PubTriviaQuiz night round planner
Build a running order for a quiz night: pick your rounds, set the length, and get the timings back, including where the break goes and when you will finish.
Why quiz nights overrun
Almost every first quiz night runs long, and the reason is the same every time: the plan counted the questions and not everything around them.
A round of ten is not ten questions long. It is ten questions read twice each, a pause for the table that is still arguing about number four, and then the answers read out, which is another two or three minutes on its own. Add a music round that needs clips replaying and a picture round that has to be handed out, and ninety minutes of questions is a two-hour night.
The timings below are deliberately generous for that reason. A quiz that finishes while the room still wants more is one people come back to; one that overruns by forty minutes is not.
Your running order
1 hr 51 min, finishes about 21:51
- 20:00
Welcome and rules (5 min)
How many rounds, how long, what the prize is, and no phones.
- 20:05
Round 1: Standard round (13 min)
10 questions. General knowledge or a single subject, answered as you go.
- 20:18
Round 2: Music round (16 min)
10 questions. Clips need playing and often replaying, and the room gets loud.
- 20:34
Round 3: Standard round (13 min)
10 questions. General knowledge or a single subject, answered as you go.
- 20:47
Break (15 min)
Put the halfway standings up. This is where the bar makes its money.
- 21:02
Round 4: Picture round (12 min)
10 questions. Slower to hand out and collect, quicker to answer. Usually runs across the break.
- 21:14
Round 5: List or connections round (19 min)
10 questions. Tables talk these through, which is the point and also the cost.
- 21:33
Round 6: Quickfire / true or false (8 min)
10 questions. No options to read out, answered in seconds. The fastest round there is.
- 21:41
Results and prize (10 min)
Read every team's name, bottom up. Then say when the next one is.
Where the break goes
After round three of six, and it is not an interruption to the quiz, it is the part the venue is actually running the night for. Fifteen minutes, announced clearly, and stuck to.
Put the halfway standings up during it. People read them, argue about them, and buy a drink while they do.
Where the hard round goes
Third or fourth, before the break. At the start people are still arriving and settling; by the end they have had three drinks and stopped concentrating. The middle is the only point in the evening where a room is both present and sharp.
And the round straight after the break should be the easiest of the second half. A room coming back from fifteen minutes at the bar is in no state for a picture round of obscure flags.
One round fewer than you planned
If you are unsure, cut one. You can always add a tie-break question, and an evening that ends ten minutes early costs you nothing.
The signal to watch for on the night is people leaving at the break. One is noise; three means the first half was too long.
Run the order you just planned
Set the number of questions when you start a session and launch each one yourself, so the gaps are where you planned them. The first session is free.
Start free, no card neededKeep reading
- Quiz formatThe standard six-round format with real timings, plus three alternatives for a shorter night, a louder room and a one-off. Where to put the hard round.
- How many roundsSix rounds of ten is the standard answer and it is wrong about a third of the time. How to pick the number for your room, your night and your crowd.
- Round ideasThirty round formats beyond general knowledge, with how each is run, how long it takes and the room it suits. The ones worth stealing and the ones that die.