Get Started

Use your imagination and passion to create a technology solution in one of our competitions or challenges. Here's how to sign up, pick a competition, and get started on your project!

What do I need to know?

Here is a quick summary of what is new this year with the Imagine Cup! Please read the official Rules and Regulations for all the details:

  • USD100,000 prize for the World Champion team
  • Three in-person Regional Finals across the globe with over USD20,000 in prizing
  • All technology projects are welcome
  • Maximum three (3) members per team
  • Azure is required for all projects (Get Azure for Students or Azure Free Account)

What can you win?

  • All teams that advance to the Regional Final win a trip to a Regional Final event
  • Asia Regional Final – Sydney, Australia
  • Europe, Middle East and Africa Final – Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Americas Regional Final – To Be Announced
  • At each Regional Final: USD15,000 for 1st place, USD5,000 for 2nd place, USD1,000 for 3rd place
  • 1st place teams will advance to the World Championship and compete for USD100,000 (date and location to be announced)

Official Rules

Click here for the 2019 Official Rules

Getting Started Feedback & Support Privacy

Contact us for more help

Getting Started

Head over to the Imagine Cup page to find a competition that's right for you. Click on any of the competitions to learn more and click 'Register Now!' to sign up!

Head over to your Imagine Cup Account page for all your details! View the status of your contests, manage your teams and check out local updates and news for your country.

A team must be created prior to or during project submission. You and your team will make an original technology project from start to finish: come up with a great idea, plan, build your project, and submit it! Imagine Cup teams are made of up to three eligible students. You can create a team from your Account page. If a friend creates a team, they can invite you and a notification will show up in your account.

You can submit and check the status of your entry for any of our contests from your Account page

Claim $100 in Azure credit and 25+ services FREE so you can build your competitive skills. Get Azure for Students

Visit Microsoft Learn and try out one of our free Azure learning paths to start creating your project. You can also try any of our Github Labs.

Visit Imagine Cup on YouTube, follow @MSFTImagine on Twitter and MSFTImagine on Facebook.

Feedback & Support

Claim $100 in Azure credit and 25+ services FREE so you can build your competitive skills. Get Azure for Students

If you are a student at a university, community college, vocational or trade school, or a high school, you are eligible to participate in Microsoft Imagine Cup. All students at accredited schools in countries around the world are eligible.

Teams can consist of members from multiple countries and/or universities, but the team can only represent one country in the competition.

We look at residency, not citizenship. If you are resident of an eligible country, you can compete representing that country even if your citizenship is elsewhere.

Teams may change their name and add or update team members, but they would have to do this before the submission deadline

Privacy

You can find the Microsoft Imagine Cup privacy & cookie policy here.

To learn more, please check out the Microsoft Imagine Cup policy on privacy & cookies.