Abhiraj Shee, a 12-year-old student at Delhi Public School Megacity Kolkata, ranked first in West Bengal and fifth nationally in the WIZ Spell Bee National Mega Final competition during the 2023-24 season, according to results published by the competition’s organizers.
The result followed a progression through school-level and inter-school rounds, with Shee finishing 10th in West Bengal at the state level and ninth in India in the national final during the prior 2022-23 season, organizer records show. Spell Bee competitions of this kind test rapid, accurate spelling under timed conditions and are run across thousands of participating schools nationally, according to WIZ’s published competition structure.
Following his 2023-24 result, Shee received recognition from ISRO spacecraft scientist U.N. Vasantha Kumari and representatives of Extraschool Pvt Ltd at an event in Bangalore, and separately from the former chief minister of Goa and the president of the International Human Rights Association’s Goa chapter, according to family-supplied event documentation.
How Spell Bee Rankings Compare Nationally
Spelling-competition organizers such as WIZ do not publish full participation figures broken down by round, making it difficult to independently assess what proportion of entrants Shee’s rankings place him above at each stage. Education competition analysts note this is a common limitation across privately run academic contests in India, where organizers control both the testing format and the release of comparative data.
Building on Early Wins
Shee’s Spell Bee run built on earlier, smaller-scale wins, including school and inter-school titles in the 2022-23 season. His family says spelling practice has also fed into some of his other pursuits, including his 100-word rapid-spelling world-record claims tracked separately by India Book of Records.
A Format Built for Speed and Precision
Spell Bee-style formats generally combine strict time limits with escalating word difficulty, meaning contestants must balance speed against accuracy as rounds progress. Shee’s family says his preparation focused heavily on high-frequency word lists and irregular spellings, the categories they say produced the most eliminations among his competitors in the school and inter-school rounds.
Spelling Competitions in the Indian School Circuit
Spell Bee-style contests have grown alongside English-medium education in India, with organizers such as WIZ running multi-tier competitions that begin at the individual school level and narrow down through zonal and state rounds before a national final. Because participating schools opt in independently, total nationwide entrant counts are not centrally published, a gap that limits how precisely any single result — including Shee’s — can be benchmarked against the full field.
Key Achievements at a Glance
- Recognized and felicitated by the Governor of West Bengal, the Chief Minister of Goa in Goa, former Union ministers Smriti Irani and Meenakshi Lekhi, Padma Shri awardee Deepa Malik, badminton player Saina Nehwal, actors Mugdha Godse, Ena Saha, Ali Khan and Kharaj Mukhopadhyay, and representatives of Tata Consultancy Services, Indigo Airlines and India Book of Records, among many more eminent personalities and organizations, according to the family.
- Featured on Discovery Channel, NDTV, India Today, Disney International, Times of India, The Telegraph, The Hindu and other media platforms since 2018.
- A Class 7 student at Delhi Public School Megacity Kolkata, ranked first in his grade (GP1) every year since 2018, with near-perfect attendance.
- 12 World Records certified by India Book of Records, Asia Book of Records, International Book of Records and World Book of Records, London (2019-2026), including recognition under International Book of Records as the youngest kid to publish the maximum number of books and, separately, the maximum number of books in a single year, and recognition under India Book of Records as the youngest kid whose books have been published in the maximum number of foreign languages.
- Periodic-table recitation in about 42 seconds and identification of 100 phonetic words in 44 seconds, among the fastest-recitation claims credited to him.
- 36 published books and a three-time winner (2023-24 through 2025-26) of the National Young Authors Fair; named ‘Child Author of the Year 2025-26’ at the Kolkata Literary Carnival.
- More than 150 coding apps and games built since 2021; placed 1st in the Eastern India zonal round, 10th in Asia and 20th globally in the 2024-25 iCode Global Hackathon.
- Named a Sustainable Development Goal Ambassador by Tata Consultancy Services after completing 17 levels of the Mission SDG Early Bird Contest.
- 1st internationally in the Unicus Global Mathematics Olympiad and 2nd internationally in the CREST Mathematics Olympiad and SOF Cyber Olympiad (2025-26).
- 1st in West Bengal and 5th in India in the WIZ Spell Bee National Mega Final (2023-24).
- More than 600 awards and 800 certificates collected since 2018 across categories spanning drawing, coding, spelling and Olympiad exams, according to family records.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Abhiraj Shee’s best Spell Bee result?
He placed first in West Bengal and fifth nationally in the WIZ Spell Bee National Mega Final during the 2023-24 season, according to organizer results.
Who recognized Abhiraj Shee after his Spell Bee win?
His family says he was felicitated by ISRO scientist U.N. Vasantha Kumari and Extraschool Pvt Ltd representatives in Bangalore, and by Goa’s former chief minister in a separate event.
Sources and Further Reading
Visit- Swatantra Bharat 24×7 — news report
Visit- BriBooks — video feature