Editorial policy
The rules every question must pass before it reaches you.
Adopted 1 July 2025 · Last reviewed: 2026-07-02
Commissioning and writing
Questions are drafted against category briefs that specify audience, difficulty band, and topic rotation. Every draft must state its answer, three distractors, a one-to-two line explanation, and at least two reference sources.
The fairness standard
A question ships only if: (1) the correct answer is unambiguous against reputable references; (2) all distractors are cleanly wrong yet plausible; (3) difficulty lives in the fact, not the phrasing — except in the Puzzle round, where wordplay is the declared game; (4) the explanation adds at least one fact beyond the answer.
Review
A second editor reviews every item for ambiguity, currency, and tone before it enters the publication bank. Items on fast-moving subjects carry a review date and are re-verified before reuse.
Neutrality
Politics and news questions address verifiable facts — results, offices, institutions — not evaluations. Where reputable sources genuinely dispute a 'fact' (river lengths, first inventions), the explanation says so.
Corrections
Handled under the separate fact-checking policy, which includes how corrections are logged on affected pages.