Introduction. Teaching Russian as a foreign language in various universities is a modern and advanced research area. At the same time, much attention is paid not only to the classroom, but also to the independent work of students. One of the forms of extracurricular work is the preparation and conduct of Olympiads in Russian as a foreign language.  The purpose of the article is to consider and to compare the peculiarities of organization and content of Russian as a foreign language Olympiads. We provide a description and comparative analysis of Russian as a foreign language Olympiads at the universities of different professional orientation: at the Ufa Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and at Shukhov Belgorod State Technological University. Also, we emphasize the advantages of such events and determining the prospects for their use in modern conditions. The article raises the question of using the Olympiad assignments as one of the ways of checking the level of linguistic and professional competence, increasing the motivation of students; the role and place of subject Olympiads in education and personal development of foreigners is analyzed. The application of methods of theoretical analysis, synthesis and comparison, as well as statistical analysis helped to achieve the objectives. Results. The content of Olympiad assignments should necessarily include the analysis of professionally oriented texts, as well as tasks for controlling the skills of monological and dialogic speech. Analysis of the errors of foreigners helps the teacher to adjust the methodology of classes in Russian as a foreign language. The materials of this article can become the basis for discussions regarding the forms, methods, amounts and content of Russian as a foreign language Olympiads in various universities. In the long term, we can point out the discussion about the conduct of interuniversity Olympiads in the distance format in connection with the transition of many universities in our country to the distance and combined learning format.