Playing solo, Dhairya Pandey of Don Bosco Academy, Patna, on Sunday clinched the top national ranking at the end of the second online round in Phase I of the national inter-school CCCC Cryptic Crossword Contest 2026. The team from DPS Patna, comprising Nanya Dev Singh and Hemang Chandra took the 2nd position. The 3rd rank went to the team of Avani Fiske and Mudraa Paidarkar of SES Gurukul, Pune.
The 14th edition of this annual contest, known popularly as CCCC, is being hosted on www.crypticsingh.com. The last remaining online round in Phase I will be played on April 26. Participants have the option of representing their schools as a two-member team or solo.
The 2026 edition of this championship is being supported by the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), a PSU Maharatna at the forefront of building India’s energy infrastructure.
Among state toppers are the teams, comprising Harsh Raj and Pratyush Kumar of Darbhanga Public School for Bihar; Rohan Maheshwari and Mehransh Singh Saluja of DPS Neelbad, Bhopal, for Madhya Pradesh; and Roshini Vallabhaneni and C.N. Harsitha of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Public School (Vidyashram) for Telangana.
Among state toppers are three solo players – Soumyajit Ghosh of Vision International School, Hooghly, for West Bengal; Chethan of Narayana Junior College, Krishna, for Andhra Pradesh; and Suhana Banu of Tinsukia Bengali Girls’ Higher Secondary School, for Assam.
While the team of Pulkit Gupta and Manya Gupta of Adarsh Public School is the Delhi state topper that of Ishani Majumdar and Praneela Dithya Reddy Kalluru of SES Gurukul, Pune, is the Maharashtra topper.
In Karnataka, the team of Urvi Dev and Samara Aurora of National Public School Koramangla is the top scorer whereas in Uttarakhand that distinction goes to the team comprising Devishi Tyagi and Aarav Chamola of DAV Public School, Dehradun.
In Punjab, Ahnad Kaur and Divya Dhiman, representing BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, have made it to the top of the state merit list second time on the trot. The team of B. Akshita and Pranati P. of DPS Coimbatore has topped the Tamil Nadu list.
Among teams that figure in the list of city toppers are those comprising Yubraj Anand and Saksham Singh of Mount Assisi School, Bhagalpur, Bihar; Ramya Bindal and Aryan Sejwal of The Mother’s International School, Delhi; Deev Pandey and Aditi Matta of DPS Bhopal; and Samara Aurora and Urvi Dev of National Public School, Koramangla, Bengaluru.
CCCC, the world’s biggest school crossword contest, is played in an online-offline format. Shortlisted teams and participants from Phase I will move to Phase II of the face-to-face online round. Those who clear this stage will be called to the national capital for an offline Grand Finale towards the year-end to vie for the national Crossword Champion Trophy.
The full list of the second online round winners can be accessed on www.crypticsingh.com