A live class quiz is one where the questions go up on the board and every pupil answers on their own device at the same time. Lightning Round is Sage’s version: free to try, no player cap, and no accounts for the children. Put it on the whiteboard, they join with a QR code or a 4-digit code, and it finishes on an animated podium.
You do not need to be a computing teacher to run one. The board shows the question and a countdown; each device shows four coloured buttons and nothing else, so there is no reading race on a small screen. Between questions the standings come up, which is the part that keeps a class in it — nobody is ever more than one question from moving up.
Three routes, and the first two are free for good. Ready-made sets get you playing in one click. Write your own if you want the questions to match exactly what you taught this week. Or generate a set — type the topic, pick an age band from 5–7 up to 16–18, choose how many questions and how long each one runs, and you get a preview screen where you can read every question and fix any you do not like before a single child joins.
That preview matters more than it sounds. Generated questions are worth checking, and the point of the preview is that you check them — on the board, before the lesson, not in front of thirty children.
A correct answer scores 500 to 1,000 points depending on speed. A wrong answer scores nothing at all. That single rule changes how a class plays it, and it is worth telling them before you start.
So the child who reads the question twice and answers on the buzzer still banks 500. The child who slams a colour in the first second and gets it wrong banks nothing. Slow and steady genuinely competes here, and once a class works that out the guessing drops away on its own.
I last used this with my Year 6 class, teaching inherited and genetic characteristics. I wanted a quick check of what had actually stuck at the end of the topic, and the problem was the topic itself — it is niche enough that I could not quickly find a ready-made quiz that matched what we had covered. I typed the topic in, picked the 7–11 band, read the questions on the preview screen and we played it.
What I did not expect was how competitive they got, and how well they took it. Good winners and good losers, which is not always what you get with a scoreboard on the wall. Nothing went wrong — it is now a regular part of the week rather than a treat. A colleague who teaches science all the way up to A level has taken it too, which surprised me; I had thought of it as a primary thing until she used it with a sixth form.
The line I get from colleagues most often is that they cannot believe it is free to try, because they have been paying a lot for the same thing.
The scoring is the reason to reach for this one with a class that has a wide spread in it. Because a wrong answer is worth nothing at any speed, the careful child is not punished for being careful. A pupil who needs to read a question twice loses 500 points to the fastest finger — not the whole question. Over ten questions, accuracy beats speed comfortably, and children notice that quickly.
It also helps that pupils answer on their own device rather than putting a hand up. Everybody answers every question, including the ones who would never volunteer, and you get a read on the whole class rather than the four who always speak. Nobody sees anybody else’s answer — only the standings between questions, and those show points, not who got what wrong.
Playing is free and stays free. Ready-made sets and writing your own questions cost nothing, however many times you run them, and there is no cap on how many pupils join. Generating a quiz on a topic uses AI, so it spends one token — every account starts with 20 free tokens, and Pro gives you a daily allowance. Pupils never need an account of any kind.
Is there a free live quiz game for the classroom?
Yes — Lightning Round is a free-to-try live class quiz. Show it on the whiteboard, pupils join with a QR or 4-digit code on any device, and faster correct answers score more. No player cap and no pupil accounts.
Is there a free Kahoot alternative?
Yes — Lightning Round plays the same way and there is no player cap. Ready-made sets and writing your own questions are free for good; generating a quiz spends one of the 20 free tokens every account starts with.
How is it different from Kahoot or Blooket?
It plays the same way — join with a code, answer on your device, score for speed and finish on a podium — but there is no player cap, no pupil accounts, and you can generate a quiz on any topic for a chosen age band. It runs inside Sage Teachers alongside 90+ other classroom apps.
Do pupils need an app or account?
No — pupils just open their browser and enter the code, or scan the QR on the board. Nothing to install and no login, so a class is playing inside a minute.
How many players can join?
There is no player cap — the whole class, or several classes in a hall, can join the same game.
How are points worked out?
A correct answer scores between 500 and 1,000 points on a smooth curve: the sooner it lands, the closer to 1,000. A wrong answer scores nothing, however fast it was.
What age range does it work for?
Any age from 5 to 18. When you generate a quiz you pick an age band — 5–7, 7–11, 11–14, 14–16 or 16–18 — and the questions are written to that level.
Can I make my own quiz?
Yes — play one of the ready-made sets, type your own questions, or generate a set on any topic and edit it on the preview screen before anyone joins.
Prefer a no-devices team quiz on the board? Try Quizmaster. Scattergories and Higher or Lower are more quick-fire device-join games, and Word Cloud gathers open answers from the same devices instead of scoring them.
Written by a practising primary school teacher · checked August 2026