I Revived mQuiz: A Gamified Quiz App Built to Make Learning Addictive

Akinwumi Michael — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:01:44 +0000

This is a submission for the GitHub Finish-Up-A-Thon Challenge

What I Built

MQuiz is a gamified mobile quiz app built to make learning, trivia, and exam-style practice more engaging.

The project started as an older quiz app idea, but it needed a serious rebuild to become something that could feel like a real mobile product. For this challenge, I revived MQuiz by moving it into a new Flutter app, rebuilding the experience with a cleaner structure, and connecting it to a modern backend.

The new MQuiz app is built around the idea that quizzes should feel more like a game. Instead of only answering questions, users can progress, earn rewards, manage lives, use boosters, compete with others, join leagues, enter contests, and track their performance.

The current version includes:

Flutter mobile app built in a new apps/mobile/ project
NestJS API integration
Firebase authentication
Google sign-in
Apple sign-in
Phone OTP login
Guest mode
Profile setup flow
Game-style home dashboard
Category and subcategory quiz flow
Lives system
Coins system
XP and stage progress
Daily challenge card
Booster system
Booster store
Countdown timer during quizzes
Multiple-choice questions
Fun & Learn question mode
Guess the Word question mode
Image-supported questions
Quiz result screen
Share result feature
Mystery box reward trigger
Progress map
Leaderboard
Profile screen
Badges display
Referral code and native share
Coin history
Paystack payment flow
Apple in-app purchase setup
Live battle mode with Firestore sync
Battle result screen
League list, detail, quiz, and leaderboard
Contest list, detail, quiz, and result flow
Sponsor banner support
Active contest banner
Clean Material 3 design system
Light and dark theme support

The goal of MQuiz is to turn learning into a fun, competitive, and repeatable experience for students, quiz lovers, and casual learners.

Demo

APK Download: Download MQuiz APK

Demo Video: Watch MQuiz Demo

GitHub Repository: View Source Code

Screenshots:

The Comeback Story

MQuiz was not originally in the shape I wanted it to be.

The older version was based on an existing CodeCanyon-style app structure. It gave me a starting point, but it was not the clean, scalable, original product I wanted to submit or continue building long-term.

The old version had several limitations:

The structure was not ideal for a full product rebuild
The app did not fully represent the experience I wanted for users
Some features were either incomplete or not connected properly
The user experience did not feel modern enough
The codebase needed a cleaner architecture
The app needed a stronger game-like flow
It was not ready as a primary mobile product for both Android and iOS

For the GitHub Finish-Up-A-Thon Challenge, I decided not to just polish the old app. I used the opportunity to properly revive MQuiz by rebuilding it as a new Flutter mobile app.

The new app now lives inside apps/mobile/, while the older lib/ app is being retired. The new Flutter app is now the primary delivery version for both Android and iOS.

That was the real comeback: MQuiz moved from an unfinished and older-style quiz app into a more complete, modern, game-like mobile experience.

What Changed

The biggest change was rebuilding the app around a cleaner product experience.

Instead of only having a basic quiz flow, I rebuilt MQuiz around the kind of features that make users come back:

Lives
Coins
Boosters
Streaks
XP
Stage progress
Daily challenges
Leagues
Contests
Leaderboards
Battles
Profile stats
Badges
Referrals
Rewards

I also connected the app to backend endpoints so the experience can become more server-driven and scalable.

The new backend integration includes endpoints for:

Lives
Boosters
Progress
Payments
Quiz data
User profile
Leaderboard
Leagues
Contests
Battle flow

The mobile app now uses a more organized feature-based structure, including:

Auth
Home
Quiz
Progress Map
Lives
Boosters
Battle
Leaderboard
Profile
Store
Leagues
Contests

This made the project easier to maintain and easier to continue after the challenge.

Core Features

Authentication

MQuiz supports multiple ways for users to get started:

Google sign-in
Apple sign-in
Phone OTP
Guest mode
First-time profile setup

This makes onboarding easier because users can choose the sign-in method that works best for them.

Game-Like Home Dashboard

The home screen was rebuilt to feel more like a mobile game dashboard.

It includes:

Greeting header
Coins counter
Lives counter
XP progress
Stage label
Category grid
Daily challenge card
Active contest banner
Sponsor banner
Battle call-to-action

The goal was to make the app feel exciting from the first screen.

Quiz Experience

The quiz feature supports different question experiences, including:

Standard multiple choice
Image-supported questions
Fun & Learn mode
Guess the Word mode
Countdown timer
Booster usage
Result summary
Score
Accuracy
Coins earned
Share result option

The quiz experience is designed to be simple enough for casual users but structured enough to support future exam practice and competitive learning.

Lives and Boosters

To make the app more engaging, MQuiz includes a lives system and boosters.

Users can lose lives, restore lives, use coins, and access boosters during gameplay.

Boosters include features such as:

Add more time
Skip question
50/50 support

This makes the quiz experience more strategic and less flat.

Battle Mode

One of the biggest additions is live battle mode.

The battle feature uses Firestore sync so users can enter a competitive quiz experience with another player.

The battle flow includes:

Find opponent screen
Matchmaking state
Live battle screen
Real-time opponent progress
Quit guard
Auto-advance timer
Battle result screen
Win, lose, or draw result display

This feature helps MQuiz move beyond a normal quiz app into a more competitive game-based learning platform.

Leagues and Contests

MQuiz now supports leagues and contests.

The league feature includes:

Active league list
League detail screen
Join league flow
Daily league quiz
League quiz result
League leaderboard

The contest feature includes:

Contest list
Contest detail
Prize banner
Live contest status
Contest quiz
Contest result

These features are important because they give users a reason to return regularly and compete for progress.

Profile and Progress

The profile and progress features help users track their growth.

Users can view:

Quiz stats
Accuracy
Streak
Badges
Referral code
Coin history
Stage progress
Locked and unlocked stages

This helps turn quiz activity into a visible learning journey.

Store and Payments

MQuiz includes a store flow for coin packs and payments.

The app supports:

Coin pack listing
Paystack payment initialization
Paystack verification
Apple in-app purchase setup
Server-authoritative payment verification

This creates a foundation for monetization while keeping payment handling more secure.

My Experience with GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot helped me move faster while reviving MQuiz.

Because this was not a small one-screen app, I had to work across many areas: Flutter UI, Cubit state management, API services, Firebase auth, Firestore battles, payment flows, routing, models, and feature-based architecture.

Copilot helped me most when I used it as a coding assistant for focused tasks instead of asking it to build the entire app at once.

I used GitHub Copilot to help with:

Refactoring Flutter screens
Creating reusable widgets
Improving Cubit state flows
Writing model classes
Cleaning up API service methods
Improving feature folder structure
Debugging routing issues
Building UI states for loading, success, and error flows
Creating quiz interaction logic
Improving battle flow structure
Reducing repetitive code
Reviewing implementation patterns
Speeding up boilerplate work

Some of the most useful prompts were specific prompts such as:

“Refactor this Flutter screen into smaller reusable widgets.”
“Create a Cubit state structure for this feature.”
“Help me clean this quiz flow so the timer and answer selection are easier to manage.”
“Create a model class with Firestore serialization.”
“Improve this UI so loading, empty, and error states are handled clearly.”
“Help me structure this feature so it follows the same pattern as the rest of the app.”

Copilot helped me finish faster, but I still had to guide the product direction, review the code, test the flows, and make sure the app matched the MQuiz vision.

The main lesson was that Copilot is strongest when the developer already has a clear goal. It helped me move from unfinished work to a more complete product by speeding up the repetitive and structural parts of development.

Tech Stack

Mobile App

Flutter
Dart
GoRouter
Flutter Bloc / Cubit
Equatable
Dio
Material 3
SharedPreferences
Share Plus
URL Launcher
In-App Purchase

Backend and Services

NestJS API
Firebase Authentication
Firebase Firestore
Paystack
Apple In-App Purchase
Firebase configuration for Android and iOS

Development Support

GitHub
GitHub Copilot
Flutter Analyze
Feature-based architecture

Quality and Status

The new Flutter app has been organized as the primary mobile delivery version.

Important progress includes:

New Flutter project created
Android and iOS bundle ID set to com.togafrica.mquiz
Firebase files added for Android and iOS
GoRouter configured
API client connected to the NestJS backend
Design system implemented
App icon added
Splash screen implemented
Authentication screens implemented
Home dashboard implemented
Quiz flow implemented
Lives, boosters, progress, leaderboard, profile, store, leagues, contests, and battle features implemented
Firestore rules added for battle room access
Flutter analysis completed with no issues found in the new code

Some remaining production tasks are still outside the scope of this challenge submission, such as final App Store assets, TestFlight testing, and final store submission preparation.

What I Learned

This project taught me that reviving a project is sometimes more valuable than starting a new one.

MQuiz already had a vision, but it needed better execution. The challenge pushed me to turn it into a cleaner, more scalable, and more complete mobile app.

I also learned that gamification is not just about adding points. It is about designing a reason for users to continue.

For MQuiz, features like lives, boosters, leagues, contests, battles, leaderboards, and progress maps make the quiz experience feel more alive.

The biggest technical lesson was the importance of structure. Once the app was separated into clear features, it became easier to build, debug, and improve.

What’s Next

Next, I plan to continue improving MQuiz with:

Real device testing
More automated tests
Final app store assets
Privacy policy page
App Store Connect setup
Google Play release preparation
AI-powered question generation
Wrong-answer explanations
Exam prep mode for WAEC, JAMB, and NECO
Audio question support
Math question support
More original illustrations and lifeline icons
Stronger analytics
School/classroom challenge mode
More contest formats
More league seasons
Better reward balancing

MQuiz started as an unfinished quiz app, but it is now moving toward a full gamified learning and trivia platform.

DEV Community: Akinwumi Michael