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How to import trivia questions from a spreadsheet

Typing questions one at a time is fine for a quick game. But if you're building a 40-question bank — or you already have your questions sitting in a doc somewhere — importing is much faster.

You'll fill out a spreadsheet template, then upload it to your game in one go.

Step 1: Get the template

Open your trivia experience, go to the Questions tab, and click Import at the top of the questions list. Download the template from there.

The template has two rows to start:

  • Row 1 is the header row. Don't rename, reorder, or delete these columns.
  • Row 2 is a guide row explaining what goes in each column. Delete this row before you import, or it'll come through as a real question.

Start your first question on row 2 once the guide row is gone, and add one question per row from there.

Step 2: Fill in the columns
Column Required? What goes in it
Question Yes The question text your players will see.
Question Type Yes One of four values, typed exactly: MULTIPLE_CHOICE, TEXT_ANSWER, NUMERIC_ANSWER, DRAG_AND_DROP.
Question Points Yes A number. How much this question is worth.
Question Time in seconds Yes A number. The time limit for this question.
media url No A link to an image or GIF to show with the question.
Question Note No Internal notes for you and your team. Players don't see this.
Correct Answer(s) Yes The correct answer — or, for drag and drop, the first item in the correct order.
Additional Answers 1–4 Depends on type Incorrect options for multiple choice, or the remaining items in order for drag and drop.
acceptableRange No Numeric questions only. How far off an answer can be and still count.

Important: Question Type has to match exactly — all caps, with underscores. Multiple Choice or multiple_choice won't be recognized.

Step 3: Format each question type

Multiple choice

Put the right answer in Correct Answer(s) and the wrong ones in the Additional Answers columns. You can use two, three, or four incorrect options.

Question Question Type Correct Answer(s) Additional Answers 1 Additional Answers 2 Additional Answers 3
Which planet is closest to the sun? MULTIPLE_CHOICE Mercury Venus Earth Mars

The answers get shuffled when the game runs, so don't worry about the correct one always sitting in the same column.

Text answer

Players type their answer. Just fill in Correct Answer(s) and leave the Additional Answers columns empty.

Question Question Type Correct Answer(s)
What city is our headquarters in? TEXT_ANSWER Boston

Keep text answers short and unambiguous — one or two words is ideal. "Boston" is a good answer. "The Boston area, or Cambridge" is asking for trouble.

Numeric answer

Players type a number. Use acceptableRange to allow near-misses.

Question Question Type Correct Answer(s) acceptableRange
How many people work at Elevent? NUMERIC_ANSWER 42 5

A range of 5 means anything from 37 to 47 counts as correct. Leave it blank if you want an exact match only.

Drag and drop

Players put items in the right order. List the items in the correct order, left to right, starting with Correct Answer(s) and continuing across the Additional Answers columns.

Question Question Type Correct Answer(s) Additional Answers 1 Additional Answers 2 Additional Answers 3
Put these shows in order of first air date, earliest first. DRAG_AND_DROP Seinfeld Friends The Office Parks and Recreation

The items are shuffled for players — you're just telling the system what the right order is.

Step 4: Import the file
  1. Save your spreadsheet.
  2. Back in the Questions tab, click Import.
  3. Select your file.
  4. Review the questions that come in, then click Save.

Your imported questions land in the questions list, where you can edit any of them, reorder them by dragging, or add media that wasn't in the spreadsheet.

Troubleshooting

A row didn't import. Check the Question Type spelling first — it's the most common culprit. It must be one of the four values in all caps with underscores.

A blank question appeared at the top. The guide row from the template came through. Delete that question, then delete row 2 from your spreadsheet before re-importing.

My multiple-choice question only shows one option. The incorrect answers need to be in the Additional Answers columns, not bundled into the Correct Answer(s) cell.

Points or time didn't apply. Those two columns need to be plain numbers. Strip out any text like "100 pts" or "30 sec" — just 100 and 30.

My image didn't show up. The media URL needs to point directly at an image file and be publicly reachable. A link to a page containing an image won't work, and neither will a file in a private Drive folder.

Tips
  • Write in the spreadsheet, not in the app. It's much easier to spot a repeated question or an unbalanced difficulty curve when you can see all 40 rows at once.
  • Use the Question Note column. Jot down your source, or a reminder that a question needs updating next quarter. Future you will be grateful.
  • Vary the question types. A game of nothing but multiple choice gets predictable. Drop in a drag-and-drop or a numeric estimate every few questions to change the rhythm.
  • Be generous with acceptableRange. Numeric questions where nobody gets the answer aren't fun. If you're asking players to estimate, give them room.
  • Keep your master file. Build one spreadsheet as your question bank and import subsets from it. You can also use Export to pull questions out of an existing game and reuse them.