College Puzzle Challenge is an annual puzzlehunt hosted by Microsoft, inspired by the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt or the MIT Mystery Hunt. However, several key features differentiate College Puzzle Challenge from these events. College Puzzle Challenge is a timed event, and while it does have a meta-puzzle, if no team has solved the meta-puzzle at the end of the allotted time, the event is declared over and alternate means are used to determine winners. Registration is limited to current undergraduate and graduate students and those who have graduated in the last year before the event, and team size is strictly regulated to four students. Instead of the winning team hosting the next event as with the Microsoft and MIT hunts, the event is always hosted by Microsoft employees. Since College Puzzle Challenge takes place at multiple locations simultaneously, events are coordinated by a puzzle control team at Microsoft's corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. Ground teams consisting of school alumni who are now Microsoft employees manage on-site issues such as holding opening and closing ceremonies and distributing puzzles.
College Puzzle Challenge 2003: An All-Night Affair
- Date: November 15-16, 2003
- Start Time: 12:00 Noon, EST
- Length: 24 hours
- Theme: Not strongly themed
- Participating Universities: University of Michigan
College Puzzle Challenge 2004: Casino Royale
- Date: November 6, 2004
- Start Time: 12:00 Noon, EST
- Length: 12 hours
- Theme: Casino games
- Participating Universities: University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Toronto
College Puzzle Challenge 2005: Wonders of the World
- Date: November 12, 2005
- Start Time: 12:00 Noon, EST
- Length: 12 hours
- Theme: The Seven Wonders of the World
- Participating Universities: University of Michigan, University of Toronto, Columbia University, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, University of Texas
- Grand Prize Winner: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Note: This was the first event to use the name College Puzzle Challenge.
College Puzzle Challenge 2006: Special Operations for Location, Verification, and Extraction
- Date: November 11, 2006
- Start Time: 12:00 Noon, EST
- Length: 12 hours
- Theme: A top-secret organization discovers a mysterious island
- Participating Universities: University of Michigan, University of Toronto, Columbia University, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas, Stanford University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington
- Grand Prize Winner: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
College Puzzle Challenge 2007: Regional Executive Department for Taxation of Assets, Property, and Equity (R.E.D.T.A.P.E)
- Date: November 10, 2007
- Start Time: 12:00 Noon, EST
- Length: 12 hours
- Theme: Auditing the estate of Professor Solvem to explore its mysterious financial state.
- Participating Universities: University of Michigan, University of Toronto, Columbia University, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas, Stanford University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University
- Grand Prize winner: Stanford University
