What's on the AMC 8? Topics in the Last 10 Contests
About a quarter geometry, a fifth arithmetic, and a hard turn toward geometry and counting in the last five questions: here's what the AMC 8® actually tests, from 250 recent problems.
Updated October 8, 2026
The topic mix
Across the last 10 AMC 8 contests (2016–2026), about a quarter of the problems were geometry and about a fifth were arithmetic. The rest split between algebra, counting and probability, number theory, and data and logic puzzles.
Over 20 years (500 problems since 2006) the mix is almost the same, within a point or two for every topic. We found no meaningful shift in what the AMC 8 tests.
How the test changes from question 1 to 25
The order matters as much as the mix. The first five questions are mostly arithmetic; the last five are mostly geometry and counting.
Questions 1–5
Questions 21–25
Questions 6–20 are a mix of everything. For a student, this means two things: the first questions reward careful, quick arithmetic, and the points at the end come mostly from geometry and counting and probability.
The same topics come back every year
Many topics show up as the main idea of a problem in almost every contest:
- Basic probability: 9 of the last 10 contests
- Logic puzzles: 8 of 10
- Ratios, rates and speed, perimeter and area, exponents, and fractions: 7 of 10 each
- Circles, averages, and arithmetic sequences: 6 of 10 each
That's good news for preparation: a student who is solid in these topics has seen the core of most contests before walking in.
What this means for preparing
- Make the first 15 automatic. They lean on arithmetic, fractions, ratios and rates, which are the cheapest points to protect.
- Geometry is the biggest single topic, and it dominates the last five questions. Area, circles and the Pythagorean theorem pay off at every level.
- Counting and probability is the second big topic at the end of the test, and the one students most often haven't seen in school.
- For a week-by-week schedule, see the 11-week AMC 8 prep plan.
How we counted: we sorted every problem from the official AMC 8 contests (2016–2026; there was no 2021 contest) into topics, with AI-assisted tagging that was then spot-checked: an independent re-tag of a random 100 problems agreed on the topic 91 times, and topic labels published by a math school for 150 recent problems agree on most geometry and counting problems. Where a problem mixes topics we counted its main one, and arithmetic, algebra and logic overlap, so treat those three as rough. Percentages are rounded. We count topics only; we don't reproduce any contest problem.
Practice the topics that show up most
Contest Math Pro's placement test finds your child's weakest topics, and the daily workout aims there. Every practice problem is original and built in the same style as the contest. Free to start.
Questions parents ask
What topics are on the AMC 8?
Geometry is the biggest topic (about a quarter of problems in the last 10 contests), followed by arithmetic, algebra, counting and probability, number theory, and data and logic puzzles.
Are the AMC 8 questions in order of difficulty?
Roughly, yes. In the last 10 contests the first five questions were mostly arithmetic, and the last five were mostly geometry and counting and probability.
Does the AMC 8 repeat topics every year?
Yes. Basic probability was a main topic in 9 of the last 10 contests, and logic puzzles, ratios, rates, area and fractions came up in most of them.
AMC 8® is a registered trademark of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Contest Math Pro is not affiliated with or endorsed by the MAA. For official rules and dates, see the MAA American Mathematics Competitions.