METHODOLOGY

How the HypeVoro Focus Challenge Works

HypeVoro is a free 30-second browser game. You solve simple maths questions while fictional internet-style distractions compete for your taps — no sign-up, no download. This page describes exactly what happens in a round, how the score is computed, and what the results cannot tell you.

Round duration and practice

A scored round lasts 30 seconds of active play. Before that, an optional untimed practice teaches the two steps in order: solve a sample question such as 4 + 6 ÷ 2 = ?, then dismiss a sample notification. Practice is never scored, and the timed run starts fresh afterwards.

A manual Pause button freezes the timer whenever you need to step away. Switching tabs or losing focus does not pause the game — the timer keeps running on active play time. Response-time measurements exclude paused time.

The maths task

Every question combines three single digits with two operations chosen from +, −, × and ÷, for example 4 + 6 ÷ 2 = ?. As in standard arithmetic, × and ÷ are evaluated before + and −, and division questions always divide evenly. Answers stay between −20 and 30, and the same question or answer never appears twice in a row.

Each question is shown above a set of numbered tiles with exactly one correct answer: three tiles early on, up to five in later stages. Tapping the correct tile deals the next question; tapping a wrong tile counts as a mistake and you try the same question again. Extremely rapid double-taps within the same instant count once.

The four distraction stages

The 30 seconds are split into four stages of increasing pressure: Warming up (0–7s), Getting noisy (7–14s), Feed overload (14–22s) and Touch grass finale (22–30s). Later stages offer more tiles, spawn fictional notifications more often, and increasingly show misleading “tips” that name a wrong digit — never the correct answer.

Only one feed card appears at a time. Each card ends in one of three ways: you tap its tempting button (recorded as falling for the distraction), you dismiss it, or you leave it until its display time expires (both recorded as resisted). Cards still on screen when the round ends are excluded because they never received their full display time. Every card counts toward the stage in which it appeared.

Scoring, accuracy, response time and mistakes

Game score = round((60 × accuracy + 40 × resistance) × participation), where accuracy and resistance are fractions from 0 to 1. Accuracy is correct tiles divided by all tile attempts. Resistance is dismissed-or-expired notifications divided by all resolved notifications. Participation is correct answers divided by 12, capped at 1 — you need at least 12 correct answers to unlock the full score range, and a round with no correct answers scores zero.

Worked example: 12 correct answers, 3 wrong tiles, 3 resisted notifications and 1 opened notification give (60 × 0.8 + 40 × 0.75) × 1 = 78. Where nothing was measured, the result shows “—” rather than zero: no tile attempts means no accuracy, and no correct answers means no response time.

Response time runs from a question appearing to the correct tap, including any wrong attempts and excluding pauses. It is reported as an average plus the fastest and slowest correct responses, and it is never added to the score. Mistakes are wrong tiles plus opened distractions. Best streak is the longest run of correct answers without either kind of mistake; a later mistake never erases an earlier best.

Game modes

Quick play deals a fresh random sequence each round. The Daily Challenge repeats one shared question sequence per UTC day, and friend links replay the exact sequence behind someone's score. Scores are self-reported game results stored in your own browser — there are no accounts and no verified leaderboards. The full rules live in our daily and friend challenge guide.

Limitations

HypeVoro is entertainment. It has no clinical validation and no population norms, so its score is not an attention test, an ADHD assessment, a measure of intelligence, or evidence about real-world ability. Device, pace, practice, and familiarity all change results, and two runs are never a controlled experiment. Stages differ in length and difficulty, so never infer that distractions caused any particular stage difference.