Is Cambridge Tripos really one the most challenging Maths courses?

As the title reads, and why? What does the course entail that makes it more challenging than other Maths courses.?

The sheer number and range of courses offered in Part II of the Mathematical Tripos in Cambridge is very impressive, and possibly unique for the final year of undergraduate programmes anywhere.(Part II).

Overall the standards were appropriate for a top university. It should be noted that the first class standard is very high: significantly higher than anywhere except Oxford.(Part II)

Intellectual standards on Part II of the Mathematical Tripos are very high, comparing favourably even with those at other departments in Cambridge and with other leading UK universities.This is a course that is of the highest level of intellectual rigour, covering a broad range of topics (Part II)

If you do a bit of searching on the web, you can find the examiners' reports for the Maths tripos. These are quotes from the report for 2014 from the external examiners:



What makes it challenging?

(i) To get on the course in the first place you have to be very bright (and pretty competitive). So most of your fellow students are pretty close to the top of the game. Very hothouse.

(ii) The course proceeds at great speed; both in packing the material into shorter terms and in how much is packed in.

(iii) Stuff that might be spelled out in detail in other courses is left for you to sort out.

Having said that, I think that there are other courses in the UK that approach Cambridge in how challenging they are!