11 question types and when to use each one — Tips

QuizMachine supports 11 question types covering everything from simple knowledge checks to hands-on coding tasks and diagram reviews. Picking the right type for each question makes assessments clearer for takers and easier to grade. Here is a quick guide to all eleven.

1. Single Choice — Radio

What: One correct answer from a vertical radio-button list.

• Best for: Knowledge checks, true/false variants, any question with one definitively correct answer.

Tip: Keep distractors plausible but unambiguous.

2. Single Choice — Dropdown

What: Same as radio, presented as a dropdown selector.

• Best for: Long option lists (e.g. "Select a country") where radio buttons would crowd the page.

Tip: Good for forms-style questions embedded in a larger quiz flow.

3. Multiple Choice

What: One or more correct answers from a checkbox list.

• Best for: Checking understanding of a concept with several correct facets; "select all that apply" scenarios.

Tip: Award partial credit by assigning points per option.

4. Picture Choice

What: Options are images rather than text.

• Best for: Brand recognition, visual design quizzes, geography (flag identification), equipment identification.

Tip: Keep images consistent in size and style to avoid visual bias.

5. Fill in the Blanks

What: Taker types answers into one or more inline blanks within a sentence.

• Best for: Vocabulary, grammar, formula recall, exact-term memorisation.

Tip: Mark blanks in the question body with [a], [b], etc. Each blank's accepted answers are entered as a:answer1|answer2 — the key is the placeholder token without the brackets, and pipe-separated values are all treated as correct.

6. Matching

What: Connect items in column A to their matches in column B.

• Best for: Definitions ↔ terms, capitals ↔ countries, symptoms ↔ conditions.

Tip: Add one extra distractor in column B to prevent process-of-elimination guessing.

7. Matching Text

What: Like Matching but the taker types the match rather than selecting from a list.

• Best for: Open-ended recall where exact spelling matters less than understanding.

Tip: Use Fill in the Blanks instead if you need strict accepted-answer lists.

8. Free Text

What: Open-ended text box; graded manually or by AI evaluation.

• Best for: Essay questions, short-answer explanations, reflective prompts.

Tip: Enable AI grading (Configure tab) to get suggested scores automatically — always review before applying.

9. File Upload

What: Taker submits a file (PDF, image, Word, Excel, etc.).

• Best for: Portfolio submissions, coursework uploads, design reviews.

Tip: Always enable manual grading for file uploads; downloaded files appear in the Analyze tab.

10. Code Pro / Enterprise

What: Taker writes code in a browser-based editor (Python, JavaScript, C#, SQL).

• Best for: Technical hiring, programming courses, algorithm challenges.

Tip: Provide starter code and a model answer so AI can suggest a score automatically.

11. Diagram Upload Premium+

What: Taker uploads a photo or image of a hand-drawn diagram, which a multimodal AI grades against a model-answer description.

• Best for: Whiteboard sketches, ER/data models, circuit schematics, architecture diagrams.

Tip: Write a detailed model-answer description — AI grading is always enabled for this type and relies on it to judge the submitted image.

Quick reference

Next steps

New to QuizMachine? Start with "How to create your first quiz in 5 minutes". Hiring engineers? See how teams combine code questions and time limits in "Using QuizMachine for technical screening".