Photo by Sam Yu Scott Weiss of Walkersville was recently a contestant on ABC’s “Jeopardy!” and has a number of “Jeopardy!” games in his collection.

Contestants are asked not to reveal how they did until the show airs, and Weiss will be featured tonight.

Weiss, 36, lives in Walkersville with his wife and 3-year-old son. He starts each day with the New York Times crossword puzzle before he heads to his job as a computer science professor at Mount St. Mary's University.

Almost every evening he tunes in to "Jeopardy!" He's been a fan of the quiz show since he was a teenager. At one time he taped every show he missed, although he stopped doing that after his son was born.

Weiss is passionate about puzzles. He grew up solving puzzles, doing word searches and math and logic games. His grandparents showed him the New York Times crossword as a child and his puzzle interest expanded exponentially.

He has a huge board game collection in his basement, including, of course, a couple of "Jeopardy!" games and several Trivial Pursuit games. He's been a subscriber to Games magazine since childhood. He is the coach of the Mount's College Bowl team.

For years he'd thought about trying out for "Jeopardy!" A year ago he decided to apply. He took an online test of 50 questions.

"You had 10 seconds to type in your answer," he said. "They don't tell you how you scored."

He was invited to a trial in May in Washington, where he bypassed the first test because of his online test. He took a second 50-question test.

The "answers" on both tests were similar to what's on the air. Contestants then play a mock version of the game, pushing a buzzer to give the answers. ("Jeopardy!" for the uninitiated, gives contestants answers for which the contestants must provide the questions.)

"I was the very last person they called up," Weiss said. Two contestants from a previous game served as his opponents.

At that point the show's producers aren't looking for mere intelligence. "They were looking for personality," he said. "It's a game show. They want enthusiasm."

Weiss said the audition experience was phenomenal. Because he does not have fully formed hands, show organizers asked him if he needed help with the buzzer. He had no trouble with it. In fact, one said his skill with the buzzer was magnificent.

"I thought that might be a good sign," he said.

He didn't hear anything until November when the show's producers informed him he was selected. He needed to be in California in mid-December for the taping.

The show does not pay expenses for first-time contestants. Third-place finishers get $1,000 and second-place finishers get $2,000, so that may help cover some hotel and airfare.

He and his wife traveled to Los Angeles. His sister, who was living in San Diego, chauffeured them around. The shows are taped on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with a week's worth taped on each day. It was a quick trip, because it came during finals week at the college.

Weiss said his strategy on the show was to read the question faster than host Alex Trebek could say it.

"The questions show up on the board, and you can read them from your seat," he said.

That way he could focus on whether to strike the buzzer. "Jeopardy!" strategists have long said contestants lose more often because they don't strike the buzzer fast enough.

"There are lights that tell you when the system is active," he said. "You must not answer too fast or it kicks you out for a quarter of a second. That doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot."

Each clue takes an average of 12 seconds to solve.

"You're thinking and working all the time," he said.

The clues usually provide hints to the solutions.

"You can't be scared of any category," he said.

The category of Ancient Phoenicians may sound obscure, but often the solution is contained within the clue.

To prepare for his appearance, Weiss read Wikipedia regularly.

"Not that you should use Wikipedia all the time," he said of the on-line encyclopedia that sometimes contains inaccuracies but can be a good source of pop culture.

Contestants are so busy focusing on the clues they don't have time to get stage fright.

Weiss is going to host a small family gathering tonight to watch the show, and tape tonight's and any subsequent show he might appear on for a larger gathering with family and friends this weekend.

"The fact that I got on in the first try is mind-boggling to me," he said. "I know people who have tried several times. Everyone in that audition room is very smart. That was one of the best things about being on the show. Everyone was very nice, and we all like this sort of thing."

In 10 days, Weiss heads off for a competition of another sort -- the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Conn.