June 26, 2026 · 6 min read
How to make a live quiz with a leaderboard
Build a timed, scored live quiz your audience plays from their phones — with points, a speed bonus, and a leaderboard between questions. No app, no login for players.
A live quiz is the easiest way to turn a passive room into a competitive one. Players join from their phones, answer against a timer, and a leaderboard ranks them between questions. Here's how to build one in PollsLive — and how it differs from a survey or a plain poll (see poll vs survey vs form).
1. Write quiz questions with a correct answer
A quiz question is a multiple-choice slide where one option is marked correct. Keep stems short, make the options unambiguous, and aim for 6–12 questions — long enough to be fun, short enough to hold attention.
Which planet is closest to the Sun?
2. Turn on points and a timer
- Points reward correct answers; a speed bonus rewards answering fast.
- A per-question timer keeps the pace up and stops stragglers stalling the room.
- Streaks and a hype meter add momentum without any extra setup.
3. Present, then show the leaderboard
Open a live session and put the join code or QR on the screen. Players join with no app and no account. After each question, reveal the answer and show the leaderboard — that between-round reveal is what makes a quiz feel like a game.
Live quiz vs. a quiz tool like Kahoot
The play pattern is the same; the difference is pricing and flexibility — PollsLive is flat-priced with no per-seat fee and mixes quiz rounds with polls, word clouds, and Q&A in one deck. See the full Kahoot comparison, or grab a ready quiz from templates.
Great for trivia nights, training, and classrooms — more ideas in host a trivia night with a live leaderboard and PollsLive for training.
Spin up a live poll right now — no signup, no app for your audience.
Create a free poll