In most states, high school diving is one individual event in a swim meet, in a similar way that pole vault is an individual event in a track and field meet. For regular season meets, it is usually held as the 5th event. Championship meets have a different format.

In a high school dual meet, each diver performs six dives. The first dive must come from a specified category, and is known as the voluntary dive. The maximum degree of difficulty for a voluntary dive is 1.8. The remaining five dives are called optionals, and must include dives from at least four categories. The dives are performed round-robin; that is, each diver performs their first dive, then following the same order, each diver performs their second dive, and so on.

Each diver enters a meet by submitting a dive list that is produced by the coach and signed by the coach and the diver. The diver's signature serves as confirmation that he knows and can perform each of the dives listed. Once the dive list is submitted, dives may not be changed, with the exception of position. A diver may change the position of his dive by asking the diving referee during competition, just prior to performing the dive.

In a championship meet, divers perform a total of 11 different dives, separated into three  rounds. The 11 dives are made up of a voluntary dive from each category, plus six optionals. The optional dives must also cover all five categories, with no more than two optionals coming from the same category.

The first two rounds usually take place in the morning, when no swim events are scheduled. For certain invitational meets, diving may be hosted at a different location.

Round 1 (Preliminary Round) consists of the first 5 dives. These five dives must include two voluntary dives and three optional dives. If there are more than 32 divers entered in the meet, then there will be a pause after the first three dives, and only the top 32 divers by score will continue.

After Round 1, the top 20 divers will advance to round 2. 

Round 2 (Semifinal Round) consists of the next 3 dives. These three dives must include two voluntary dives and one optional dive. No category of optional may be repeated from Round 1. 

The last round of diving is usually held as the 5th event during swim finals. The top 16 divers by score will advance to the final round. 

Round 3 (Final) consists of one voluntary dive and two optional dives. 

This table from NFHS lists the choices of dives in each category. 

Download the dive table here.

Judges award a score to a dive from 0 to 10, with 6 being a good score for a high school diver. The middle three judges' scores are added together then multiplied by the degree of difficulty to find the total number of points awarded for the dive. In most dual meets, there are only three judges, so all three judges' scores are included in the calculation. In championship meets, there are either five judges (invitationals and league championship meets) or seven judges (state meet). For a five-judge meet, the lowest and highest scores are ignored when calculating the dive award; for a seven-judge meet, the two lowest and two highest scores are ignored. 

For springboard diving, there are five categories of dives. They are forward dives, backward dives, reverse dives, inward dives, and twisting dives. Reverse dives (colloquially known as "gainers") start with a forward takeoff and rotate backwards toward the diving board. Inward dives start with a backward takeoff and rotate forward toward the board. Twisting dives all include rotation in two planes and consist of an element from one of the four other categories with lateral (twisting) rotation added. Any dive with lateral rotation is considered a twist category; for example, a forward somersault with one twist counts as twist category dive, but not a forward category dive.

Every dive is assigned a number that represents its relative difficulty, known as the degree of difficulty or DD. The lowest DD on our dive chart is 1.2, and the highest is 3.1. The DD is used when calculating the points scored for an individual dive. 

The dive number serves as the official listing of the dive on an entry form.

This graphic explains the dive numbers for the forward, backward, reverse, and inward categories:

The second graphic explains the dive numbers for twisting dives:

Divers may qualify for state in two ways: by meeting the 6-dive state qualifying standard TWICE during the season, or the 11-dive state standard once.

Diving standards for state qualification include a minimum point total and a minimum degree of difficulty. The minimum DD includes all optional dives, but does not include voluntary dives. 

For the 2020 Season, a diver must earn a minimum score of 210.00 points and have a minimum optional DD of 10.6 to qualify in a 6-dive meet (which must happen twice). A diver must score at least 335.00 points and have an optional DD of 12.6 in an 11-dive meet. 

Voluntary Dive Rotation