How to make an online quiz that is hard to cheat on

What secure mode does

• Opens the quiz in full screen when it starts.
• Blocks right click, copy, cut, paste, text selection and the common keyboard shortcuts.
• Counts every time the person leaves the page, switches tab or exits full screen. While they are away an overlay stops the quiz, and the timer keeps running.
• After the number of warnings you allow, the answers given so far are submitted and the quiz ends.
• Saves the number of warnings, and whether the quiz ended early, with every result, so you can see it afterwards.

What makes questions harder to share

• A random selection: write a pool of 40 questions and ask each person 15 of them, so two people rarely get the same set.
• Random order and shuffled answer options.
• One question at a time with no going back, and a timer for each question that closes it with what has been answered.
• One attempt per device, so a person cannot simply retry until they pass.
• The right answers never leave our server: the page the person sees does not contain them, so they cannot be read from the page source.

Set it up

1. Start from the quiz template: open Forms, create a form from the Q&A quiz template or turn any form into a quiz in its settings.
2. Mark the right answers: for each question choose the right answer and the points. A question with no right answer, such as a name or an email, is asked first and is not graded.
3. Set the rules: pick a pass mark, a time per question and how many questions to ask from the pool. Choose random order and shuffled options.
4. Turn on secure mode: choose how many warnings are allowed before the quiz ends. Zero ends it at the first time someone leaves.
5. Decide what people see: nothing, passed or failed, the score, or the score with the right answers.
6. Test it: the builder preview runs the same rules, with full screen and the warnings, so you can try it before you share the link.

What it cannot do

Secure mode is not webcam proctoring, and there is none. A browser cannot see a second device, a person sitting next to the test taker or a photo of the screen, and some browsers, such as Safari on iPhone, have no full-screen mode, so they get the other protections only. Secure mode discourages cheating and gives you a record. For an exam where the result carries real weight, use it together with a pool of questions, short timers and, where it matters, an invigilated room.

What you get back

Every response has the score, the points, a passed or failed result and the warnings. You see them in the responses table and the CSV export, in the email you get for each response, and in the webhook if you send responses to your own system. Analytics show the pass rate and the average score. Questions that need your judgement, like a written answer, can be graded by hand and give partial points.

Secure mode costs a few extra credits for every response, on top of the normal response price, and the price is shown in the quiz settings.

Questions about this guide

Does it detect switching tabs?

Yes. Leaving the page, switching tab or exiting full screen is counted as a warning. After the warnings you allow, the quiz ends and the answers so far are submitted.

Does it block copy and paste?

Yes. Right click, copy, cut, paste, selecting text and the common shortcuts are blocked while the quiz runs in secure mode.

Is there webcam proctoring?

No. Secure mode works inside the browser and cannot see a second device or the room, so it discourages cheating and records what it can.