Participants in the USAMTS must adhere to the following rules:

• Participants must be a resident or citizen of the United States.
• Participants must not have completed high school. Middle school students are permitted to participate.
• Participants must not discuss the problems with others before the deadline for solution submission.
• Participants may use resources such as books or the internet to do mathematical research to try to solve the problems. Participants may not use 'live' online help, e.g. they may not ask for help with the problem on online forums or tutorial services.
• Except where otherwise noted in problems, participants may use calculators and computers to solve problems. In this case, the participant must explain the program that was used to solve the problem, and must prove that the method used in the program does solve the problem. Symbolic manipulation calculators and mathematical programs such as Mathematica, Maple, and Matlab are considered programs for this purpose. Therefore, if a key step of a participant's solution uses these tools, the participant must demonstrate that the tool completed the step correctly.