National Inter-college Crossword Expedition National Inter-college Crossword Expedition (NICE), a national-level inter-college crossword contest for students of higher education institutes is organized by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in collaboration with National Institutes. Guidelines for NICE 26 In order to bring about the crossword-solving culture in the institutes of higher education AICTE, Extra-C, IIM Mumbai, IIT Madras conducts the National Inter-College Crossword Expedition (NICE) 2026. Registrations Students of all recognized colleges/universities of India are eligible to participate in NICE 26. Eligible students may register from 26th June 2026 for the contest on https://nice.crypticsingh.com/register website. Those students who had registered for previous editions of NICE and are still studying, need not register afresh. While their username would remain the same, they would be allotted a fresh password for each edition. The username and password will appear on the screen after successful registration and will be sent via email. The login credentials sent may be used for all the online rounds. Colleges/universities with over 100 registrants for NICE 26 till 23rd Aug, 2026 will get a ‘NICE Roll of Honour’ certificate and 10 crossword books from the organisers. The institutions with the highest registrations, as on 26th June 2026, in each of the five zones will receive a ‘NICE Institution’ plaque, a certificate and 100 crossword books. At all stages of the contest and in all matters arising out of the same, the final word lies with the organisers Extra-C. Online Rounds There would be one online Practice Round to familiarize the students with the types of questions/clues and the pattern of the contest. After the practice round, there would be four competitive online rounds, christened as N, I, C, E Rounds, respectively. The rounds will involve solving five crossword clues with supplementary hints, which will be posted at 1030 Hours IST on every Sunday which is available on https://nice.crypticsingh.com/default.The solutions will have to be submitted by 1700 Hours IST on the same day. Every round will have two sets of winners, viz., Winners and NICE Lucky Winners. NICE Winners would be decided on the basis of the points won by students on the basis of speed and accuracy. The person with the fastest all correct solutions will be awarded 1000 points. The scores will move in descending order based on the time taken and the correctness of the solutions. There would be a national and zonal NICE Summit Leaderboard for each of the online rounds and they shall be posted on www.nice.crypticsingh.com. A cumulative total score of all the persons for the online rounds will be used for the final leaderboard after the completion of the online rounds. The national winner of any of the online rounds will automatically qualify for the national finals. The zonal winner of any of the online rounds will automatically qualify for the zonal finals. The top 3 national and zonal position holders, in each of the rounds, will receive the NICE Summit Star certificates and plaques. Every Online Round will have NICE Lucky Winners from the Top 50 institutions participating in the contest. Only those institutions, which have at least 25 participants, would be eligible for the NICE Lucky prizes. These winners, dubbed as N, I, C, E Lucky winners, would be given NICE Sporting Spirit certificates by the organisers. Zonal Rounds There would be five zones, viz., North, South, West, East and Northeast. The Zonal Finals will be held offline. Top 50 participants from each zone after the online rounds will qualify for the zonal-level competition. The top 50 participants will have the option to form teams of two among themselves or from a chosen partner from the same institute. The eligible participants will also have the option to represent their institution individually. Each college/HEI can have a maximum of five teams (a maximum of two participants each) eligible for the zonal round. The zonal round would consist of two stages: Preliminary and On-Stage (or Zonal Finals) in each zone. The zonal round qualifier will face a written prelims after which the top six teams will proceed to the On Stage Final Round. The top three teams would qualify from each Zone for the National Finals to be held in Delhi in August-September. The Grand Finale may also have Wild Card entries of the winners of City-level and Institutional level crossword. contests , and any other outstanding team which could not participate in the Online Rounds/Zonal finals for a valid reason. The decision regarding Wild Card entries taken by the organisers Extra , would be final and binding. National Round The final round will begin with a Written Prelims and an On-stage Qualifying Round where all the qualifying teams will participate. The quarter-finalists would be selected on the basis of the scores of the Written round and the On-stage Qualifying Round. The Quarter Final, Semi-Final and the Final of the Grand Finale would be held subsequently. Source: www.nice.crypticsingh.com