Building a Simple Online Quiz System with PHP and MySQL

With the rise of online learning, many developers need a convenient way to deliver quizzes that students can take anytime; this article shows how to build such a system using PHP and MySQL.

Data storage and management : Create a MySQL database named test_questions and a table questions with columns id, question, options, and answer to hold each quiz item.

CREATE TABLE questions (
  id int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  question varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  options text NOT NULL,
  answer varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (id)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Connecting to the database in PHP :

<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username   = "root";
$password   = "root";
$dbname     = "test_questions";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
?>

Fetching quiz data with a helper function:

<?php
function getQuestions() {
    global $conn;
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM questions";
    $result = $conn->query($sql);
    if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
        $questions = [];
        while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
            $question = [
                'id'       => $row['id'],
                'question' => $row['question'],
                'options'  => json_decode($row['options'], true),
                'answer'   => $row['answer'],
            ];
            $questions[] = $question;
        }
        return $questions;
    } else {
        return [];
    }
}
?>

Displaying the questions on a web page using a loop:

<?php
$questions = getQuestions();
?>
<?php foreach ($questions as $question): ?>
    <h3><?php echo $question['question']; ?></h3>
    <?php foreach ($question['options'] as $option): ?>
        <label>
            <input type="radio" name="answer_<?php echo $question['id']; ?>" value="<?php echo $option; ?>">
            <?php echo $option; ?>
        </label>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Submitting answers and calculating the score after the user posts the form:

<?php
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
    $answers = $_POST;
    $score   = 0;
    foreach ($questions as $question) {
        $userAnswer = $answers["answer_{$question['id']}"];
        if ($userAnswer === $question['answer']) {
            $score++;
        }
    }
    echo "Total score: " . $score;
}
?>

The example demonstrates the core steps—database design, data retrieval, rendering, and scoring—required to implement a functional online quiz. Developers can extend it with additional question types, analytics, or user authentication as needed.