Your first quiz

You will build a 5-question, 15-minute quiz with integrity monitoring: import the questions from a JSON file, have a tester try it, publish it, then fix a wrong answer key and regrade.

⏱ ~20 min · 👤 Teachers, question authors · 🔑 quiz.edit_own_quiz (or quiz.edit_all_quiz)

What you'll do

• Import 5 questions (multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false, short answer) into the question bank from a JSON file.
• Create a quiz with a time limit, an attempt limit, a feedback mode, and integrity monitoring.
• Attach the questions with points, then have a tester take it first.
• Publish and schedule it for your class.
• Review attempts, fix a wrong answer key, and regrade everything.

Before you start

• Your account has quiz.edit_own_quiz. With it, the site's floating toolbar shows Question Bank, Import Quiz, and Manage Quizzes. If you do not see them, ask an administrator to grant it as described in Quiz authoring.
• A second account to act as the tester.
• (For a class-only quiz) the class organization exists on LCOJ and students have joined it.
• A text editor that saves UTF-8 (VS Code, Notepad++, Notepad on Windows 10 or later…).

Step 1: Prepare the question file

Goal: a file quiz-demo.json with 5 valid questions.

1. Open your editor and paste the content below.
2. Question codes are unique across all of LCOJ and may only contain a-z0-9 (no underscores). Replace every mytest with a string of your own, e.g. your username in lowercase: mytestq1 → hieuq1.
3. Save it as quiz-demo.json, encoded as UTF-8.

[
  {
    "code": "mytestq1",
    "type": "MC",
    "title": "Integer division 7/2",
    "content": "In C++, what is the value of the expression `7 / 2`?",
    "choices": [
      {"text": "3.5", "explanation": "That would be floating-point division."},
      {"text": "3", "explanation": "Dividing two integers drops the fractional part."},
      "4"
    ],
    "correct": 1,
    "category": "cpp-basics",
    "level": "easy",
    "explanation": "Both operands are `int`, so the result is an `int`.",
    "shuffle": true
  },
  {
    "code": "mytestq2",
    "type": "MC",
    "title": "Type that holds 10^18",
    "content": "Which C++ type can hold the number ~10^{18}~?",
    "choices": ["int", "long long", "short", "char"],
    "correct": 0,
    "category": "cpp-basics",
    "level": "easy",
    "explanation": "`long long` has at least 64 bits and holds values up to about ~9.2 \\cdot 10^{18}~."
  },
  {
    "code": "mytestq3",
    "type": "MA",
    "title": "Integer types",
    "content": "Select **all** integer types in C++:",
    "choices": ["int", "double", "long long", "float"],
    "correct": [0, 2],
    "category": "cpp-basics",
    "level": "medium",
    "ma_strategy": "partial_credit"
  },
  {
    "code": "mytestq4",
    "type": "TF",
    "title": "Array indexing",
    "content": "In C++, the first element of an array has index 0.",
    "correct": true,
    "category": "cpp-basics"
  },
  {
    "code": "mytestq5",
    "type": "SA",
    "title": "Leaving a loop",
    "content": "Which C++ keyword immediately exits the innermost loop?",
    "correct": ["break"],
    "category": "cpp-basics"
  }
]

Question 2 has a deliberately wrong key

In mytestq2, "correct": 0 points to int (wrong); the right answer is long long (index 1). The mistake is planted so you can practice fixing a key and regrading in Step 7. Do not fix it now.

JSON format reminders

• correct for MC/MA questions is 0-based (in the Excel file and in the form it is 1-based).
• Short-answer strings in JSON match literally and case-insensitively, so Break or break are both accepted.
• Math uses ~...~, just like programming problem statements.

Prefer Excel? Download the template from /quizzes/import/template and follow the "XLSX format" section of Quiz authoring.

✅ Result: quiz-demo.json with 5 questions and your own code prefix.

Step 2: Import the questions into the bank

Goal: the 5 questions are in the Question Bank.

1. Click Import Quiz on the toolbar, or open /quizzes/import/.
2. Under XLSX or JSON file, choose quiz-demo.json.
3. Do not tick Also create a quiz from these questions (you will create the quiz in the next step to learn the settings).
4. Click Upload and preview.
5. In the Preview, check that there are 5 boxes Row 1 … Row 5 and none has a red border. These categories will be created may list cpp-basics.
6. Click Confirm import.

✅ Result: the message Imported 5 questions. appears and you land on the Question Bank (/quizzes/questions/) with 5 new questions.

Step 3: Create the quiz

Goal: a hidden quiz with the right settings.

1. Open /quizzes/new (the UI has no link to this page yet; type the URL).

2. Fill in the fields:

   Field	Value
   Quiz code	mytestquiz (a-z0-9, unique, cannot be changed later; replace the prefix as in Step 1)
   Quiz name	C++ Basics Check
   Time limit (minutes)	15
   Maximum attempts	2
   Shuffle questions	ticked
   Result feedback	Show correctness (no answer key)
   Integrity monitoring	ticked (on by default)
   Publicly visible	leave unticked (you turn it on in Step 6)
   Testers	add the tester account

   Leave Start time and End time empty for now.

Vietnamese UI labels

If your interface is in Vietnamese, several labels on this form are mistranslated: Time limit shows as "Giới hạn thời gian (giây):" (it says seconds, but the unit is minutes), Maximum attempts as "Số thành viên tối đa", Shuffle questions as "Lời giải", and Result feedback as "Phản hồi từ trình chấm".

Why "correctness" instead of full feedback?

Show correct answers and explanations reveals the key as soon as a student submits, so early finishers can share it. Use correctness (or Score only) during the quiz and switch to full feedback after it closes.

✅ Result: the settings are filled in; not saved yet (you add questions on this same form).

Step 4: Add questions and points

Goal: the quiz has 5 questions worth 6 points in total.

1. Under Questions, click + Add question, type mytestq1 (with your prefix), and pick the result shown as [MC] mytestq1: Integer division 7/2.

2. Enter its Points from the table, then repeat for the other 4 questions:

   Question	Type	Points
   mytestq1	MC	1
   mytestq2	MC	1
   mytestq3	MA (partial credit with penalty)	2
   mytestq4	TF	1
   mytestq5	SA	1

3. Drag the ⠿ handle to reorder if you like (optional, since question shuffling is on).

4. Click Save quiz.

✅ Result: Quiz saved. appears and you are on the edit page /quizzes/mytestquiz/edit. Open /quizzes/mytestquiz: it shows 5 questions, 6 points, a 15-minute limit, and at most 2 attempts.

Step 5: Have the tester take it

Goal: confirm students will see what you intend, before publishing.

1. Sign in as the tester (private window or another browser) and open /quizzes/mytestquiz.
2. Click Start quiz. The Academic Integrity Notice dialog appears; click I understand, start →.
3. Answer all 5 questions. On question 2, pick long long (the truly correct answer). Switch to another tab once to trigger an integrity event.
4. Click Review & Submit on the last question (or Submit quiz in the sidebar) and confirm.

✅ Result: the result page shows Score: 5 / 6 with right/wrong colouring per question and no answer key. Question 2 is marked wrong even though the tester chose correctly, because of the planted mistake.

Trial attempts are real attempts

The tester's attempt shows up in the attempts list and on the ranking. An administrator can delete it in /admin/quiz/quizattempt/.

Step 6: Publish and schedule

Goal: the class can take the quiz in the planned window.

1. Open /quizzes/mytestquiz/edit.
2. Set Start time and End time (in your account's time zone), e.g. 14:00 and 15:00. An attempt that has started always gets its full 15 minutes, even past the end time, so tell students to start before 14:45.
3. Tick Publicly visible.
4. (Class-only) also tick Private to organizations and pick the class under Organizations. You must tick both boxes: with only Private to organizations, students still cannot see the quiz.
5. Click Save quiz.

✅ Result: signed in as a student (in the class, if restricted), open /quizzes/: the quiz is listed; before the start time, its page shows Starting in ….

Step 7: Review attempts, fix the key, and regrade

Goal: spot the question with a wrong key, fix it, and regrade every submitted attempt.

1. On the quiz page, click All attempts (or Attempts & regrade on the edit page). URL: /quizzes/mytestquiz/attempts.
2. The table has User, Started, Status, Score, and Violations. Click the tester's ⚠ N badge to open the log; you will see a Tab switch event.
3. Click view to open that attempt's result. Teachers always see full feedback, so it is easy to spot that question 2 uses int as the key.
4. Fix the question: open the Question Bank and click the title Type that holds 10^18 (mytestq2) to open its edit page. In the choices list, mark the Correct column on long long and unmark it on int. Click Save question. Change only the correct answer; do not reorder, add, or remove choices, because old answers are stored by choice position.
5. Go back to /quizzes/mytestquiz/attempts, click Regrade all attempts, and confirm Regrade all submitted attempts?.

✅ Result: Regraded N attempts. appears; the tester's attempt goes from 5 to 6, and the ranking (/quizzes/mytestquiz/ranking) updates immediately.

After the quiz closes

Once the quiz has ended, you can switch Result feedback to Show correct answers and explanations so students can review the key and explanations. The change applies to all past attempts at once.

Verify

• The question bank has 5 new questions with your prefix.
• /quizzes/mytestquiz shows 5 questions, 6 points, 15 minutes, at most 2 attempts.
• The tester's attempt has a Tab switch event.
• After regrading, the tester's attempt scores 6/6.
• Students (in the right class) see the quiz on /quizzes/; accounts outside the class do not, if it is organization-private.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
No Import Quiz button; /quizzes/questions/ returns 404	Missing quiz.edit_own_quiz	Ask an administrator for the permission
Code … already exists in the question bank	Someone already uses that code	Change the mytest prefix and upload again
Question code is required and must match ^[a-z0-9]+$	The code has uppercase letters, underscores, or spaces	Use lowercase letters and digits only
Invalid JSON file	A missing comma or bracket, or the file is not UTF-8	Check the file with a JSON validator
The preview shows errors and nothing is imported	Import is all-or-nothing	Fix every bad row and upload again
No pending import - upload a file first.	Confirm clicked twice, or the session expired	Upload the file again
+ Add question does not find a question	Typo in the code, or the question was not imported	Check the Question Bank
Students cannot see the quiz	Publicly visible is not ticked, or the student is not in the organization	Fix per Step 6
Students see Quiz not started yet.	The Start time has not been reached	Check the time and time zone
The timer is far too long	Seconds were entered in the time limit field	The field is in minutes: enter 15, not 900
Scores did not change after fixing the key	You did not click Regrade all attempts	Regrade as in Step 7

Next steps

• Quiz authoring: every question type, the XLSX format, multiple-answer strategies, cloning quizzes.
• Taking quizzes: the student's view and how the ranking works.
• Organizations: create a class to restrict who can take the quiz.
• Permissions: grant authoring rights to teachers.