Introducing Self-Paced Trivia and Polls: new ways to compete and connect in AWS Skill Builder Trivia 

Cloud learning is most effective when teams can engage with it in ways that fit their work. Learners need opportunities to reinforce what they have learned, even when they are spread across time zones, working different schedules, or attending a multi-day event. Facilitators also need a way to understand how their audience feels, what participants know, where they need support, and what they want to learn next, without turning every question into a scored knowledge check. 

Since launch, AWS Skill Builder Trivia has helped teams reinforce cloud knowledge through live, gamified competition. In a live session, a host guides question delivery in real time while participants answer together, earn points for accuracy and speed, and compete on a shared leaderboard. This format brings energy to team meetings, training programs, and events, but it requires everyone to be available at the same time and does not offer a natural way to ask an opinion question without assigning an arbitrary correct answer. 

Today, we’re excited to announce Self-Paced Trivia and Polls, two new capabilities that give teams more flexibility in how they learn and engage. Self-Paced Trivia lets participants compete on their own schedule. Polls let facilitators gather audience input without changing the score. Used independently or together, they help organizations create learning experiences that fit the moment. 

Self-Paced Trivia: competition that fits your schedule 

Self-Paced Trivia is a new asynchronous mode of AWS Skill Builder Trivia. An event creator sets up a trivia challenge, chooses an availability window of up to 30 days, and shares a QR code or link. Participants join when it works for them, answer questions at their own pace, and contribute to a shared leaderboard. No host is required during gameplay, and there is no fixed time when every participant must be online. 

The competitive experience remains at the center. Standard quiz questions use the same speed-based scoring as live Trivia: each correct answer can earn up to 1,000 points based on accuracy and answer speed. When participants complete the event, they see their final score and position on the leaderboard alongside everyone else who has played. 

For organizers, Self-Paced Trivia makes it possible to extend a learning moment beyond a single meeting. A training leader can share a challenge after an AWS course and give the team a week to participate. A conference organizer can run a trivia challenge throughout a multi-day event. A distributed team can compete across time zones without coordinating a live session. From the event detail page, administrators can monitor participation, completion rates, average scores, and the leaderboard without needing to host gameplay. 

Polls: a way to hear from your audience 

Polls are a separate Trivia question type for facilitators who want to collect sentiment, confidence, or feedback. A Poll can ask questions such as “How prepared do you feel?” or “Which topic should we cover next?” without requiring an arbitrary correct answer. 

A Poll is answered like a quiz question, but it awards zero points and never changes the leaderboard. Rather than showing correct or incorrect feedback, every answer option remains colored and the result is clearly labeled “Poll · No points.” After responding, participants see the response distribution. In a Self-Paced Trivia event, they immediately see how many participants selected each option. Once a Self-Paced Trivia event ends, administrators can download a report showing how many participants selected each option.

Polls can be used in live sessions or included in a Self-Paced Trivia event. This gives facilitators a simple way to combine scored knowledge checks with audience feedback while keeping the competition focused on the questions that measure learning. 

Two distinct capabilities, one flexible learning experience 

Self-Paced Trivia and Polls solve different needs. Use Self-Paced Trivia when a team needs a flexible, competitive way to reinforce learning across schedules, time zones, or an extended event window. Use Polls when an organizer wants to understand what an audience thinks without awarding points or a correct answer. Use both when a learning experience should include scored questions and feedback in the same event. 

For example, a manager can create a week-long Self-Paced Trivia event after a training program, then add a Poll that asks participants where they want more practice. A conference facilitator can use Polls during a live session to capture audience input, then share a Self-Paced Trivia challenge that attendees can complete between sessions. 

Availability 

Self-Paced Trivia events can be created for free using the existing question bank. An AWS Skill Builder subscription adds the AI quiz generator and custom template uploads for Self-Paced Trivia. Poll creation is also available to AWS Skill Builder subscription authors. 

Participants can join and answer quiz questions or Polls for free by default. No account is required by default, although event creators can require Skill Builder authentication when they need additional control. 

Get started 

AWS Skill Builder Trivia is part of the experiential learning portfolio within AWS Skill Builder, alongside hundreds of digital courses, AWS Builder Labs, AWS Cloud Quest, and AWS Certification preparation resources. To create an asynchronous challenge, navigate to Self-Paced Events in AWS Skill Builder Trivia. To add Polls, use the Trivia editor to include them in a live session or a Self-Paced Trivia event. 

Share an event with your team, learn what your audience needs, and turn cloud learning into an experience people can join on their own schedule.