pl-multiple-choice element

A pl-multiple-choice element selects one correct answer and zero or more incorrect answers and displays them in a random order as radio buttons. Duplicate answer choices (string equivalents) are not permitted in the pl-multiple-choice element, and an exception will be raised upon question generation if two (or more) choices are identical.

Sample element

question.html

<pl-multiple-choice answers-name="acc" weight="1">
  <pl-answer correct="false">positive</pl-answer>
  <pl-answer correct="true">negative</pl-answer>
  <pl-answer correct="false">zero</pl-answer>
</pl-multiple-choice>

Customizations

Attribute	Type	Default	Description
all-of-the-above	"false", "random", "correct", or "incorrect"	"false"	Add "All of the above" choice. See below for details.
all-of-the-above-feedback	string	—	Helper text to be displayed to the student next to the all-of-the-above option after question is graded if this option has been selected by the student.
allow-blank	boolean	false	Whether an empty submission is allowed. If allow-blank is set to true, a submission that does not select any option will be marked as incorrect instead of invalid.
answers-name	string	—	Variable name to store data in. Note that this attribute has to be unique within a question, i.e., no value for this attribute should be repeated within a question.
aria-label	string	"Multiple choice options"	An accessible label for the element.
builtin-grading	boolean	true	Whether the element performs its own grading. If false, any required grading must be performed explicitly through other means. See Disabling built-in grading for details.
display	"block", "inline", or "dropdown"	"block"	Display option for the input field. Block and inline display answer choices as radio buttons, while dropdown presents option as a dropdown.
hide-letter-keys	boolean	false	Hide the letter keys in the answer list, i.e., (a), (b), (c), etc.
hide-score-badge	boolean	false	Hide badges next to selected answers.
none-of-the-above	"false", "random", "correct", or "incorrect"	"false"	Add "None of the above" choice. See below for details.
none-of-the-above-feedback	string	—	Helper text to be displayed to the student next to the none-of-the-above option after question is graded if this option has been selected by the student.
number-answers	integer	See description	The total number of answer choices to display. Defaults to displaying one correct answer and all incorrect answers.
order	"random", "ascend", "descend", or "fixed"	"random"	Order to display answer choices. Fixed order displays choices in the same order as the original source file.
placeholder	string	"Select an option"	String to be used as the placeholder text when display is set to "dropdown". Will also accept an empty string as placeholder="".
size	integer	—	Manually set the size of the dropdown to a fixed width. The default behavior is to make the dropdown as wide as the widest option. Should only be used with display set to "dropdown".
weight	integer	1	Weight to use when computing a weighted average score over elements.

The attributes none-of-the-above and all-of-the-above can be set to one of these values:

• "false": the corresponding choice will not be shown in the list of choices. This is the default.
• "random": the corresponding choice will always be shown, and will be randomly correct, with probability proportional to the total number of correct choices. In other words, if there are N possible correct choices in total, this choice will be correct with probability 1/N.
• "correct": the corresponding choice will always be shown and will always be the correct answer.
• "incorrect": the corresponding choice will always be shown and will always be an incorrect answer (i.e., a distractor).

Disabling built-in grading

Setting builtin-grading="false" causes the element to display choices and collect submissions without awarding any points on its own. This is useful in scenarios such as:

• Survey-style questions where there is no single correct answer.
• Multi-element dependencies where the correct answer depends on other elements and must be evaluated together.
• Complex or manual grading where correctness requires logic beyond simple answer matching.

When builtin-grading="false" is set:

• The element does not require any answer to have correct="true".
• The element does not produce a score. To grade submissions automatically, you must supply a grade() function in server.py or be evaluated by an external grader. Without one, the score will be based on other gradable elements in the question (or receive a score of zero if there are no other elements).
• The answer panel will not display a correct answer, even if one is marked with correct="true".
• Score badges are not shown by default, since no score is produced by the element.
• The weight and hide-score-badge attributes cannot be used alongside builtin-grading="false". Similarly, score and feedback on individual pl-answer children are not permitted.
• The all-of-the-above and none-of-the-above attributes are restricted to boolean true/false when builtin-grading="false". Setting them to true shows the option without any correctness semantics (always displayed last, always included when number-answers limits display). Values like "correct", "incorrect", or "random" are not allowed.

Note

Even when built-in grading is disabled, the correct="true" attribute on a pl-answer still controls which single answer is selected when the element prepares its display. If there is truly no correct answer (e.g., a survey), you can omit correct="true" from all choices.

Notes

• "All of the above" and "None of the above", if set, are bounded by the number-answers value above. Also, these two values are always shown as the last choices, regardless of the setting for order. If both choices are shown, then "All of the above" will be listed before "None of the above".
• Defining answer choices with external JSON files via the external-json attribute is now deprecated.

Inside the pl-multiple-choice element, each choice must be specified with a pl-answer that has attributes:

Attribute	Type	Default	Description
correct	boolean	false	Is this a correct answer to the question?
feedback	string	—	Helper text (HTML) to be displayed to the student next to the option after question is graded if this option has been selected by the student.
score	float	See description	Score given to answer choice if selected by student. Defaults to 1.0 for correct answers and 0.0 for incorrect answers.

Example implementations

• element/multipleChoice
• demo/randomMultipleChoice

See also

• pl-checkbox for allowing one or more choices