Video and Interactive Demo
This video explains how to make a live quiz, including everything in this article. If you’re looking for a specific part, click the bottom-right button to watch it on YouTube, where each section is timestamped in the video description.How Does a Quiz Work?
In a quiz, participants in your presentation compete against each other to get the most points by submitting the most correct answers to your quiz questions. You progress through the quiz, pausing at each slide for players to answer the question on that slide. All players see a question at the same time on their personal devices and submit their answer from there before the time runs out. Here you can see the screens of the quiz host (on the left-hand computer) and the quiz player (on the right-hand phone).Step 1: Choosing a Quiz Slide
On the presentation editor, create a new slide and select any of the 5 ‘quiz’ slides as the format for that question (Spinner Wheel is not a scored quiz slide):- Pick Answer — A multiple-choice question with text or image answers.
- Short Answer — An open question with no answers to choose from. Players must type their answers.
- Match Pairs — A question with a set of prompts and a set of answers. Players must match the prompt to the right answer.
- Correct Order — A question with statements in random order. Players must put the statements in the correct order.
- Categorise — A question with categorized items. The player must classify the provided items into the corresponding groups.
The leaderboard slide does not update in real time. It fetches the latest results only when you refresh it or return/move to it from another slide, as it’s designed for live presentations.
Step 2: Editing a Quiz Slide
Now you can edit your slide. Here’s what a ‘Pick Answer’ slide looks like when it’s ready to edit:Write your question
In the right-hand column, write your question in the box labelled ‘Your question’.
Write your answer options or generate them
Write up to 8 answer options for your players to choose from. Mark at least one option as correct by checking the box next to it — or generate answers with AI to quickly create answer options for your questions. See Generating Questions and Answers Using AI.
Slide Settings
Points
Points
The maximum and minimum number of points it is possible to get on that question. If Faster answers get more points is unchecked, any correct answer receives the maximum number of points.
Faster answers get more points
Faster answers get more points
Enable this option to encourage players to answer quicker. For example, if the time to answer is 100 seconds and the reward points are set to 100 maximum and 0 minimum, a player submitting their answer with 80 seconds left receives 80 points.
Time limit
Time limit
The amount of seconds each player has to answer the question.
Leaderboard
Leaderboard
If enabled, a leaderboard slide is added right after this slide.
Partial Scoring
When setting up a Pick Answer slide, you can mark multiple answers as correct. If you do, participants can pick more than one answer, and the Partial scoring option appears — toggle it on or off:- On — Players score points for each correct answer, but any incorrect answer results in 0 points.
- Off — Players must select all correct answers to score points.
Adding Hints
You can add hints to your quiz questions to help out players. Only the presenter can choose to reveal a hint during a question.
Hints appear on both the presenter’s screen and the audience’s screens.
Hints are currently only available on the Pick Answer slide.
Adding Audio
If you’re on the Pro or Enterprise plan, you can also add accompanying audio to your quiz questions. See Slide and Presentation Audio for more.Step 3: Joining a Quiz
When you’ve created your quiz slides, you can either invite your players to join your presentation, or join it yourself on your phone to test it out (recommended). To start, press the purple Present button in the top-right corner of the editor. This takes you into the quiz lobby, where players join your quiz before you start hosting it. In the lobby, your players can join your quiz using either the URL code or QR code in the left-hand column. When the host presents a quiz slide:- The host sees the lobby on their screen — all the players who have joined the quiz and are waiting to play.
- The player is asked to enter their name and choose an avatar for the quiz. Once chosen, they appear in the quiz lobby.
Step 4: Presenting a Quiz
When all your players have joined the quiz and are showing in the quiz lobby, press the blue button below that says Start the Quiz! Your first question shows on your screen and each player’s phone screen. Players have the time limit you specified in the settings to answer. Proceed through your quiz like this until the final winner is announced at the end!Other Settings for Quizzes
Aside from the settings on each slide (see Step 2), you can also enable/disable general settings for the whole quiz. Find these under Settings in the right side menu bar, then General quiz settings.Live Chat
Live Chat
When turned on, the presenter and participants can exchange messages, inspire friendly competition, and have lively discussions on the quiz lobby screen. This cultivates a thriving atmosphere, transforming the quiz into an exciting and bonding experience.
Sound Effects
Sound Effects
Turn on music and sound effects that automatically play during the quiz lobby screen, quiz slides, and each leaderboard screen. You can also toggle this off and on directly on screen in the top-left corner. The music and sound effects are selected by AhaSlides and are not customisable. Sound effects accompany the countdown on quiz slides, signalling both the beginning of the quiz and the impending conclusion as the timer winds down; music plays throughout the quiz. On a leaderboard slide, a short jingle plays while the leaderboard rearranges to show new standings, and a different, more triumphant jingle announces the winner on the final leaderboard slide.
5s Countdown
5s Countdown
When on, each question is preceded by a 5-second countdown timer, giving players time to read the question before they answer.
Play as Teams
Play as Teams
Available on Edu Medium, Edu Large, Pro, and Enterprise plans. Players play the quiz in teams rather than individually. See Running a Team Quiz to set this up.
Shuffle Options
Shuffle Options
Available on Edu Medium, Edu Large, Pro, and Enterprise plans. Answer options for players on all Pick Answer, Match Pairs, and Correct Order slides are shuffled randomly, making it harder for players to swap answers by showing each other their screens.
Manually Show Correct Answers
Manually Show Correct Answers
Available on all paid plans. Does not work in Self-paced mode. When toggled on, the presenter sees an option at the end of each quiz question to explain it in greater detail before revealing how everyone voted.
Participant Avatars
Participant Avatars
Enabled — participants select an avatar when they join the quiz at the Lobby screen. Disabled — participants can join the quiz without avatars.
Audience-Paced/Self-Paced Quizzes
You can also let your players play a quiz without a host. This is great for teachers who want to assign a quiz as homework, or quiz masters who want to give players freedom to complete a quiz at a time that suits them. To set this up, see Setting up a Self-Paced Presentation on AhaSlides.Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't my quiz asking players for their names?
Why isn't my quiz asking players for their names?
Usually for one of two reasons: (1) you may have chosen a Poll slide instead of a Pick Answer slide — these slides look similar, but only Pick Answer is a quiz slide and asks for names; or (2) you may be presenting a non-quiz slide. If players join while you’re presenting a heading, list, image, or other non-quiz slide, they won’t be asked for a name — once you move to the first quiz slide, they will be.
How can I clear player answers on my quiz?
How can I clear player answers on my quiz?
If you’ve just tested your quiz with a real device, want to reuse a quiz, or made a mistake and want to start over, you can clear any submitted answers without affecting the content of your quiz. You can clear all responses or just the responses from one question — see Resetting the Results.
How can I test my quiz?
How can I test my quiz?
The best way is Preview Mode, which lets you try your quiz from both the presenter screen and the player screen. You can also join it on your own phone or get friends to join and play along — if you do, remember to clear your own answers afterward.
How "everyone has answered" (auto-end quiz timer) works
How "everyone has answered" (auto-end quiz timer) works
This feature automatically ends the quiz timer once all participants have submitted their answers. It counts the highest number of participants who were in the quiz at the same time after the presenter clicked Present. For example, if your quiz had a peak of 100 participants but 1-2 later left, the system still treats the total as 100 — so the timer won’t auto-end until it has responses accounted for from all 100. The count only resets when the presenter exits presenting mode and clicks Present again. The presenter can also manually end the timer by hovering over it and clicking End now.
How do I stop players seeing the correct answer and the leaderboard during the quiz?
How do I stop players seeing the correct answer and the leaderboard during the quiz?
Adjust two settings: turn on Manually show correct answers in the general quiz settings so the correct answer is only revealed when you choose (note this doesn’t work in Self-paced mode); and to hide the leaderboard between questions, delete the in-between leaderboard slides (or turn off the Leaderboard setting on each quiz slide) and keep a single leaderboard at the very end — see Adding and Deleting a Leaderboard on your Quiz.