Trivia Factory

Ruby gem for creating tons of sample trivia/test questions. Intended for use in specs or apps that need questions. Think of it as Faker for trivia questions + answers. It should be able to create thousands of unique questions.

Originally part of a sports trivia app I had that was somewhat popular (Hat Trick), this gem uses tables of data (in CSV form) to create random questions.

Installation

gem install trivia_factory

If you're using Bundler and/or Rails, add the following to your Gemfile:

gem 'trivia_factory'

Usage

Generate a random question (from all available types)

question = TriviaFactory::Question.random

This will return a TriviaFactory::Question object. Use the to_h helper to get it as a hash.

question.to_h

{
            :label => "Sacramento is the capital of what US state?",
    :question_type => :multiple_choice,
          :choices => [
            "Oklahoma",
            "Delaware",
            "California",
            "Oregon"
          ],
           :answer => 2,
      :answer_type => :choice_index
}

Question object structure

Question objects have the following attributes (which are also available as keys in the hash):

label: this is the actual question being asked

question_type: a symbol denoting the type of question. Will be one of the following:

:true_false
:multiple_choice
:fill_in_the_blank

choices: an array of choices for multiple choice questions. Will be an empty array (not nil) for other question types.

answer: the correct answer for the question. Its type/class may vary (see below).

answer_type: specifies the type of answer. Will be one of the following: [:choice_index, :boolean, :string, :integer]. Note: when :choice_index, the correct answer corresponds to the correct choice in the choices array.

Question categories

Currently the following question categories exist as subclasses of TriviaFactory::Question:

TriviaFactory::MathQuestion: generates a basic integer addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problem (fill in the blank).

TriviaFactory::SportsQuestion: generates a sports trivia question (multiple choice).

TriviaFactory::UsStateCapitalsQuestion: generates a question about US state capitals (multiple choice).

TriviaFactory::CapitalCitiesQuestion: generates a question about worldwide capital cities (fill in the blank)

TriviaFactory::AcademyAwardsQuestion: generates a question about academy award winners (multiple choice)

TriviaFactory::VocabularyQuestion: generates a vocabulary word <-> definition question. From a list of 1,000 vocabulary study words. (multiple choice)

TriviaFactory::CompanyQuestion: generates a question about public companies on the S&P 500 and their ticker symbols (multiple choice)

TriviaFactory::GrammyAwardsQuestion: generates a question about grammy award for album of the year (multiple choice)

To create a question from any of these types, simply call the .generate() method on any of the classes.

More examples

q = TriviaFactory::MathQuestion.generate
q.to_h
=>  {
      :label         => "5 + 5 = _____?",
      :question_type => :fill_in_the_blank,
      :choices       => [],
      :answer        => 10,
      :answer_type   => :integer
    }

q = TriviaFactory::SportsQuestion.generate
q.to_h
=> {
      :label         => "In 1987 who defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series?",
      :question_type => :multiple_choice,
      :choices       => ["Detroit Tigers", "Minnesota Twins", "Anaheim Angels", "New York Yankees"],
      :answer        => 1,
      :answer_type   => :choice_index
    }

Contributing

Contributions welcome. Add a CSV to the data/ folder, create a subclass, write a test, and submit a PR.

callmeed / trivia_factory