Python Quiz

A desktop trivia game for one or two players, built with Python and Tkinter. The application loads 10 questions from Open Trivia DB, randomises the answer choices and tracks scores throughout the game.

Created by Ivanna Poltavets as a learning and portfolio project.

Try the browser adaptation · Explore the Python source

The browser adaptation was created with ChatGPT assistance and has an updated interface. This repository contains the original Python desktop application; the browser version is a separate implementation.

Screenshots

Start window

Quiz screen

Features

• Single-player mode and local two-player mode on the same computer.
• Starting-team selection and alternating turns in two-player mode.
• Questions retrieved from the Open Trivia DB API.
• Randomised answer choices and decoded HTML entities in question text.
• Feedback after each submitted answer, including the correct answer when needed.
• Final percentage scores for the player or both teams.
• Basic text-file export of session results, with limitations noted below.

Technologies

Technology	Purpose
Python	Application and game logic
Tkinter	Desktop windows, answer selection and result dialogs
Requests	HTTP requests to the question API
Open Trivia DB	Trivia question data
random and html	Answer shuffling and HTML entity decoding

Run locally

You need Python 3, Tkinter, an internet connection and a desktop environment. The only third-party Python package imported by the application is requests.

1. Download the project

Download and extract the repository ZIP, or clone it:

git clone https://github.com/quttaj/quiz-python.git
cd quiz-python

If you downloaded the ZIP, open a terminal in the extracted repository folder instead.

2. Install the dependency

python -m pip install requests

Tkinter must also be available in your Python installation. You can check it with:

python -m tkinter

This should open a small test window. If Tkinter is missing, install the Tcl/Tk support provided by your Python installer or operating system; it is not installed with pip install tkinter.

3. Start the quiz

cd original-python
python main_both.py

Use python3 in place of python if that is the Python 3 command on your system.

Questions are fetched before the mode-selection window opens, so startup requires a working connection to Open Trivia DB. If the request fails or the API returns no questions, check the terminal message, wait briefly and try again.

How to play

1. Choose One Player or Two Players.
2. In two-player mode, choose the team that should start.
3. Select an answer and click Next to submit it and advance.
4. Continue through the questions to see the final score.
5. Use Quit to close the quiz early.

The application writes quiz_results.txt to the current working directory when the quiz window closes. Running it from original-python as shown above keeps the results in that folder. Each export replaces the previous file.

Project structure

quiz-python/
├── README.md
└── original-python/
    ├── main_both.py        # Entry point and question-bank preparation
    ├── question_model.py   # Question text, correct answer and choices
    ├── quiz_data.py        # API request and response validation
    ├── quiz_brain_both.py  # Turn management, scoring and results export
    ├── quiz_ui_both.py     # Tkinter settings and quiz windows
    └── quiz_results.txt    # Results output

Implementation highlights

The project separates question data, game logic and the graphical interface into individual modules. It demonstrates API integration, JSON processing, class-based organisation, event-driven GUI programming and local multiplayer state management.

Current limitations

• The interface has four answer controls, while the API request does not restrict questions to the multiple-choice type. True/false questions can therefore leave unused or stale answer controls visible.
• The results export does not yet retain each submitted answer. Its per-question answer and correctness fields are incomplete; the in-game score is calculated separately.
• Questions are loaded online at startup; there is no offline question set or in-app retry flow.

Possible next improvements

• Match the number of answer controls to the question type.
• Store answer history and complete the detailed results export.
• Add in-app handling for network failures and missing answer selections.
• Add automated tests for scoring and turn changes.

Author

Ivanna Poltavets
GitHub · Email

Question data is provided by Open Trivia DB.