NICE 2025 National Results: Patna's Adya Singh Claims All India Rank 1 Before College Admission
The competition was fierce, the clues were cryptic, and after four electrifying online rounds—“N”, “I”, “C”, and “E”—the curtain has lifted on the National Inter-College Crossword Expedition (NICE) 2025 leaderboard. Emerging at the very top of the national chart is none other than Adya Singh from Patna, who claimed the All India Rank 1 (AIR-1), even before entering college.
Following closely behind are Bhargav Vinayak (AIR-2), also awaiting college admission, and Harsh Raj (AIR-3), currently at IIT Kharagpur. These top three scorers have secured direct entry to the Grand Finale, skipping the Zonal rounds altogether.
Zonal Champions Rise
Each of the five zones has crowned its own crossword champion:
East Zone: Ayush Warsh, GEC Vaishali
West Zone: Samruddhi Salgaonkar, Goa Dental College, Goa
North Zone: Aditya Sharma, ACA
South Zone: Ashish CT, IIT Madras
North-East Zone: Mridul, IIT Guwahati
These zonal toppers have demonstrated exceptional wordplay and logic, and lead the way to the upcoming Zonal Finals.
Top 50 from Each Zone Advance
In addition to the zonal winners, the top 50 performers from each zone, based on cumulative scores from the online rounds, have qualified for the Zonal Finals, the second stage of the contest. They’ll now compete for a chance to join the Grand Finale alongside the national toppers.
State Toppers
The highest scorers from each state have also been declared. Their outstanding performances have added regional pride to this national quest for crossword glory.
Bihar: Musarrat Parveen, Government Engineering College, Vaishali
Tamil Nadu: Hersh Aditya Samdanut, IIT Madras
Delhi: Vijval Ekbote, IIIT Delhi
Telangana: V Krishna Sai Gayatri, BITS Pilani Hyderabad
Assam: Om Nitin Ahir, IIT Guwahati
Madhya Pradesh: Tarun Sharma, Swami Vivekanand Govt. Commerce College, Ratlam
Jammu & Kashmir: Sudeep Saurav, IIM Jammu and Kashmir
Tripura: Tanmoy Debnath, Maharaja Bir Bikram College, West Tripura
Uttar Pradesh: Kushagra Chandra, IIT Kanpur
Gujarat: Maitri Vijaybhai Thummar, Dr. S. & S. S. G.G. Engineering College, Surat
Karnataka: Palagiri Mani Vardhan Reddy, Christ University, Bangalore
Uttarakhand: Shashank Nautiyal, Government Polytechnic, Uttarkashi
Odisha: Nibedita Behera Dhenkanal, Autonomous College, Dhenkanal
Punjab: Aanya, Punjab College of Technical Education, Baddowal
Andhra Pradesh: Nichenametla Harshitha, Santhiram Engineering College, Nandyal
Maharashtra: Swarada Satling Narote, AISSMS IOIT, Pune
Chhattisgarh: Sushil Ekka, “Swa. Pyarelal Kanwar” Govt. College, Bhaisma
Manipur: Om Kumar Jha, NIT Manipur
Meghalaya: Amit Kumar Jha, North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy
Haryana: Lakshmishree Lakshmanan, Ashoka University
West Bengal: Arijit Chakraborti, Academy of Technology
Goa: Pratik Prasad Bhandare, Goa College of Engineering
The complete list of results, including state-level toppers and individual scores, is now available at the official contest website: nice.crypticsingh.com
