# How to play ComputePrep — rules, the clock, and how scoring works

> How a ComputePrep drill works: tap a difficulty, the question loads before your clock starts, answer within 15–70 seconds, and get the fast method straight after. Scoring, the buzzer rule and streaks explained.

Source: https://computeprep.com/how-to-play

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How to play

## Three drills. One clock each.

A full ComputePrep session takes about five minutes. Here is exactly what happens, including the rules that decide your score.

### 1. Open it — no signup

Open [computeprep.com](https://computeprep.com/) and today's three drills are there. You do not need an account to play, and there is nothing to pay. Your progress is kept against an anonymous session, so it survives a refresh; sign in to carry it across devices.

### 2. Pick a difficulty

Each day serves **one drill kind at three difficulties** — easy, medium and hard. Same kind, three different clocks and three difficulty ladders. You can play one of each, in any order.

The kind rotates daily through all [23 drill types](https://computeprep.com/drill-types), so a week gives you a spread of vedic technique and exam arithmetic rather than the same drill seven times.

### 3. Tap Start — that's when the clock starts

The question is **downloaded before your clock starts**. A slow connection or a cold start never eats your seconds; you see a Start button, and the countdown begins only when you tap it.

The timer is stamped and judged **on our server**, not in your browser. The countdown you see is exactly the deadline the server will enforce, which is also why a drill has no shareable link — a shareable URL would let someone open it, read the question, and come back later with the clock already spent.

### 4. Answer before the buzzer

- **One attempt.** Pick an option and it is judged, exactly like the real paper.
- **The limit is 15–70 seconds**, set per kind and difficulty. [Every limit is published](https://computeprep.com/drill-types) — nothing about the clock is a surprise.
- **Past the buzzer scores zero.** A correct answer submitted late is judged a timeout loss. There is a three-second network grace so a buzzer-beater is not robbed by a slow connection, and nothing beyond that.
- **Run out of time entirely?** The round closes itself and shows you the answer and the walkthrough. You never end up staring at a locked screen.

### 5. Read the walkthrough — especially when you were right

Every drill ends with a **step-by-step walkthrough of the fast route**, not just the correct option. This is the part that actually moves your timing: "right but slow" is the problem ComputePrep exists for, and the walkthrough is where you find out that the four lines you wrote were two steps in someone else's head.

The wrong options are worth reading too. They are the classic careless errors for that kind — the left-to-right BODMAS trap, the un-carried vedic shortcut, the nPr-for-nCr mix-up. If you picked one, you have found a specific habit to fix.

### How scoring works

A correct answer scores a base by difficulty plus a speed bonus that decays evenly to zero at the buzzer:

| Difficulty | Base | Max speed bonus | Best possible |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Easy | 100 | 150 | 250 |
| Medium | 200 | 150 | 350 |
| Hard | 300 | 150 | 450 |

The bonus is proportional to the time you had left: answering with half the clock remaining earns half the bonus. Answering right at the buzzer still earns the base. A wrong or late answer scores 0.

### Streaks

Playing on consecutive days builds a streak, shown on the home screen. Miss a day and it resets — which is the whole point of a daily: the drill is small enough that "no time today" is never really true.

### Install it on your phone

ComputePrep is a Progressive Web App. Open it in your mobile browser and choose **Add to Home Screen** (Chrome: menu → Add to Home screen; Safari: Share → Add to Home Screen). It then opens full-screen like an app, with no app store and no download.

**Doing the reasoning section too?** Our sister product
 [Deduce](https://deducepuzzles.com) is the same idea for logical reasoning — a daily, provably-correct puzzle across
 [29 reasoning types](https://deducepuzzles.com/reasoning-puzzle-types), from seating arrangement to data sufficiency. ComputePrep times you; Deduce makes you prove it.
 [How Deduce works →](https://deducepuzzles.com/how-to-play)