For the first two years, only teams from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania took part in the event, but later all the other countries surrounding the Baltic Sea (and also Iceland) joined in. Thus, the contest is now normally held among 11 teams: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany (represented mainly by Rostock and Hamburg), Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia (represented by St. Petersburg) and Sweden. Sometimes organisers also invite a guest team to take part in the contest. In 2001, there was a guest team from Israel, in 2004 and 2014, from Belarus, in 2005, from Belgium, in 2011, from South Africa, in 2015, from the Netherlands, and in 2021, from Ireland.

In 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic, Baltic Way was organized virtually.

The rules of the competition are simple: each country sends a team of 5 high school students, who are expected to solve 20 problems within 4.5 hours. During this time, the team members can and must communicate — otherwise they would not be able to solve such a quantity of problems. Hence, Baltic Way is not only about mathematical knowledge, but also about cooperational skills.

For Estonia, there have been more and less successful years. In 1993, 1997–2001, 2003, 2015, 2019 and 2021, Estonia reached a place in the top 3, and in 1999, the Estonian team was awarded the first.