Knowledge Bowl is an academic competition for high school students in Washington State where each of the nine ESDs in the state hold regional Knowledge Bowl competitions that determine which teams will advance to the state-level tournament. Knowledge Bowl is considered an "athletic event for the mind," testing high school teams on their knowledge in a variety of subjects through a fun and energetic competition that involves team building, competitive academic testing and interaction with students from across the state.
High school teams compete by answering questions on math, science, history, language skills, literature, music, geography and current events through written and oral competition rounds. Local activities involve practice meets that begin in late fall and continue until the Regional Knowledge Bowl in early spring, when teams compete for advancement to their division's State Knowledge Bowl competition. Each team is comprised of up to six students who are placed into power match teams in an effort to place the most powerful teams into competition with one another during the meet for a duration of 7 rounds. State representatives are determined by the total scores achieved at the end of the first five rounds.
The cost to participate in the Knowledge Bowl program is $600 per school.