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New Quizzes

Create Different Types of New Quiz Questions

Last updated on April 10, 2026

Canvas New Quizzes offers a variety of question types that allow you to assess more than basic recall.  By using different formats, you can evaluate critical thinking, measure applied skills, and provide more meaningful feedback to your students.

Note: To work with a Classic Quiz, refer to our tutorial called Create Different Types of Classic Quiz Questions.

Directions

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Creating New Quiz Questions

  1. Log in to your Canvas Account.
  2. Select the Course you’d like to work in.
  3. Click Modules in the course navigation menu on the left.
  4. Locate the module where your New Quiz is located.
  5. Click the Name of the New Quiz that you want to add questions to.
    • A New Quiz will have a filled-in rocket ship icon vs the outline of a rocket ship for Classic Quizzes.  
    • Note: If you don’t already have one and need to create a “New Quiz”, check out this tutorial: “Create and Edit ‘New’ Quizzes.” Create your quiz, then come back to this tutorial to learn details about all the question types.
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the blue Build button.
  7. Click the blue + Button in the center of the screen to add a question.
  8. Select a Question Type from the pop-up. There are 14 different question types. Details on each question type are provided in the following sections.
  9. Details will vary between question types, but in general, you will follow the steps below:
    • Type a Title into the Question Title box. This title is for organization and won’t be seen by students.
    • Type the Question/Prompt into the larger Rich Content Editor textbox. You can use any media type allowed in the Rich Content Editor, like videos, images, etc. 
    • For more details on the Rich Content Editor, you can view our tutorial titled “Use the Rich Content Editor to Modify Text, Insert Links, Attach Files, and Connect Apps.”
    • Adjust Options, as desired. Options will vary between question types.
    • Choose to Align to Outcomes if necessary. For details on learning outcomes, refer to Using Learning Outcomes to Measure Student Progress in Canvas.
    • Add your question to an Item Bank, if desired. Refer to Use Item Banks for New Quizzes.
    • Adjust the number of Points you want assigned to this question.
      • Note: This determines the value of the question relative to other questions in the quiz. It does not affect the total points the quiz is worth in the Gradebook.
    • Add feedback, if desired:
      • Click the Speech Bubble Icon in the lower-left corner.
      • Add Feedback for correct, incorrect, and/or all answers.
      • Click Done.
  10. Click Done.
  11. Repeat Steps 7-10 to add additional questions.
  12. From the Build menu, click the Preview button (with the picture of an eye to the left of it) at the top right to view the questions from a student’s perspective.
    • You can answer the questions and click Submit like a student would to check the results.
  13. Click the Exit Preview button at the bottom right of the screen to exit preview.
  14. Click Return at the top right of the screen when you’re done adding questions.

Accessibility Considerations

  • When creating quiz questions, follow accessibility guidelines for all content and use plain language for clarity. 
  • Avoid inaccessible formats like hotspot questions.
  • In multiple-answer questions don’t use underscores for blanks, as screen readers interpret them poorly; instead, use fill-in-the-blank question types, reword questions, or use placeholders like “[blank].” 
  • Provide clear instructions tailored to each question type, such as specifying “Choose all correct answers” for multiple-answer questions, giving explicit ordering directions, and clarifying requirements like significant figures for numeric responses. 
  • Use clear examples and phrasing, and consider equitable alternatives to reduce disadvantages, ie: replace fill-in-the-blank questions with drop-down or multiple-choice formats to avoid penalizing spelling errors, and substitute hotspot questions with descriptive multiple-choice or matching questions.

Types of New Quiz Questions

Categorization

This question type is an interactive, drag-and-drop format where students classify items into designated categories by dragging and dropping terms. Ideal for testing taxonomy, sorting concepts, or identifying characteristics. Students must place all items correctly to earn the points, as there is no partial credit for this question.

  1. Title the Question and Add a Question Stem. 
  2. Add a description for Category 1.
  3. Add an answer for Category 1.
  4. Click + Answer to add more answers.
  5. Add a description for Category 2.
  6. Add an answer for Category 2.
  7. Click + Answer to add more answers.
  8. (Optional) Click + Category to add as many categories as you like.
  9. Add answers and categories as necessary.
  10. Click + Distractor to add one or more distractors.
    • A distractor is an incorrect answer option that does not belong to any of the established categories.
  11. Click the drop-down arrow for Options and check the box to Show on-screen calculator if needed.
  12. Click Done underneath the question to finalize it.

File Upload

This question type allows instructors to require students to submit a file as their answer to a specific quiz question. This is ideal for work completed outside of Canvas, such as complex calculations, diagrams, or lab reports. File Upload questions require manual grading only.

  1. Title the Question and Question Stem.
  2. Click Options and review:
    • Select Show on-screen calculator
    • Select Limit File Number if you wish to restrict the number of uploads.
    • Select Restrict File Types to allow only certain types of files like .pdf or .docx.
      • Type in the File Extensions, separated by commas, that you will allow.
  3. Click Done.

Formula

This question type allows instructors to create randomized, calculation-based questions where variables (x, y) are replaced by random numbers for each student. Instructors define a formula, and Canvas calculates the correct answer automatically, reducing academic dishonesty while assessing problem-solving skills. View our tutorial called Use Formula Quiz Questions in Canvas to learn more. 

  1. Title the Question and Add a Question Stem.
  2. Define variables. To define variables in your question, surround the name with backticks (grave accent). ex: “What is 5 plus `x`?” The backtick is located to the left of the number 1 key, usually under the tilde (~) at the top of your keyboard. Adding the backticks tells Canvas to treat the term as a variable and opens up more editing options.
  3. Add variable Answers.
    • Define each variable by specifying the Minimum and Maximum values.
      • Note: The variables will appear as they are defined in the question stem. If you do not see any variables, double-check your question stem and the placement of the backticks.
    • Select the number of Decimal places by increasing or decreasing the number with the arrows.
  4. Add Formula Definition.
    • Type the Formula Definition in the text box. Make sure the formula uses the same variables listed in the question stem and does not contain any brackets or equal signs.
      • Note: The Formula Definition supports the following operators: + (add), – (subtract), * (multiply), / (divide), and ^ (power).
  5. Generate Possible Solutions.
    • Select the Number of Solutions you want to generate.
    • Select the number of Decimal Places required.
    • Select whether answers should display as Scientific Notation.
      • This will remove the selections below for Margin Type and Margin of Error
    • Select the Margin Type.
    • Select the +/- Margin of Error acceptable for student answers.
    • Click Generate.
  6. Click Done.

Matching

The Matching question type in Canvas New Quizzes requires students to pair items from a list of stems with corresponding answers selected from a dropdown menu. It supports text-based pairs (e.g., terms and definitions), allows for “distractor” answers to increase difficulty, and requires all matches to be correct for full credit.

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem.
  2. Add Question/Answer Pairs.
    • Type the Question and its corresponding Answer.
      • Note: The default number of questions/answers is four. To add more, click + Question/Answer Pair. To reduce the number, click on the trash can icon next to the pair.
  3. Click + Distractor to add distractors, which will appear with the answers but not belong to any category.
  4. Click the checkbox to Show on-screen calculator
  5. Click the box to Shuffle questions if desired.
  6. In the Grading section, click on Partial credit to award partial credit answers or Exact match to award full credit only.
  7. Click Done.

Multiple Choice

The Multiple Choice question type allows instructors to create questions where students select one correct answer from several options. Key features include automatic grading, the ability to shuffle answer choices, and support for rich content (images/videos) in both the question stem and answer.

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem. 
  2. Type an Answer into each answer box in the Possible answers section.
    • You can add feedback to each answer. Click on the Message Bubble Icon to the far right of each answer.
    • Type in your Feedback.
    • Click Done.
      • Note: By default, there are four possible answer boxes.
        • To delete an answer box, click on the trash can icon to the right of the box.
        • To add an answer, click on the + Answer button.
  3. Select the Radio Button next to the answer box to indicate the correct answer. There can be only one correct answer. Use the Multiple Answer question type if you want to have multiple correct answers.
  4. Click on the Options section to reveal three options.
    • Click the check box to Show on-screen calculator.
    • Click the check box to Vary points by answer. When this box is checked point assignment fields will appear next to each answer and the total Points assignment field at the bottom will be disabled. You can assign different point values to each answer choice.
  5. If not utilizing the Vary points by answer option, assign total points to this question at the bottom left.
  6. Click Done.

Ordering

The Ordering question type in Canvas New Quizzes allows instructors to create, and students to arrange, a list of items into a specific, correct sequence using drag-and-drop or reordering buttons. It is ideal for testing chronological order, steps in a process, or hierarchy, offering full points only if all items are ordered correctly.

  1. Title the Question and Add a Question Stem.
  2. Add Top Label. This will appear to students at the top of the list of answers they are ordering.
  3. Add Bottom Label. This will appear to students at the bottom of the list.
  4. Add Answers in answer boxes.
    • Note: By default, there are four possible answer boxes.
      • To remove a box, click on the trash can icon to the right of the box.
      • To add an answer box, click on the + Answer link.
  5. Click and drag answer boxes to change their order by right-clicking and hold on the 8 dot array to the right of each answer. Note: The answers will be automatically randomized for students.
  6. Modify any Further Settings
    • Click the box to include an on-screen calculator
    • Click  to Display Answers in a Paragraph, rather than in a vertical list
    • Click to Include Labels, which controls the display of the top and bottom label.
  7. Click Done.

Essay

This question type allows for text-based responses from your students, and serves much the same purpose as an essay assignment in an in-person setting.   

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem.
  2. Expand the Options to choose the following options:
    • Click to Show on-screen calculator
    • Click to enable the Rich Content Editor for students to type in their answer. Using the RCE, students can format text, add video, audio, and more. Refer to the “Rich Content Editor” tutorial for more information.
    • Click to enable Spell Check for students in their answer.
    • Click to Show Word Count in the student’s response.
    • Click to Set Word Limit: You can designate a minimum and a maximum number of words.
  3. Click Grading Notes to add private, internal reference information like key points, rubrics, or sample answers. These notes will appear in Speedgrader only to users with reading roles.
  4. Click Done.

Fill In The Blank

The Fill in the Blank question type allows instructors to create questions with one or more blanks within a sentence or paragraph, requiring students to provide answers by typing text, choosing from a dropdown menu, or dragging and dropping from a word bank. This question type supports multiple blanks within a single question, and each blank is automatically scored.

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem.
    • To create the blanks, surround the words you want to be blank with backticks. For example: The capital of France is `Paris`. 
  2. Select the answer type. Below the stem, define the answer type for each blank: There are three possible Answer Types.
    • Open Entry: Student types the answer
    • Dropdown: Student chooses from a list
    • Word Bank:  Student picks from a pre-defined bank of words
  3. Select Open Entry as the Answer Type.
  4. SelectText Match from the drop-down menu for the answer criteria.
    • Contains “term” This allows for the text to exist anywhere in student response.
    • Close Enough: Uses Levenshtein Distance to determine if the response is close enough to the correct answer. Levenshtein Distance is the number of single-character edits needed to change one word to another. You can choose to ignore case.
    • Exact Match: Requires case and spelling to match exactly.
    • Specify Correct Answers: Specifies that each acceptable response uses regular expressions for a custom match.
    • Regular Expression Match: Requires using specialized text strings that describe search patterns. Not recommended for beginners.
  5. Select Drop Down as the Answer Type. This will present a drop-down menu to the student where they can choose the correct answer.
    • Enter Possible Choices. Click on the button next to the correct answer. Use the trashcan icon to remove choices and the + Answer link to add more answers.
  6. Select Word Bank as the Answer Type.
  7. Enter one or more distractors. These will be presented as a list where the student can drag and drop their choice onto blank spaces in the question stem.
  8. Click Done.

Hot Spot

The Hot Spot question type allows instructors to upload an image and designate specific, interactive, clickable areas (hot spots) as correct answers. Students answer by placing a marker on the image. It is ideal for identifying locations on maps, diagrams, anatomy, or visual data.

Note: Images should be in BMP, GIF, JPG/JPEG, PNG format.

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem.
  2. Drag and Drop or Click Browse to upload an image from your computer.
  3. Choose a shape, click on the Square, Oval, or Polygon Shapes and draw it over the correct area on the image.
    • For the square and oval shapes, click and drag on the image to create the shape.
    • For the polygon shape, click to create points and double-click to create the shape.
  4. You can add multiple hot-spots per image.
  5. Select the box to Show the on-screen calculator
  6. Click Done.

Multiple Answers

The Multiple Answers question type allows students to select one or more correct answers from a list using checkboxes, similar to Multiple Choice but enabling multiple correct options.

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem.
  2. Type Possible answers into each Answer field.
    • Note: By default, there are four possible answer boxes.
      • To remove a box, click on the trash can icon to the right of the box. 
      • To add an answer, click + Answer.
  3. Click the Check Box next to the answer to indicate a correct answer.
  4. Under Options, you can find these important settings:
    • Show on-screen calculator
    • Click Shuffle Choices: This option randomizes the order of the answer choices to help reduce cheating. Clicking this option will display lock icons next to each answer, allowing you to selectively lock certain answer choices. (eg, “All of the Above” or “None of the Above”) to keep them at the bottom even when other choices are shuffled. 
    • Select Grading options
      • Partial Credit with Penalty – Students are awarded points for every correct answer selected and deducted points for every incorrect answer selected
      • Exact Match – Students are awarded full credit if all correct answers are selected and no incorrect answers are selected
  5. Click Done.

Numeric

The Numeric question type requires students to enter a specific numerical answer, making it ideal for math, science, or calculation-based assessments. Instructors can define the exact answer, accept a range of values, define a margin of error, or specify a precision (significant digits/decimal places), allowing for automatic grading.

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem.
  2. Select the Requirement from the dropdown menu:
    • Exact Response: students must match the answer exactly.
    • Margin of Error: student answers will be marked correct if they fall within the margin above or below the answer.
    • Within a Range: Students will be marked correct if they are greater than or equal to the range start and less than or equal to the range end.
    • Precise Response: Students will be marked as correct if they match the answer to the given number of significant digits or decimal places.
  3. Type the correct Answer and Parameters:
    • Exact Answer:
      • Enter the Answer in numeric form.
        • Note: If the number requires notation, enter it with arrows (ex, 1.234*10^5). The answer field only accepts numbers, periods, commas, asterisks, and carets.
    • Margin of Error:
      • Enter the Answer in numeric form.
      • Add the +/- Margin number.
      • Select the Type of Margin from the drop-down menu (percent or absolute).
        • Note: The Answer and Margin fields only accept numbers, periods, and commas.
    • Within a Range:
      • Enter the Range Start.
      • Enter the Range End.
        • Note: Range inputs can be in scientific notation (accepted format: 1.234*10^5) and only accept numbers, periods, commas, asterisks, and carets.
    • Precise Response:
      • Enter the Answer in numeric form.
        • Note: Precise response fields do not accept entries written in scientific notation. They only accept numbers, periods, and commas.
      • Enter the Precision value. This should be a number.
        • Note: The Precision field only accepts whole numbers greater than 1.
      • Select the Type from a drop-down menu:
        • Significant digits
        • Decimal places
  4. Click to Show on-screen calculator
  5. Click Done.

True or False

The True/False question type is a binary choice assessment tool requiring students to select whether a statement is true or false. It supports rich text, images, and math equations in the stem, allows for point value customization, and enables automatic scoring.

  1. Title the Question and add a Question Stem.
  2. Select the Radio Button to the left of the correct answer (true or false).
  3. Click to Show on-screen calculator
  4. Click Done.

Stimulus

The Stimulus question type allows instructors to pin a shared resource, such as text, an image, video, or formula, alongside a series of related questions. It acts as a container, presenting content on one side (left/top) and questions on the other (right/bottom), enhancing student engagement while reducing screen scrolling. Stimulus questions are not considered accessible.

  1. Title the Question.
  2. Type Instructions. Though optional, it would be a good idea to give your students an understanding of how this part of the quiz will function.
  3. Provide Content in the Rich Content Editor box. This should be the information or content you will be asking multiple questions about; it should not include the question(s) itself.
  4. Click on the drop-down to choose the orientation of your question. Choose either Questions to the right, or Questions below. This will determine where your questions appear oriented to the reference material you’ve provided in the stem of the question.
  5.  Add Source URL, if desired. This will not be visible to students during the quiz.
  6. Click Done
  7. Click the blue Attach Question button on the right side of the screen.
  8. Select the Type of Question from the list of 12 different question types.
  9. Use the reference material in this tutorial to create questions for your stimulus.
  10. Add as many questions as you need for your stimulus.
  11. Click Done.
  12. Repeat Steps 7-11 as many times as desired to create questions associated with that stimulus.

Text Block

A Text Block is a non-question item type that allows instructors to add standalone text, images, or instructional content to a quiz that is not linked to a specific question or point value. It is used to provide context, instructions, or reading passages to guide students through the assessment.

  1. Add a Title for the text block.
  2. Click the Content field to add instructions, text, images, video, etc. to the Rich Content Editor.
  3. Optionally add the block to a question bank.
  4. Click Done.

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