How to Use — TriviaGrid

The Classroom Game

The Classroom Game is designed to be run by a teacher on a projector or smart board with students competing as teams. The teacher operates all controls — revealing clues, showing answers, and awarding points — while students buzz in verbally or physically.

To start a Classroom Game, select the 🎓 Classroom Game tile on the main menu, set up your teams, choose a starting round if needed, and click Start. The full game board appears immediately.

Setting Up Teams

You can have between 2 and 8 teams in a single game. On the setup screen:

Type each team's name in the text field next to their number
Click the color circle to pick a custom team color — this color appears on the scoreboard card and as an accent stripe
Use + Add Team to add more teams, or − Remove to remove the last one
Team names are not saved between sessions — enter fresh names at the start of each game

Tip: For large classes, consider naming teams after school subjects, colors, or letting students vote on a team name for extra buy-in.

Playing the Board

The board shows six categories across the top and five dollar-value rows beneath each one. Click any dollar amount to reveal that clue.

When a clue is selected, a modal appears showing the category, dollar value, and the clue text. The workflow is:

Read the clue aloud. Students raise hands or buzz in using whatever buzzer system you have.

Click Show Answer to reveal the correct answer once a student has responded.

Award points using the ✓ or ✗ buttons in each team's card. Correct adds the dollar value; wrong deducts it. You can award (or deduct) from multiple teams for the same clue — useful if several teams tried to answer.

Click Close to return to the board. The used clue cell goes dark so you can see what's been played.

Once all clues have been played in a round, click Next Round ▶ in the header to advance. A brief countdown interstitial appears between rounds before the new board loads.

Daily Double

One clue in each round is secretly designated the Daily Double before the game starts — selected randomly each time so neither teacher nor students know which cell it is.

When a student selects the Daily Double cell, the cell flashes red and the Daily Double screen appears. The teacher selects which team is wagering, that team enters a dollar amount (up to their current score or the clue's face value, whichever is higher), and then the clue is revealed. Only that team answers. Points are awarded or deducted based on their wager.

Tip: In Round 2, there are TWO Daily Doubles — one in Round 1 and one in Round 2. The tension when a team uncovers one is half the fun.

Final Round

The Final Round is a separate round reached by clicking Next Round ▶ at the end of Round 2. The teacher controls each step:

Reveal Category — shows the Final Round category. Teams now write down their wagers privately.
Collect Wagers — opens wager input fields for each team on screen. Enter what each team wagered.
Reveal Clue — shows the Final Round clue. Teams write their answers while you play some suspenseful music (optional but strongly recommended).
Reveal Answer — shows the correct answer.
Score Round — individual correct/wrong buttons for each team apply or deduct their wager. Scores update live.
Show Winner — displays the final scoreboard and winner screen with confetti.

Custom Questions

The game comes loaded with a full set of default questions across 12 categories (six per round), but you can replace any or all of them with your own curriculum-specific content.

Click ✏ Edit Questions on the main menu before starting a Classroom Game. You will see three tabs: Round 1, Round 2, and Final Round.

Editing Categories and Clues

Each category column shows an editable category name at the top and five clue/answer pairs beneath it. Simply click any field and type to make changes. All changes save automatically to your browser's local storage as you type — there is no Save button to worry about.

Category name — appears at the top of each column on the game board
Clue — what you read to the class. Write it as a statement, not a direct question
Answer — the expected student response, traditionally phrased as "What is…" or "Who is…"

Best practice: TriviaGrid clues are statements, not direct questions. Instead of "What is the capital of France?" the clue is "This city is the capital of France" and the answer is "What is Paris?"

Setting a Daily Double Manually

In the edit screen you can also manually designate which clue in each round will be the Daily Double by clicking the ☆ Set DD button on any clue row. When the game starts, your manual Daily Double overrides the random assignment. Note: when you click Start Game, the game always randomizes the Daily Double fresh — manual DD settings in the editor are for reference only and will be ignored at game start.

Resetting to Defaults

Click the ↺ Reset button on the main menu to restore all questions to the built-in defaults. This permanently replaces your saved questions — a confirmation dialog will appear first.

Daily Challenge

The Daily Challenge is a solo, single-player experience with a new set of questions every day. It is designed for independent student use — great for morning warm-ups, homework enrichment, or friendly competition.

Select 📅 Daily Challenge on the main menu. The game will automatically load today's puzzle. A new puzzle is published every day by the TriviaGrid team.

How It Works

The full game board appears. Click any clue to begin.
A 20-second countdown timer starts automatically — the gold bar across the top of the clue drains toward empty, turning red in the final five seconds.
If time runs out, the clue is marked as timed out and the answer is shown automatically.
Otherwise, click Show Answer whenever you are ready to see the correct answer.
Self-report honestly: ✓ Got It! adds the clue's dollar value to your score. ✗ Missed It records a wrong answer with no score change.
After all board clues, the Final Round runs automatically — you set a wager, the category reveals, then the clue, then you self-report.

Results and Sharing

At the end of each Daily Challenge, the results screen shows your final score, correct/wrong/timeout counts, accuracy percentage, and current day streak. A shareable emoji grid (🟩 correct, 🟥 wrong, ⬛ timeout) can be copied to the clipboard with one click — similar to Wordle result sharing.

Teacher Tips

Projector Setup

For the best classroom experience, set your projector to extended display mode so the TriviaGrid board fills the screen while you keep your laptop open for notes. The game is designed for full-screen use — press F11 in Chrome to go fullscreen.

Managing Buzz-Ins

TriviaGrid works with any buzz-in method: raised hands, verbal "buzz" sounds, physical buzzers, or even the free browser buzzer tools available online. The game itself does not manage buzz-ins — it is designed to complement your existing classroom system.

Point Strategy

Consider your house rules before the game starts. Some teachers allow deductions for wrong answers; others only award points. The award buttons support both — ✓ adds points and ✗ deducts them, but you can simply ignore the ✗ button if you prefer no penalty.

Timing

A full two-round game with six categories typically takes 35–45 minutes including the Final Round. If you only have 20 minutes, start the game in Round 2 (Double Points) for higher stakes and faster pacing, then go straight to the Final Round.

Student Engagement

The Daily Challenge works best as a routine. Consider assigning it as a 5-minute warm-up activity three days per week. Students who play consistently will build streaks, creating natural motivation. You can ask students to share their emoji result card in a class chat or post their score to start a friendly class competition.