Type Answer: free-text quiz questions
Some questions don't fit neatly into multiple choice — a name, a date, a single word. Type Answer grades whatever your audience types against the answer you define.
Multiple choice gives away the answer just by listing it as an option — Type Answer doesn't. That makes it the right tool whenever recall matters more than recognition: "Who wrote this?" or "What year did this happen?" carry a lot more weight when the audience has to produce the answer from memory instead of picking it out of a lineup of four guesses. It's also the natural choice for questions with genuinely open-ended phrasing where listing every plausible option would be impractical, like naming a country, a chemical element, or a historical figure.
The trade-off is that free text is messier to grade automatically than a button click. A participant who types "U.S.A.", "USA", or "United States" all mean the same thing to a human grader but look like three different strings to a computer — which is why the accepted-answer list and matching strictness exist. Spend real time up front thinking through how people are likely to phrase the answer; it saves you from watching correct answers get marked wrong live in front of a room.
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Add the slide
Select New Slide → Type Answer under Quiz.
Coming Soon · ScreenshotThe New Slide panel with Type Answer highlighted under the Quiz section.
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Ask your question
Keep it specific enough to have one clear answer — vague or subjective phrasing is much harder to grade automatically.
Coming Soon · ScreenshotThe Question field on the Type Answer edit panel filled in with a specific, single-answer question.
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Define what counts as correct
Add the exact text — and any close variants, abbreviations, or alternate spellings you're willing to accept.
Coming Soon · ScreenshotThe accepted-answer list on the Type Answer edit panel with the primary answer and two accepted variants entered.
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Set your matching strictness
Loosen it to accept near-misses like typos and case differences, or keep it exact for answers that need precision.
Coming Soon · ScreenshotThe matching strictness control on the Type Answer edit panel, showing exact-match and loose-match options.
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Set the time limit and points
Adjust how long participants have to type an answer and how many points a correct one earns.
A too-strict answer key marks a genuinely correct response wrong over a spelling difference — think through synonyms, abbreviations, and likely typos before you present.
Before presenting, type your own answer into a quick test run using a few different phrasings you'd expect from the audience — it's the fastest way to catch a matching setting that's too strict.
Frequently asked questions
Is Type Answer case-sensitive?
By default, no — case differences don't affect matching. You can tighten matching strictness if you specifically need exact casing, though this is rarely necessary.
Can I accept a range of numeric answers instead of exact text?
Type Answer matches text, not numeric ranges. For a question where closeness to a number matters more than an exact match, use Pick the Number instead.
What happens if a participant leaves the answer blank?
A blank submission is scored as incorrect, the same as any other answer that doesn't match your accepted list.
Can I see what people actually typed, not just whether they were right?
Yes — the results view lists every submitted answer alongside whether it was marked correct, which is useful for catching a wording you should add to your accepted list for next time.