In the written part, contestants were asked to write a sentence about why preserving oceans is important, identify places on a map that had been part of National Geographic's "pristine seas" project, and write an paragraph about which place needed to have steps taken for its preservation first: The Rio de la Plata estuary, the Sundarbans, or the Great Barrier Reef.
The oral part consisted of ten rounds about world geography and National Geographic Explorers.
All 54 State Champions participated, and after a tiebreaker ten finalists were determined: The Final Competition was held on Wednesday, May 17, 2017.
Humorist, journalist, and actor Mo Rocca moderated the Competition for the second year in a row.
Tying for seventh place were Rohan Kanchana of Delaware, Ahilan Eraniyan of California, and Max Garon of D.C.