worth deciding on at the start of a season rather than mid-way through.