Brilliant finish to University Challenge (4)
I believe the answer is:
defy
'challenge' is the definition.
(I know that defy is a type of challenge)
'brilliant finish to university' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'brilliant' could be 'def' (def can informally mean excellent) and 'def' is found within the answer.
A single letter 'y' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for defy that I've seen before include "Flout" , "Withstand" , "Disobey boldly and openly" , "Openly resist or refuse to obey" , "Resist (someone) openly" .)