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 you need to participate in the Imagine Cup:

  • Global competition for students aged 16+
  • You’re welcome to imagine any solution that you’re passionate about, but must include a Microsoft Azure component and take into consideration diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (see official rules for details)
  • Maximum three (3) members per team
  • For more information on the Imagine Cup competition, or any other competition, visit your account page

What can you win?

Imagine Cup teams can win mentorship, networking opportunities, free travel, cash, and other great prizes!

  • Teams that win their National Final or Regional Online Semifinals win travel to the Regional Final (Asia, EMEA, and the Americas) in Singapore, Amsterdam, and Mexico City, respectively
  • The top two teams from each Regional Final win USD8,000 cash, Azure credits, a trip to Seattle, and a spot in the World Championship
  • The three runner-up teams from each Regional Final win USD2,500 cash and Azure credits
  • The 2020 Imagine Cup World Champion team wins USD100,000 cash, USD50,000 Azure credits, and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Official Rules

2020 Imagine Cup Rules and Regulations

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!

You can unregister from your subscribed competitions by visiting the unregister page. Please note that once you have submitted to a competition, you may not unregister.

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.