Organizing Assessment Questions by Category

A Category identifies the topic or skill tested by an assessment question, such as Product Knowledge, Compliance, or Python Basics.

Categories power topic-level reporting, including:

• Performance by topic in each learner's report

• Weakest topics and top-performing topics in the Assessments report

• Performance by Category on an attempt's results page

Questions without a Category appear as Uncategorized. They are kept separate and are not ranked as a strength or weakness.

Set a Category for One Question

1. Open the assessment and go to Questions.

2. Click the pencil icon to edit the question.

3. In Category (Optional), type or select a Category. Existing Categories are suggested as you type.

4. Save the question.

The question's Category appears as a badge in the question list.

Set a Category for Multiple Questions

1. On the Questions tab, use the Category filter to find questions. Select Uncategorized to find questions without a Category.

2. Select the questions you want to update, or use the select-all checkbox.

3. Click Set Category.

4. Type or select a Category, then click Save Category. Leave the field blank to remove the Category.

After a QTI import, select Categorize N questions to open the Questions tab with uncategorized questions already filtered.

Set a Category When Generating Questions with AI

In Generate Questions, enter or select an optional Category. Existing Categories from the assessment are suggested.

The selected Category is saved on every generated question in the batch, including survey questions. AI does not create Category names automatically. You can change the Category of individual questions afterwards.

For integrations using the authenticated create route, POST /api/assessments/:id/questions also accepts category. Learnly trims whitespace, collapses extra spaces, and limits Category names to 200 characters. A blank value means no Category. This does not introduce a new public API-key authoring endpoint.

A Category represents the question's topic and is separate from its Bloom's level. See Setting Bloom's Levels on Assessment Questions.

Use One Topic per Question

Assign one topic to each question.

For example, entering:

Safety, Compliance

creates one combined Category called Safety, Compliance. The question does not count separately toward the Safety and Compliance topics.

Learnly shows a reminder when you enter a comma in Set Category.

When Category Changes Take Effect

Topic scores are saved with an attempt when it is graded.

• A new or changed Category applies to attempts graded from that point onward.

• Already graded attempts keep their saved topic scores and are not silently updated.

• Exception: If essays are still awaiting review, manual review recalculates the entire attempt using the current question Categories and levels, including questions that were already auto-graded.

For the most accurate reporting, set Categories before learners take the assessment.

Best Practices

• Use consistent Category names. For example, use Customer Service consistently instead of mixing it with Cust. Service. Reports group Categories by their exact names.

• Use recognizable names. Categories appear in reports and recommendations, so choose names that learners and managers understand.

• Aim for at least 3 questions per topic in each assessment. Topics with fewer scored questions are marked Limited evidence and are not listed as weak areas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a question belong to two topics?

Not currently. Each question can have only one Category.

Where can I see results by Category?

See Finding Each Learner's Weakest Topics for information about topic-level assessment results.

Can Categories be imported with question banks?

Yes. QTI packages containing topic tags can be mapped to Categories during import. See Mapping QTI Topic Tags to Question Categories.