How to win Kahoot: what really decides the score

Kahoot’s help center gives the exact method. Your response time is divided by the question timer, the result is halved and subtracted from one, and what is left is multiplied by the points possible. In a question with one answer that pool is 1000 points.

The example from Kahoot’s help: answering 2 seconds into a 30-second timer gives about 967 points. The same formula means that an answer at half time is worth 750 points, and one in the last second still about 500.

The conclusion is simple: a correct answer is worth more than hurry. A blind guess after one second gives zero if it is wrong, while a considered answer near the end still gives half of the pool. In questions with several correct answers the points are counted separately, up to 500 for each correct one.

Kahoot shows your streak of correct answers, but according to its help center it no longer awards extra points for it. A streak is something to be proud of, not a way to catch up.

What the host can change is the weight of a question: set it to double points (a pool of 2000) or to no points. It pays to watch the screen before a question, because one double-points question can turn the ranking around.

Quiz

You pick one or several correct answers among the tiles.

True or false

You judge one statement.

Type answer

You type a short answer on the keyboard.

Puzzle

You put the answers in the right order.

Slider

You set a number on a scale.

Pin answer

You point at a place on an image.

A poll, a word cloud, a brainstorm and an open-ended question collect opinions: they have no correct answer and give no points. There is no reason to stress over them.

In a live game the questions appear on a shared screen and you answer on your own device. So you have to watch the classroom screen and hit the right tile on your phone at the same time.

A kahoot given as an assignment is played at your own pace, with the questions on your own screen. Solo play and the study modes, such as flashcards, are for practicing alone. That is the best training before a live game, if you have the link to the quiz.

• Play the quiz beforehand. If your teacher shared the link, go through it in solo play or in flashcards.
• See the key of the quiz. With the quiz link or the quiz ID you can see the questions with the correct answers, if the quiz shares its key.
• Read the whole question. A wrong answer is zero, and a late correct one is still about half of the points.
• In questions with several answers select all the correct ones, because each is scored separately.
• Look after your gear: a stable connection and a charged phone, because every second of delay costs points.

Quizonator gives three ways to get correct answers in Kahoot. If you have the quiz link or the quiz ID, you paste it on the page and see the key of the quiz, free and without an account. In self-paced kahoots the Chrome extension marks the answer, and one question uses one answer from your plan.

In a live game the iOS app reads the question from the classroom screen with your phone camera and shows the right tile. It is a beta feature of the PRO and PRO+ plans, one question uses 2 answers per question through November 15, 2026, then 5, and reading takes several seconds, so with a very short timer the hint may not make it. AI can be wrong, and your teacher decides which aids are allowed.