Why Office Jeopardy Is the Best Low-Effort Team Activity

You don't need a ropes course, a cooking class, or an escape room booking to build team spirit. Sometimes all you need is a screen, some clever questions, and the phrase "I'll take Office Gossip for $800."

Office Jeopardy works because it meets people where they are. It can happen during lunch, after work, or as a 30-minute break during an all-day meeting. There's no gear, no travel, and no one has to pretend they enjoy trust falls.

The key to making it great? The categories. Generic trivia is fine, but categories tailored to your workplace transform a good game into a legendary one.

Creative Category Ideas for Office Jeopardy

Company Insider Knowledge

Turn your company's history, culture, and quirks into a trivia goldmine.

Questions to include:

• "What year did the company move to its current office?" ($200)
• "Name the most-used Slack emoji in our workspace." ($400)
• "This was the first client/customer we ever signed." ($600)
• "How many job openings does the company currently have?" ($800)
• "What was the original working name for our flagship product?" ($1000)

Sourcing tip: Ask your CEO, longest-tenured employee, or office manager for obscure company facts. The more insider the knowledge, the more fun the reveals.

Whose Desk Is This?

Take photos of different employees' desks (with their permission) — close-ups of personal items, decorations, or monitor setups. Teams guess whose desk it is.

Why it works: It's personal, visual, and guaranteed to get laughs. The person with 47 sticky notes on their monitor will never live it down.

Email Subject Line or Spam?

Read out subject lines and teams guess whether it's a real email someone in the office received or a spam/phishing attempt.

Examples:

• "Quick question about the Q3 roadmap" — Real or Spam? ($200)
• "URGENT: Your account has been compromised" — Real or Spam? ($400)
• "Can we circle back on the synergy deliverables?" — Real or Spam? ($600)
• "You have been selected for a special opportunity" — Real or Spam? ($800)
• "Re: Re: Re: Re: That thing we discussed" — Real or Spam? ($1000)

Meeting Bingo Categories

Questions about common meeting behaviors, jargon, and habits.

Sample questions:

• "This phrase is most commonly used to end meetings that should have been emails." ($200)
• "Name the room where the most meetings are held." ($400)
• "This person is statistically most likely to be on mute when called upon." ($600)
• "What's the average number of meetings per day for a manager here?" ($800)
• "This meeting was canceled the most times in the past quarter." ($1000)

Industry Buzzword Bingo

Define a buzzword, teams guess what it is. Or give the buzzword and teams explain what it actually means.

Sample questions:

• "This word means working together, but people use it to sound important." → Synergy ($200)
• "When you say this, you mean 'I don't want to deal with this right now.'" → "Let's table that" ($400)
• "This acronym that means 'objectives and key results' was made famous by Google." → OKR ($600)
• "Give the full form of SaaS." ($800)
• "This management philosophy from Toyota focuses on continuous improvement." → Kaizen ($1000)

Lunch Spot Trivia

Questions about restaurants, cafes, and food spots near the office.

Sample questions:

• "Name the closest coffee shop to our office." ($200)
• "This restaurant is where most team lunches happen." ($400)
• "What day does the food truck come?" ($600)
• "Name three delivery apps most commonly used by the team." ($800)
• "This is the most expensive menu item at the restaurant we use for client dinners." ($1000)

Before They Worked Here

Fun facts about coworkers' lives before they joined the company. Collect these anonymously beforehand.

Sample questions:

• "This person worked as a lifeguard in college." ($200)
• "Someone on the engineering team used to be a professional baker." ($400)
• "This coworker once interned at NASA." ($600)
• "A member of our team competed in a national spelling bee." ($800)
• "This person lived in 5 different countries before age 25." ($1000)

Tech Support Nightmares

True stories from your IT team (anonymized) about the wildest tech support requests they've received.

Sample questions:

• "True or false: Someone once submitted a ticket because their monitor wouldn't turn on — it was unplugged." ($200)
• "What's the most common password reset day of the week?" ($400)
• "This browser is banned by our IT policy." ($600)
• "How many phishing simulation emails did IT send last quarter?" ($800)
• "Name the most bizarre IT ticket ever submitted here." ($1000)

Pop Culture at Work

Movies, shows, and music that your team collectively knows and loves.

Sample questions:

• "Complete this quote: 'That's what she...'" ($200)
• "Name The Office character who is the 'World's Best Boss.'" ($400)
• "This movie features the line 'I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.'" ($600)
• "In the show Severance, employees have their memories split between work and personal life. What is this process called?" ($800)
• "This 2024 movie featured the first AI-generated dialogue in a major studio film." ($1000)

Around the Office

Questions about the physical workspace that test who actually pays attention.

Sample questions:

• "What color are the chairs in the main conference room?" ($200)
• "How many plants are in the reception area?" ($400)
• "What floor is the gym/wellness room on?" ($600)
• "Name the artwork or poster in the hallway outside the kitchen." ($800)
• "How many steps are there from the front door to the elevator?" ($1000)

Product Knowledge Challenge

Test how well your team knows your own products or services.

Sample questions:

• "Name our three core product features." ($200)
• "What's our product's current version number?" ($400)
• "This feature was the most requested by customers last quarter." ($600)
• "How many active users did we report in the last earnings call/company update?" ($800)
• "Name the bug that took the longest to fix in product history." ($1000)

Seasonal and Holiday Categories

Rotate these throughout the year for recurring game nights:

• January: New Year's Resolutions Quiz
• February: Valentine's Day / Famous Couples
• March: March Madness Bracket Trivia
• April: April Fools' / Greatest Pranks
• Summer: Vacation Destination Quiz
• October: Halloween / Horror Movie Trivia
• November: Thanksgiving / Food Facts
• December: Holiday Movie and Music Trivia

Mixing Categories for the Perfect Board

A great office Jeopardy board balances three types of categories:

1. 2 workplace-specific categories (Company Insider, Product Knowledge, Around the Office)
2. 2 people-focused categories (Before They Worked Here, Whose Desk, Meeting Bingo)
3. 2 general knowledge categories (Pop Culture, Geography, Science, History)

This mix ensures that no single person dominates and everyone has at least one category where they feel confident.

How to Collect Material for Custom Categories

The Two-Week Prep Plan

Week 1:

• Send an anonymous "fun fact about yourself" survey to the team.
• Ask the IT team for their best (anonymized) support stories.
• Take sneaky desk photos (with permission afterwards).
• Gather company facts from leadership, HR, or the company wiki.

Week 2:

• Write questions and organize by difficulty ($200 = easy, $1000 = hard).
• Test 2–3 tricky questions on a coworker to check for ambiguity.
• Load everything into your game platform.
• Send the calendar invite with a teaser: "Think you know this office? Prove it."

Keep It Fresh: Rotating Category Ideas

If you're making office Jeopardy a recurring event (and you should), keep it fresh by never repeating categories. Here's a rotation schedule:

Month 1: Company History, Pop Culture, Whose Desk, Industry Buzzwords, Food & Drink, Geography

Month 2: Before They Worked Here, Tech Support Nightmares, Sports, Meeting Bingo, Science, Music

Month 3: Product Knowledge, Email or Spam, Movies by Decade, Around the Office, Famous Quotes, Seasonal Special

Build Your Office Jeopardy Board with Quizado

Creating a custom Jeopardy board with all these categories is easy with Quizado:

• Create custom categories with your own questions and point values.
• Add images and media to questions (perfect for Whose Desk and visual rounds).
• Built-in buzzer system — everyone plays on their phone.
• Automatic scoring — no spreadsheets, no arguments.
• Save and duplicate boards — reuse your best categories and swap in new ones each month.
• Works anywhere — in the office, on Zoom, or hybrid.

Your next office Jeopardy night is one click away.

Build your office Jeopardy board on Quizado →