Tossup-Bonus Format

The tossup/bonus format™ is the most common format used in both High School and Collegiate Quizbowl.

A tossup is a question that is read out loud to both teams. It typically contains several sentences describing the answer and ends with a "giveaway" clue about the answer. Players can buzz in anytime they think they know the answer. Tossups can be written in a pyramidal style or as a simple question. Points are awarded to the team of the person that answered the tossup correctly. Tossups are usually worth 10 points.

A bonus (Plural: Boni or Bonuses) is a set of several questions that the whole team can work together to answer. Bonuses are given as a reward to the team that answered a tossup question immediately beforehand. Bonuses have many different styles, as seen below. Bonuses are typically worth 30 points each. (See variable value bonus.)

There are many variations on this format. Minor ones including the additions of negs and powers. A more substantial change is the addition of bounceback.

Styles of bonuses

• three answers, ten points per answer
• four answer, 5 for one, 10 for two, 20 for three and 30 for getting all four answers correct
• two answers, with two clues. 15 after the first clue for each answer, 5 after the second ("15-5")
• five answers, five points per answer with an additional five for all correct
• six answers, five points each (this and the above are used mainly for list bonuses)
• two difficult answers of 15 points each
• one answer, three clues of decreasing difficulty. 30 points after the first clue, 20 after the second, 10 after the third ("30-20-10")
• three answers of increasing difficulty. 5 points for the first, 10 for the second, 15 for the third ("5-10-15")
• three answers, each with two clues of variant difficulty. 10 points for the harder clue, 5 for the easier ("10-5")

All but the first of these are strongly discouraged in collegiate play.

Note: none of these formats applies to Illinois Scholastic Bowl.