★ — starred citations are sourced from third-party research. Full references are listed at the bottom of this article.
There's a specific kind of energy when a live leaderboard appears on screen — a collective intake of breath, someone pointing, a ripple of laughter. That moment of shared suspense is what separates a quiz competition from a simple test. It's not about right answers alone; it's about the experience.
Session Flo's quiz competitions give facilitators per-question control, scored responses, and a live leaderboard that updates after every question. Whether you're running a training session, a conference icebreaker, or a Friday fun quiz, here's how to make it land every time.
How to Run a Quiz Competition in Session Flo
Create a Quiz activity and add your questions
Add a Quiz activity to your event. For each question, type the prompt, add multiple-choice options, and mark the correct answer. Assign a point value — weight harder questions more heavily to reward knowledge.
Launch questions one at a time — you stay in control
Each question is held back until you launch it. This gives you time to read the question aloud, build tension, and keep the energy high. Participants see the question on their device the moment you go live.
Which planet in our solar system has the most moons?
Reveal the correct answer after responses close
Once responses are in, hit reveal. The correct answer highlights instantly — you can see which options divided the room. Use the moment to explain or discuss before moving on.
Which planet in our solar system has the most moons?
Show the live leaderboard between rounds
After a set of questions, display the live leaderboard. Scores update in real time. The shifting rankings — someone leapfrogging from third to first — are what people talk about afterwards.
🏆 Leaderboard after Q4
Export results and review performance
After the session, export your quiz results. You'll see per-question performance — which questions had the highest correct rate, which caused the biggest splits, and how each participant scored. Use these insights to calibrate difficulty next time or spot knowledge gaps in training.
Top Tips
- ✓Aim for 60–70% of participants to get each question right — questions everyone aces feel trivial; questions nobody gets right breed frustration.
- ✓Mix content types: industry knowledge, company history, general trivia, and team-specific questions each create different energy.
- ✓Pause the leaderboard reveal — build tension before showing scores, then add your own commentary.
- ✓Weight later questions more heavily so the final round can still swing the leaderboard.
- ✓Celebrate the winner publicly, but also acknowledge the biggest climber or best individual round.
Writing Questions That Drive Engagement
The sweet spot for question difficulty is where roughly 60–70% of participants get the answer right. Questions everyone gets right feel trivial; questions nobody gets right breed frustration. Aim for a gradient: start accessible, build difficulty, finish with a memorable 'impossible' round that makes everyone laugh.
Mix content types. Industry knowledge, company history, general trivia, and team-specific questions each create different moments. A question about a colleague's well-known hobby or a company milestone generates far more energy than generic trivia, because it's personal.
According to the Journal of Educational Psychology★, competitive learning structures are most effective when participants feel the competition is fair and the content is relevant. Keep questions unambiguous — one right answer, clearly correct on reflection — and avoid trick questions that feel like gotchas.
Making It a Moment to Remember
The best quiz competitions have a narrative arc. Open with something accessible to settle nerves, build into specialist rounds with clear themes, and close with a wildcard round that upsets the leaderboard. The unpredictability keeps everyone engaged right to the last question.
Harvard Business Review research★ on healthy workplace competition shows that low-stakes, transparent competitive formats — where the stakes are fun rather than consequential — consistently strengthen team cohesion rather than creating rivalry. The leaderboard should feel like a game show, not a performance review.
Gallup's research★ on strengths-based recognition shows that specific, timely acknowledgement — even for 'best leaderboard comeback' — has a measurable effect on team morale. Celebrate the winner, but also name anyone who played with exceptional energy.