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Getting Started with Score Judge

Set up a competition with live judging and a public leaderboard in about 15 minutes. Add judges, define scoring criteria, and share the link.

Live leaderboard displayed on big screen at a hackathon venue

You can have a live leaderboard running in about 15 minutes. Here's how.

Step 1: Choose a Voting Mode

The first decision is who is doing the scoring. Score Judge has two top-level modes, and one of them branches further.

Panel Judging — A named panel of judges scores entries privately, each with a unique link. Best for hackathons, science fairs, pitch competitions, or any event with official judges.

Audience Voting — Anyone with a single shared link can vote anonymously. Best for talent shows, classroom polls, watch parties, or audience-choice awards. Audience voting comes in two flavours:

  • Audience Scoring — voters give numeric scores against your criteria
  • Audience Ranking — voters drag entries into their preferred order

You pick the mode when creating your competition. It can't be changed afterwards, so choose before you start. Not sure which to use? Read the Voting Modes guide or the Audience Voting Guide for a deeper walkthrough.

Step 2: Set Up Your Competition

Click "New Competition" from your dashboard. You'll name your competition and add entries — the contestants, projects, or performances being judged.

What comes next depends on your mode:

Panel Judging and Audience Scoring: Define scoring criteria — the categories judges or voters will rate (for example "Innovation", "Presentation", "Feasibility"). Set the scale (1-5, 1-10, whatever fits) and choose whether scores are averaged or summed.

Audience Ranking: No criteria needed. Voters just rank entries by preference.

Competition editor showing entries, judges, and scoring criteria

Panel Judging

Enter each judge's name. Score Judge generates a unique scoring link per judge — no login, no app. Copy each link from the dashboard and send it yourself: email, Slack, text, whatever works.

Keep a backup contact method for each judge. If someone loses their link on the day, grab a fresh one from the admin dashboard and send it directly.

Include the scoring criteria when you brief judges so they know what they're evaluating before they arrive.

Audience Voting

In audience mode the wizard skips the "Add Judges" step entirely — there are no individual judges to add. Instead, you'll get a single shared voting link plus a QR code, both visible on the admin dashboard.

Display the QR code on a screen, print it on the event programme, or paste the link into a group chat. Anyone with the link can vote once per device.

Voter limits depend on your plan — 25 on Free, 250 on Plus, unlimited on Pro. See pricing for details, or read the Audience Voting Guide for a full walkthrough.

Step 4: Test Before You Go Live

Submit a few test scores. Check that the public leaderboard updates and the results look right.

Panel Judging: send yourself a judge link and score as if you were a judge. Make sure the interface is clear enough for your least technical judge — fix any confusion now, not during the live event.

Audience Voting: open the voting link on your phone (or in a private browser window) and submit a sample ballot. Confirm the QR code on the admin dashboard scans cleanly. Remember that each device can only vote once — clear browser data or use private mode if you want to test multiple times.

Judge scoring interface with entries and criteria

Step 5: Launch

Switch from "Setup" to "Live" mode. Share the public leaderboard link with your audience.

Scores appear on the leaderboard as they come in. The admin dashboard shows you scoring progress in real time.

Admin dashboard showing scoring progress and judge status

Display Options

Big Screen

Open the public leaderboard on your presentation laptop. Connect to projector. Hit F11 for fullscreen. The display refreshes automatically as scores arrive.

Public leaderboard showing live scores

Embedded

Grab the embed code from your dashboard and paste it into your website, blog, or streaming software. Updates in real time.

Mobile

Share the leaderboard URL via QR code. Attendees can follow along on their phones without downloading anything.

What Goes Wrong (And How to Handle It)

Check the link wasn't mangled during copy-paste. You can generate a fresh link from the admin dashboard.

Scores aren't appearing

Make sure you're in "Live" mode, not "Setup". For panel judging, confirm judges clicked "Submit" after entering scores. Refresh the leaderboard page.

Display looks broken

Try fullscreen mode. Check your internet connection — real-time updates need a stable connection. Clear browser cache if the display seems stuck.

Judge is confused

Have written instructions ready with screenshots of the scoring interface. Keep someone available during the event to field questions.

Create your competition

Next Steps