Question Bank Schema

The Question Bank Schema is a governance layer that enforces how questions are organized across your library. Instead of relying on contributors to follow naming conventions by habit, the Schema makes the rules explicit and validates them at save time — so folders, tag keys, and tag values stay consistent no matter how many people contribute questions.

When is the Schema most useful?

The Schema pays off most when:

• Multiple people add questions — without enforcement, different contributors create variations like difficulty: Hard, difficulty: hard, difficulty: HARD, which all appear as separate filter values and break reporting.
• Your bank is large — at hundreds or thousands of questions, inconsistent metadata makes filtering unreliable and test-building tedious.
• Tags drive analytics — if you use tag values in result breakdowns or exports, strict values ensure the data is clean and comparable over time.
• You want to enforce a taxonomy — departments, difficulty levels, curriculum codes, or competency labels that must come from an approved list.

For small teams or early-stage banks, the Schema is optional. You can build it incrementally — start with a folder list and add tag rules later as your needs become clearer.

Enabling the Schema

Go to Question Bank → Settings → Schema. If no Schema exists yet, click Create Schema to initialize one. Use the Active toggle to enable or disable Schema enforcement globally — turning it off suspends all validation without deleting your configuration.

Strict Folders

When Strict Folders is enabled, questions can only be saved to folders that are explicitly defined in the Schema. Attempting to use a folder name that isn’t on the list will be rejected at save time.

Turn Strict Folders on once your folder list is complete and you want to prevent contributors from creating ad-hoc folders. Leave it off while you are still building out your taxonomy.

Folders

The Schema maintains a list of approved folders. Each folder entry has the following settings:

• Name — the folder path as it appears in the Question Bank. Sub-folders follow the same path convention as the navigator (e.g. Math/Algebra).
• Active / Inactive — inactive folders are visually struck through in the Schema editor. They still exist in the bank but are temporarily excluded from enforcement — useful when reorganizing your taxonomy without breaking existing questions.
• Strict Tags — when enabled, only tag keys defined in that folder’s tag list are allowed on questions saved to it. Questions cannot carry tags outside this approved list.
• Allow Children — controls whether sub-folders can be created under this folder. Disable to prevent a folder from being used as a parent path.

Tags

Each Schema folder can have one or more tag rules. A tag rule defines a tag key and its enforcement settings:

• Name — the tag key (e.g. difficulty, topic, year).
• Required — when enabled, this tag must be present on every question saved to the folder. Saving without it is blocked.
• Strict Values — when enabled, the tag’s value must match one of the predefined values listed under this tag. Free-form values are rejected.

Tag Values

When Strict Values is enabled on a tag, you define the allowed list of values for that tag key. For example, a difficulty tag might allow easy, medium, and hard. When a contributor saves a question to the folder, they must pick from this list — they cannot type a custom value.

A tag with Strict Values must have at least one value defined. Similarly, a folder with Strict Tags must have at least one tag defined before that setting can be activated.

How validation works at save time

When a contributor saves a question, the Schema checks:

1. Folder check — if Strict Folders is on, the folder must be in the Schema’s approved list.
2. Required tags check — any tag marked Required in the folder’s tag rules must be present on the question.
3. Strict Tags check — if the folder has Strict Tags on, no tag keys outside the folder’s tag list are allowed.
4. Strict Values check — any tag with Strict Values must carry a value from the predefined list.

If any check fails, the question cannot be saved until the violations are resolved. The editor highlights the problematic fields so the contributor knows exactly what to fix.

Schema statistics

The Schema overview panel shows a live summary of your configuration: total folders, active vs inactive folders, folders with Strict Tags, total tags, required tags, tags with Strict Values, and total tag values defined. Use these counts to audit your Schema and spot gaps — for example, a folder with tags defined but Strict Tags not yet enabled.