Spelling Bee competition starts in US today; Filipino student from UAE among 247 contestants
- Last updated: May 26, 2026 | 12:55
The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week, continuing a more than century-old tradition. The three-day competition begins on Tuesday and concludes on Thursday night. This year's bee has 247 spellers representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three US territories and five other countries: The Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
12-year-old student Seth Warren Bacongallo represents the UAE at the contest.
The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. After a long run at a convention centre in suburban Maryland, the bee returns to the nation's capital this year at Constitution Hall, a few blocks from the White House.
Another change for this year: ESPN NFL analyst and recent "Celebrity Jeopardy!” champion Mina Kimes has joined the bee as its television host.
This is the 98th bee; it was cancelled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s champion will be the 111th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.
Thirty of the past 36 champions have been of Indian heritage, including last year’s winner, Faizan Zaki.
The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company.
Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors around the country. In order to compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade or be older than 15.
Contestants must get through two preliminary rounds, where they are quizzed on words from a list provided in advance. There is one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.
Those who make it through the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. The words for the test, and for all subsequent rounds, are taken from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.
Throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.
About a dozen spellers advance to the finals. When only two remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a "spell-off” to determine the champion.
The top returning finisher from 2025 is Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third last year as an 11-year-old fifth-grader. Even if he falls short this year, he has two years of eligibility left.
Other possible contenders
• Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California, who finished third in 2024. He has dominated the bee circuit in the past year, winning the South Asian Spelling Bee, the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee and the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee.
• Oliver Halkett, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Los Angeles who finished in a tie for seventh last year.
• Esha Marupudi, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Chandler, Arizona, who also tied for seventh last year.
The winner receives a custom trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Here are the prize payouts:
• First place: $52,500 in cash, reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, a custom trophy and commemorative medal, and $1,000 in flight credits from Delta Air Lines.
• Second place: $25,000.
• Third place: $15,000.
• Fourth place: $10,000.
• Fifth place: $5,000.
• Sixth place: $2,500.
• All other finalists: $2,000.
Associated Press