How to host a team trivia quiz at work

How to host a trivia quiz for a team event, offsite or company dinner: teams, writing questions, question types, timing, scoring, tie-breaks and a leaderboard on the big screen.

A trivia quiz is one of the easiest team games to run, and it works for ten people in a meeting room or several hundred in a ballroom. Teams answer on their phones and the scores appear on the big screen, so nobody needs pens, answer sheets or a scorekeeper adding up points in the corner. This guide is about hosting: how to set up teams, write questions, keep time and score fairly. If you need questions, our office party quiz questions has six ready-made rounds with answers.

Decide the format

Before writing a single question, decide three things:

How long. Ten to twelve questions take about 15 minutes. That is right for a dinner. A dedicated quiz night can run three rounds of eight with breaks in between.
Teams or individuals. Teams are better for most work events: shy people join in, new colleagues meet others, and nobody is embarrassed by a wrong answer.
Where it fits. At a dinner, between the main course and dessert. At an offsite, after lunch, when energy is low. At a town hall, as a five-question warm-up.

Set up the teams

Play by table, department or office. Guests pick their team when they join on their phone. Five to eight teams is ideal: enough competition, and a leaderboard short enough to read from the back.

A few tips:

Mixed teams across departments are more fun than "Finance against Sales", and less likely to get competitive in the wrong way.
Give teams a minute to choose a name. It is the first thing they do together.
Keep teams roughly the same size; move a few people before the first question rather than after.

Mix the question types

Multiple choice: the classic. Four options, one right answer.
True or false: quick, good for warming up.
Closest number: "How many cups of coffee did the office drink this year?" The nearest guess wins.
Picture questions: a landmark, a baby photo of the CEO, a product close-up, a famous painting.
Type the answer: for a harder final question.

Write good questions

Keep each question short enough to read in five seconds.
Mix the world and the company: half general knowledge, half about your own team and year.
Write for an international room. Use landmarks, food and films from several countries, so no group has an unfair advantage.
Avoid questions that need a long explanation, trick wording or a single right spelling.
Check every answer twice, from two sources. A wrong answer on the screen is the one thing people remember.
Ask someone outside the committee to play the quiz once. If they get none right, it is too hard; if they get all right, it is too easy. Aim for about 60 percent.

Order the questions

Start easy, so every team scores early and stays in the game. Put the hardest questions in the middle, and end with a question everyone can attempt, worth double points. A good shape for twelve questions:

Two easy warm-ups.
Eight mixed questions, including one picture and one closest-number question.
Two finishers, the last one for double points.

Timing and scoring

15 to 20 seconds per question; 30 for picture or typed answers.
Faster right answers score more points, which keeps it exciting.
Show the right answer and the leaderboard after each question. The cheers come from the leaderboard, not the question.
Decide before the night what happens with a tie: a closest-number question works best, because there is always one nearest answer.

Host it well

Read each question aloud as it appears, so people at the back keep up.
Give the answer with one line of explanation or a joke, then move on.
Name the leading team and the team in last place, kindly. Both get a cheer.
Keep an eye on the clock. If the dinner runs late, drop questions from the middle rather than rushing the end.

On the big screen

Connect a laptop to the projector, open the quiz's big screen and switch to full screen. Run the quiz from your phone: start, next question, show answer, leaderboard. Teams play on their own phones after scanning one QR code at their table. Do one full run-through a week before with the committee.

Finish strong

Make the last question worth double points so any team can still win, then show the podium on the big screen and hand out the prizes on stage. Small prizes for the whole winning team work better than one big prize for the captain.

Ideas for themed quizzes

A year-in-review quiz: projects, launches, new offices, who joined.
A festive quiz for the holiday party; see our Christmas party games for work.
A zodiac and traditions quiz for a Lunar New Year dinner.
A "how well do you know the team" round with baby photos.

Try it

Our annual dinner games page has more ideas for the rest of the night. To try a quiz before your event, play for free with up to 20 people.