Moodle Quiz Security Features Explained: The 2026 Student Guide

When a Moodle quiz behaves strangely, asks for a password or refuses to open, it is usually because of a security setting your teacher chose. Knowing what each one does makes quizzes far less stressful, and helps you fix problems quickly instead of panicking before a deadline.

Timing settings

The first group of settings controls when you can take the quiz:

• Open and close dates: outside these times, the quiz is not available.
• Time limit: once you start, a countdown runs even if you close the page.
• When time expires: your teacher chooses whether open attempts are submitted automatically, given a short grace period, or not counted at all if you did not submit. This one matters a lot, so read our Moodle quiz timer guide.

Attempts and delays

Teachers decide how many attempts you get, and can enforce a delay between the first and second attempt, and between later attempts. If you see a message saying you cannot start a new attempt until a certain time, that is the enforced delay at work. It exists to stop students from rushing repeated attempts and to encourage review between them.

Extra restrictions on attempts

Under "Extra restrictions on attempts", Moodle offers several options:

• Require password: you need a password to start each attempt.
• Require network address: the quiz can only be started from certain IP addresses, typically a campus network or exam room.
• Browser security: the quiz opens in a full-screen pop-up window with some restrictions on copying and navigation.
• Safe Exam Browser: the quiz can only be taken inside Safe Exam Browser, a locked-down browser. See our Safe Exam Browser guide for setup help.

Shuffling and random questions

Teachers can shuffle questions and the answers within each question. Many also pull random questions from a question bank, so two students may get completely different questions on the same topic. This is why shared "answer lists" usually do not match what you see.

Review options

After submitting, what you can see is controlled by review options: your answers, whether they were correct, marks, feedback and right answers. These can change over time, for example showing marks immediately but correct answers only after the quiz closes. Our guide on reviewing your Moodle quiz mistakes shows how to use the review page.

Logs and reports

Every attempt is recorded. Teachers can see when you started, when you finished, how long you took, and in many cases the response history for each question with timestamps. Course logs also record which pages you opened and the IP address used. We explain what teachers can see in 5 Moodle features teachers use to spot cheating.

Why these features exist

Troubleshooting checklist

• Quiz not available: check open dates and activity completion conditions.
• Password prompt: wait for your teacher to share it.
• Network message: switch to the allowed network.
• Pop-up blocked: allow pop-ups for your Moodle site.
• Safe Exam Browser required: install it before exam day and test it with a practice quiz.

Most quiz problems can be solved in minutes once you know which setting is causing them. For more, see why your Moodle quiz is locked.