Jamie Ding
American game show contestant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jamie Ding is a New Jersey state government employee and law student who won 31 consecutive games on Jeopardy! before he finally lost in April 2026 with $882,605 in winnings and the fifth-longest winning streak in the show's history.[1][2][3]
Jamie Ding | |
|---|---|
| Occupations | Government employee, law student |
| Known for | 31-game winning streak on Jeopardy! |
He is known for wearing sweater outfits with orange, the school color of his alma mater, Princeton University.[1]
Early life and education
Ding is the son of a neuroscience professor and a high school math teacher who are immigrants from China.[4][2] He grew up in Grosse Pointe Shores, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Grosse Pointe High School in 2009.[5]
As a student, he competed in geography bees and on his high school quiz bowl team. He lost a sixth-grade spelling bee when he misspelled the word "bolero" as "ballero."[2]
He graduated from Princeton in 2013 with a degree in molecular biology and worked on The Daily Princetonian in multimedia.[6]
Ding is currently attending Seton Hall University School of Law, under a program in which classes are held every other weekend.[7]
Career
Ding works as program administrator for the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, where he helps administer tax credits to build affordable housing in the state.[2]
He has been part of an effort seeking to block the U.S. Department of Justice from obtaining New Jersey's voter registration records.[2]
Jeopardy!
Ding was not a regular Jeopardy! viewer until shortly before he started competing, though he had taken the Jeopardy! online qualification test several times despite not being a regular viewer.[2] He was then asked to audition in November 2024, over Zoom, and was cast, which triggered an intense bout of studying.[2]
In his final episode, he wrote a farewell note for his final Jeopardy! answer that read: "TTFN," short for "ta ta for now."[8]
Personal life
Ding's favorite color is orange. His favorite letter is F and his favorite number is 6.[2]
His hobbies include constructing cryptic crosswords; running an Instagram account rating General Tso's chicken with his sister, a lawyer named Jessie Ding;[2] chasing eclipses; writing in italics; and driving around with his trivia friends looking for a rare goose.[9]
He lives in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey.[2]