Jamie Ding, a Seton Hall Law student is New Jersey’s best “Jeopardy!” player.
With a 25-game winning streak—the fifth longest in the show’s history—Ding has turned what is typically a one-night appearance into a sustained run built on curiosity, preparation and strategy.
While many contestants spend months cramming trivia before stepping on stage, Ding said his approach started long before he ever got the call.
“I’ve been preparing my whole life,” Ding said. “I like learning…I’m a very curious person and I enjoy learning about the world and everything that’s in it.”
Still, once he was selected to compete in early January, his preparation “kicked into high gear.” He watched episodes of the show closely, studied wagering strategies for Final Jeopardy and Daily Doubles, and practiced buzzing in.
Though the show spans a wide range of topics, Ding focused on categories that appear frequently, including Shakespeare, geography and the periodic table. He also worked to strengthen weaker areas, like pop culture.
“I asked my sister for advice [on pop culture], because she’s much more in tune with things than I am,” Ding laughed
Ding said his strongest subjects include history, science, classical music, opera and spoonerisms.
“I’m pretty good at the wordplay stuff,” he said. “I do a lot of crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles…I’m pretty familiar with spoonerisms because that’s a clue type in cryptic crosswords.”
However, Ding said if he could design his own category of Jeopardy!, it would center on the Kingdom Hearts video game series, which he used to stream on Twitch.
Beyond his category preferences, Ding’s gaming experience also informs his distinctive approach to gameplay.
On stage, Ding avoids the traditional top-to-bottom approach to the game board. Instead, he jumps between categories “like a knight on a chessboard,” to locate Daily Doubles early.
Balancing that level of preparation with law school, however, has not been easy.
“It’s not my finest work,” Ding admitted. “Every time I was doing schoolwork, I got nervous like, ‘What if I embarrass myself on national television?’”
The pressure occasionally pulled his attention from coursework and toward trivia, which he described as more “immediately rewarding.” Still, there are moments of overlap, with Jeopardy! clues sometimes touching on legal concepts, Latin phrases and landmark cases he encounters in class.
His approach to learning, he said, is rooted in engaging directly with primary sources—a habit he attributes to law school.
“In law, you’re always going to the primary source,” he said. “It does take longer to learn…But I feel like you get a better understanding.”
While Ding said Jeopardy! is not heavily edited and that the television broadcast accurately reflects what occurs during taping, he noted that viewers might still be surprised by the fast pace behind the scenes. Episodes of Jeopardy! are filmed in batches of five in a single day, meaning a long winning streak is built over multiple intense taping days rather than spaced-out appearances.
“You have about 15 minutes to get changed, use the bathroom, chug some Red Bull, then go to makeup and get mic’d up,” Ding explained.
The schedule leaves little time for reflecting on a win or a mistake. Ding said the ability to reset quickly is essential when moving from one game to the next.
“One thing that helps is just being up there and playing the game,” he said. “The nerves really settle down once you’re actually in the middle of the game.”
He added that he does not dwell on missed clues.
“I’m good enough at moving on from mistakes,” Ding said. “If I get a clue wrong, I can bounce back pretty quickly.”
As his winning streak has grown, so has the attention. Friends, family and members of the SHU community have reached out with support, along with former classmates from his hometown in Michigan and his undergraduate years at Princeton University.
“It’s been wonderful,” Ding said. “Everyone’s been so nice.”
Ding will return to the “Jeopardy!” stage Friday, with each game adding another chapter to an already historic run.
Megan Pitt is the head editor of The Setonian’s News section. She can be reached at megan.pitt@student.shu.edu.
