diff --git a/problemtools/context.py b/problemtools/context.py
index ab705d2b..28022246 100644
--- a/problemtools/context.py
+++ b/problemtools/context.py
@@ -32,5 +32,9 @@ def submit_background_work(self, job: Callable[_P, _T], *args: _P.args, **kwargs
         assert self.executor
         self._background_work.append(self.executor.submit(job, *args, **kwargs))
 
+    def cancel_background_work(self) -> None:
+        for future in self._background_work:
+            future.cancel()
+
     def wait_for_background_work(self) -> None:
         concurrent.futures.wait(self._background_work)
diff --git a/problemtools/verifyproblem.py b/problemtools/verifyproblem.py
index 378e6d8d..f2771b62 100644
--- a/problemtools/verifyproblem.py
+++ b/problemtools/verifyproblem.py
@@ -1485,6 +1485,11 @@ def check(self, context: Context) -> tuple[int, int]:
                     item.check(context)
         except VerifyError:
             pass
+        except KeyboardInterrupt:
+            # In multithreaded runs, we can queue up large chunks of work. If the
+            # user presses ctrl-c, we want to cancel that to exit quickly.
+            context.cancel_background_work()
+            raise
         finally:
             # Wait for background work to finish before performing an rmtree on
             # the directory tree it uses.