Foldit Leaderboards
Overall Puzzles
This category includes every puzzle except the Beginner puzzles. Doing well in this category means you're well versed in all forms of folding, even if you're not the best in one particular category.
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Beginner Puzzles
Beginner puzzles are open to new players only. Learn the basics of Foldit while competing with other new Foldit players! Veteran players will not recieve points for Beginner puzzles or appear on Beginner puzzle rankings.
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Novice Puzzles
Novice puzzles are a step up from Beginner, but still approachable for new players who have not finished the Campaign. These puzzles feature smaller proteins, and usually the starting structure is already partially folded.
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Intermediate Puzzles
Intermediate puzzles may require all of the Foldit tools, and assume players have finished the Campaign. Intermediate puzzles usually have additional Objectives, and may require you to fold a protein from scratch.
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Design Puzzles
In this category, players design new proteins for anything and everything -- from eco-friendly materials, to treatments for deadly diseases, to super-efficient enzymes. Players must design their protein so that it achieves the puzzle Objectives, and change its sequence so that the protein folds correctly.
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Small Molecule Design Puzzles
Players design inhibitors or modulators for folded proteins -- no protein folding required! Create new small molecules by modifying individual atoms, adding and deleting fragments, and using reaction-based design for tractable lab testing. The number of possibilities is estimated at 10^60!
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Prediction Puzzles
In prediction puzzles, the protein sequence is known, but we don't know how the protein folds up in 3D space. Players are challenged to fold the protein to get the highest score - the higher the score, the more likely the fold is correct. A correct fold prediction helps scientist understand how the protein functions in the real world.
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Electron Density Puzzles
Electron density puzzles provide real experimental data about the folded shape of the protein. X-ray crystallography or electron microscopy (EM) experiments produce a density cloud in the shape of the folded protein. Sometimes the density is crisp and clear, but other times it can be fuzzy or hard to interpret.
