Dhairya reclaims top spot in crossword challenge

Dhairya Pandey of Don Bosco Academy, Patna, has reclaimed the top national spot in the school category of the online crossword challenge, known as ACAD QUAD, for May 2026. Shraddha Shree of St Michael’s High School, Patna, has retained her top ranking in the college category.

In the senior and global segments, Dhirendra Tripathi of Ahmedabad and Harish Kamath of Bengaluru have secured first position, respectively. Nirbhay Raj and Abhishek Kumar, both from Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Awasiya Vidyalaya, Pokhraira, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, have claimed the second and the third positions, respectively, in ACAD School. In the College category, the positions, respectively, have gone to Sohamm Sarthak Sinha of IGIMS, Patna, and Om Kumar Jha of NIT Manipur. Jacob Brahmakulam from Thrissur, Kerala, holds the 2nd rank in the Senior category, while N Rengaswamy from Chennai follows closely in the third spot In the Global Challenge, Samit Kallianpur of Secunderabad and Ramki Krishnan of Chennai have maintained their praiseworthy performances by cornering the second and the third spots, respectively.

ACAD QUAD is a medley of four separate daily contests and runs throughout the year on www.crypticsingh.com. The competitive phase, however, runs between February 1 and October 31 every year. The four categories with a similar format are school. College, Senior, and Global. While the first two are for schoolchildren and college students, ACAD Senior is for contestants above 60 years of age, and ACAD Global is for any contestant living anywhere in the world.

Participation at any stage of the contest is free of cost. A participant may register on the website, get a password, and enter the game daily. There are surprise gifts for top performers in different categories.