袋鼠数学思维挑战由澳大利亚著名数学家 Peter O ‘ Halloran 于 1980 年发起，是全球极具影响力的青少年国际数学思维挑战，每年吸引超过 630 万学生参加。不同于传统数学奥赛强调的高难度和挑战性，袋鼠数学竞赛宗旨是用有趣生动、接近生活的题目，激发孩子们数学学习兴趣及自信，培养学生数学思维，训练学生阅读、理解、分析和解决问题能力，适合各年级各种数学水平同学参加。

The Kangaroo Maths Contest was initiated in 1980 by Peter O ‘Halloran, a famous Australian mathematician. Different from the difficulty and challenge of traditional Mathematics Olympiad, Kangaroo Maths Contest aims to stimulate students’ interest and confidence in Maths learning and to cultivate students’ mathematical thinking as well as students’ ability of reading, understanding, analysing and problem solving with vivid questions related to our daily life. It is a contest suitable for students of all grades and all levels of Maths, and it’s the world’s most influential international Maths thinking challenge for young people, with more than 6.3 million students participating each year.