Based on the semidefinite programming relaxation of the CDMA maximum likelihood multiuser detection problem,a detection strategy by the successive quadratic programming algorithm is presented. Coupled with the randomized cut generation scheme, the suboptimal solution of the multiuser detection problem in obtained. Compared to the interior point methods previously reported based on semidefinite programming, simulations demonstrate that the successive quadratic programming algorithm often yields the similar BER performances of the multiuser detection problem. But the average CPU time of this approach is significantly reduced.