Canvas Quiz Answers: Where Canvas Shows Them and When (2026)

Canvas shows quiz answers in one place: the quiz results page you see after you submit, and only if your instructor allows it. In Classic Quizzes the settings are called Let Students See Their Quiz Responses and Let Students See The Correct Answers; in New Quizzes they sit behind Hide results from students. If you can't see the correct answers, your instructor has turned them off, limited them to one viewing, or set them to appear on a later date. This guide explains each of those settings, where to look for your results, and how to use them to study before the next quiz or exam.

Last verified: October 12, 2026 against the official documentation linked below.

How Canvas quizzes work: Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes

Canvas has two quiz engines, and your course may use either one. Classic Quizzes is the original tool. Instructure's guide notes that when an institution enables the Disable Classic Quiz Creation feature option, instructors can no longer create new Classic Quizzes, although existing ones can still be edited and migrated. New Quizzes is the newer engine, built as a separate tool with its own Build page and Settings tab. The two tools look different to students and, more importantly for this guide, they handle answer visibility in different ways.

As a student you rarely need to know which engine you are in, except when results are missing: the reason, and the setting your instructor would change, depends on the engine. If your quiz has question types such as hot spot, ordering or categorization, it is almost certainly New Quizzes, since those types exist only there. If you want a fuller comparison, our guide to Canvas Classic vs New Quizzes walks through the differences in question types and navigation.

Both engines support the same broad set of quiz settings: a time limit, multiple attempts, shuffled answers, one question at a time, an access code and IP filtering. In Classic Quizzes, the instructor can also choose a Quiz Type, which includes a practice quiz option. Practice quizzes matter for studying because, according to Instructure, they do not appear in the Syllabus, the Gradebook or SpeedGrader. They exist so you can test yourself without affecting your grade, and instructors often leave answers visible on them.

Where the correct answers legitimately appear

There is no hidden answer key that students are meant to find. Canvas only reveals correct answers through channels the instructor controls. In practice, that means four places:

• The quiz results page after you submit. Depending on settings, it shows your responses, which ones were wrong, the correct answers and any automatic feedback.
• Question feedback. Instructors can write feedback for correct and incorrect answers. In New Quizzes, there is also a Show custom feedback with results setting for a general message on the results page.
• Practice quizzes and ungraded self-checks. These are designed for review, so instructors are more likely to show answers immediately and allow unlimited attempts.
• Your instructor and teaching assistants. If results are hidden, asking during office hours which concepts you missed is always allowed, and often more useful than seeing a single letter marked correct.

What you will not find is a legitimate way to see correct answers before submitting a graded quiz. Those answers are scored on Canvas's servers, and the settings below decide what comes back to you afterwards.

Classic Quizzes: the settings that control answer visibility

In Classic Quizzes, the instructor sets visibility in the quiz options, in two groups. The names below are the exact labels from Instructure's guide What options can I set in a quiz?

Allow Students to View Responses

By default, students can view their answers, any automatic feedback for correct or incorrect answers, and which questions they got wrong. The instructor can change that with three options:

• Let Students See Their Quiz Responses: turning this off means you see your score but not your answers.
• Only After Their Last Attempt: you see responses only once you have used every allowed attempt. Instructure points out a side effect: if you stop after reaching a score you like, you may never see your responses unless the instructor changes the setting later.
• Only Once After Each Attempt: you see your responses, and the correct answers, immediately after submitting, but only that one time. You still see your score. If you leave the page, the detailed view is gone.

Allow Students to See Correct Answers

Showing which of your answers were wrong is separate from showing what the right answer was. The controls are:

• Let Students See The Correct Answers, on by default.
• Only After Their Last Attempt, the same last-attempt rule applied to correct answers.
• Show Correct Answers at and Hide Correct Answers at, two date fields. Leaving both blank shows answers immediately after submission. A show date alone reveals answers from that date on. A hide date alone shows them until that date. Both together create a window.

Two details explain most of the confusion students run into. First, if Only Once After Each Attempt is selected, it overrides any show or hide dates. Second, Instructure notes that students cannot view their results if the quiz uses Respondus LockDown Browser together with the Only Once After Each Attempt option. In that case the instructor can use the Moderate Quiz tool to grant additional views. Your institution can also stop students from viewing quiz submissions after the course ends, which removes correct answers from old courses.

New Quizzes: Hide results from students and its options

New Quizzes works the other way around. According to Instructure's guide How do I manage quiz results in New Quizzes?, students can view all results for their attempts by default. When the instructor turns on Hide results from students in the quiz Settings tab, everything is hidden until they switch specific items back on:

• Show questions: displays the questions on the results page. Under it, Show student responses and Show feedback can be toggled. The feedback option shows general feedback, not whether you were right.
• Show student responses timing: for all attempts, only once after each attempt, only after the last attempt, or only once after the last attempt, with an optional date when it becomes visible.
• Indicate response as correct or incorrect: marks each of your answers. When enabled, the instructor can show the correct answer after each attempt or only after the last attempt, again with an optional date.
• Show points possible and Show points awarded: control whether question and quiz points appear.

One subtlety: hiding results in New Quizzes does not hide your grade in the Gradebook. Instructure notes that to hide grades too, the instructor must use a manual posting policy. So it is normal to see a score on your Grades page while the quiz itself shows nothing.

The New Quizzes settings guide also lists a study-friendly option: Enable build on last attempt, which lets you reattempt only the questions you got wrong. If your instructor uses it, each new attempt becomes a focused review of your weak spots.

Classic vs New Quizzes: what you can see after submitting

For the rest of the options, such as time limits, attempts and how Canvas picks which score to keep, see Canvas quiz settings explained.

Why instructors hide or delay correct answers

If your results page is empty, it is usually not a bug. Instructors delay answers for reasons that are easy to understand once you see them from their side:

• Classmates are still taking the quiz. When availability windows overlap or some students have extended time, releasing answers at submission would let them circulate. A show date after the window closes solves that.
• Question banks are reused. Instructors who draw from the same bank every term often keep correct answers hidden permanently and discuss results in class instead.
• Multiple attempts. Showing answers after attempt one makes attempt two a copying exercise. Last-attempt settings keep each attempt meaningful.
• Manual grading. Essay and file upload questions need grading by a person. Instructure warns that the one-time view may not suit these quizzes, because students need to come back to see updated scores.

If you need the answers to learn from your mistakes, ask. Many instructors are happy to open a review window, go over common errors in class, or meet during office hours, especially before a cumulative exam.

How to find your quiz results as a student

1. Open the course and go to Quizzes or Assignments, or open the quiz from its module.
2. Select the quiz. If you have submitted at least one attempt, the quiz page lets you open your results for that attempt.
3. You can also start from Grades, select the quiz name, and open the submission.
4. If the page shows only a score, the instructor has hidden responses or answers, or set a release date. Check the quiz instructions or announcements for when results will be released.

If the setting is Only Once After Each Attempt, read the results carefully before you leave the page. Taking notes on what you missed and why is allowed and is the whole point of the review.

How to study for Canvas quizzes

The settings above determine how much feedback you get. What you do with it decides your next score. A few approaches that work well with how Canvas quizzes are built:

• Take every practice quiz, twice. Practice quizzes don't count toward your grade, so treat the first attempt as a diagnostic and the second, a few days later, as a check that the material stuck.
• Turn misses into questions. For each wrong answer on a results page, write down the concept behind it, not just the correct option. With shuffled answers and question banks, the same concept usually comes back in a different form.
• Go back to the module. Most Canvas quizzes are tied to a module. Reread the specific pages, slides or readings that cover the questions you missed.
• Use retrieval practice and spacing. Testing yourself and spreading review over several days beats rereading the night before. Our guide on how to study with AI tools covers ways to generate practice questions from your own notes.
• Read the quiz settings before you start. The quiz page lists the time limit, number of attempts and sometimes whether answers will be shown. Knowing that you get only one look at the results changes how you prepare.

Using an AI study assistant while you practise

A results page tells you that an answer was wrong. It often doesn't tell you why. That gap is where an AI study assistant helps: on a practice quiz, a self-check or a review of a returned attempt, it can explain the reasoning behind each option, define the terms involved and point out the concept you need to revisit.

QuizAce is a Chrome extension built for that. It reads the question on the Canvas page, including text and images, and explains the answer in a panel next to it. It works on both Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes, as well as Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle, Google Forms and Microsoft Forms.

Whether you may use any outside help, AI or otherwise, on a graded quiz is set by your instructor and your institution's academic integrity policy, not by Canvas. Check the syllabus and the quiz instructions. Where AI help is not allowed during graded work, use it for practice quizzes, homework review and studying beforehand.

Sources

• Instructure: What options can I set in a quiz? (Classic Quizzes)
• Instructure: How do I manage quiz results in New Quizzes?
• Instructure: How do I manage settings for a quiz in New Quizzes?
• Instructure: How do I view practice quiz results in a course?

FAQ

Why can't I see my answers on a Canvas quiz?

Your instructor has limited result visibility. In Classic Quizzes, Let Students See Their Quiz Responses may be off, or set to Only After Their Last Attempt or Only Once After Each Attempt. In New Quizzes, Hide results from students is probably on. Results may also be scheduled for a later date.

How do I see the correct answers on Canvas after submitting?

Open the quiz from Quizzes, Assignments, Grades or the module and view your attempt. Correct answers appear only if the instructor enabled them. In Classic Quizzes that is Let Students See The Correct Answers; in New Quizzes it is the correct-answer option under Indicate response as correct or incorrect.

Can I see Canvas quiz answers again after the one-time view?

Not on your own. With Only Once After Each Attempt, the detailed view disappears when you leave the page. In Classic Quizzes, your instructor can grant additional views through Moderate Quiz, so ask if you need another look.

Do Canvas practice quizzes count toward my grade?

No. Instructure states that practice quizzes do not appear in the Syllabus, the Gradebook or SpeedGrader. They are meant for self-assessment, which makes them the best place to study.

Is it allowed to use AI on a Canvas quiz?

It depends on your course. Canvas itself has no rule about it; your instructor's instructions and your institution's academic integrity policy do. AI study tools are broadly accepted for practice and review, and often restricted on graded assessments.