Start here
Everything, step by step
No jargon. If you have never done anything like this before, this section is for you.
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1. Pick your city
Everything on Cityicon is organised by city. You choose yours when you
register, and you can change it later from your profile. Your city decides which
challenges you see first, whose leaderboard you appear on, and which prizes you are
competing for.
You are not locked in. You can enter another city's challenge whenever you like —
most people just start with the place they know best.
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2. Create an account
You need a name, a mobile number, a date of birth and an email address. A username is
optional; if you set one you can log in with it instead of your email. You must be
14 or older — the date of birth is checked, not just ticked.
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3. Choose a challenge and enter
A challenge is a set of questions about one city, open for a fixed period. Each one
shows you exactly what you are getting before you commit: how many questions, how many
seconds per question, when it closes, and what the prizes are.
Some challenges are free. Others have an entry fee,
shown clearly on the challenge page. If there is a fee, you pay it before you can start,
and your entry is only confirmed once the payment actually succeeds.
Membership is a separate thing from entry fees. Membership unlocks the premium practice
library. You do not need one to enter a challenge.
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4. Read the rules
Before the first question you get a rules screen. It is short, and it is worth reading,
because the rules are enforced automatically — nobody reviews your attempt by hand
afterwards. You can read it in your own language using the translate button in the
navigation bar.
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5. Play — one attempt, one sitting
You get one attempt. Each question has its own countdown, shown at the
top of the card; when it runs out the challenge moves on by itself. Answers save the
moment you tap them, so a dropped connection does not lose your work.
The clock runs on our server, not in your browser. Closing the tab, refreshing, or
changing your device's time does nothing to it.
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6. Stay on the screen
This is the rule people ask about most, so here it is exactly:
- 1st You leave the challenge screen once — you get a warning.
- 2nd You leave again — your challenge is submitted there and then.
- 3rd Any further attempt — you are disqualified from that challenge.
Being straight with you: a website cannot physically stop you switching tabs, and we
are not going to claim otherwise. What it can do is notice, record it with a timestamp,
and apply the rule above. That is what happens.
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7. Get your result
The moment you finish you see your score, the time you took, and your rank against
everyone else in that challenge. Below that you get the full breakdown — correct,
incorrect, unattempted, accuracy — and a question-by-question review with the reasoning
for each answer.
Rank is decided by score first, then by time. If two people score the
same, the faster one finishes higher. Knowing the answer is not quite enough.
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8. Prizes
Every challenge pays out four places: 1st, 2nd,
3rd, and 4th to 10th. The exact prize is shown on
each challenge page — it is set per challenge, so do not assume it is the same
everywhere.
Standings are provisional while a challenge is still open, and confirmed when it closes.
Organisers contact winners after that to arrange delivery.
