Office Scavenger Hunt Ideas: A Ready-Made Hunt for Teams

Most office scavenger hunt ideas come as a list: find a stapler, take a team photo, ask someone a question. A list is a good start, but you still have to choose the items, write the clues, check every photo and keep the score. This page is one finished hunt built from those ideas. The events appear one at a time on each team’s phone, the phone checks each answer, photo and recording, and the points add up on their own. Your job is to form the teams, show the play link and hand out the prize.

How the Office Games work

Each team picks one phone holder. Only that person scans the code and types the team name, because every phone that joins counts as one phone. The phone holder takes the photos and can stay out of the shot.

There are seven events between an opening and a finish. Teams get the middle events in one of four orders, handed out in turn, so teams that start together are rarely on the same event. Puzzles sit between the photo and recording events, so it is not all walking around. The hardest puzzle comes second to last, and the last step is simply “come back to the host”.

Harder events are worth more points, and a team that completes every event has 190 points. The first team to reach you with 190 points on its final screen wins gold. Silver and bronze go to the next teams to arrive with 190 points. The phones also show a leaderboard, but you pick the winners by who reaches you first, not by the leaderboard.

Office scavenger hunt clues, with the answers

This is the order you see in the builder and in your test run. Steps 1, 2, 8 and 9 are the same for every team. Steps 3 to 7 come in a different order for different teams.

1. Opening Ceremony. The rules: one phone per team, only your own team in photos and recordings, put back everything you borrow, do not run, and the first team back to the host with all 190 points wins gold.
2. Warm-up Lap (10 points). “What gets wetter the more it dries?” The answer is a towel. Tea towel, paper towel, sponge, cloth and rag also count. Hint: “It dries you.”
3. Go for Gold (20 points). Every champion needs a medal. The team finds something gold or yellow in the building, such as a sticky note, a pen, a lid, a folder or a mug, takes a close-up photo and puts it back.
4. Meet a Rival (20 points). The team finds someone who is not on their team and asks: “What is your best tip for getting through a Monday?” They type the person’s first name and the tip. Any answer counts, even a joke. If nobody is free, they can ask you.
5. Live Commentary (30 points). One teammate does a small event: a speed walk to the nearest door, a paper ball thrown into a bin, the slowest chair spin ever, or a pen slid across a desk. The others commentate it live, like the last seconds of a final, and record 10 to 20 seconds at normal speaking volume, somewhere they will not disturb people working.
6. Overtaking Round (20 points). “In a race, you overtake the runner in second place. What place are you in now?” The answer is second, picked from four options. Hint: “You took their place, not the leader’s.”
7. Champions’ Portrait (30 points). The team recreates a famous painting, film poster or album cover, or strikes a champions’ pose, with things from the building as props. At least one person must be in the photo, holding or wearing something.
8. The Podium Puzzle (60 points). Four teams scored 100 points together. Green scored twice as many as Blue, Yellow scored the same as Blue, and Red scored 10 more than Green. How many points did Red score? The answer is 40 (Blue 15, Yellow 15, Green 30, Red 40). This is the hardest step, and it has two hints.
9. Medal Ceremony. The team taps Finish Hunt, walks to you and shows the final screen. Then they stay and cheer the teams that arrive after them.

Every puzzle has a hint button for teams that get stuck.

Photo scavenger hunt for work: who goes in the pictures

Only the team’s own members go in photos and recordings. The hunt says this in the first step and again in each photo event. Screens, papers, whiteboards and people who are not playing stay out of the shot, and the photo check may ask for a retake if a readable screen or whiteboard is in the picture. The phone holder can stay out of every photo, and only one person needs to be in the portrait, so shy colleagues can stay behind the camera.

The one event with people outside the team, Meet a Rival, is written, never a photo. So nobody who is not playing is photographed or recorded.

Each team sees its photos and recordings on its final screen. You can see them in your hunt’s results in the builder, and so can anyone you share the hunt with.

What you prepare (about 20 minutes)

1. Copy the template with the button on this page, then release it. Make a new copy for each event, so old teams do not appear in your results.
2. Try it yourself with the test run button in the builder, on your own phone. A test run does not use any of your free phones. It plays the order shown above.
3. Count the phones. One phone per team. Each hunt can be played on 5 phones a month for free, so 5 teams play free. For a bigger group, make bigger teams or add a phone pack before the day.
4. Plan the teams. Teams of 3 to 5, mixed across departments. Each team needs one phone holder whose camera and microphone work and whose phone is charged. A team cannot move its game to another phone once it has started.
5. Check the connection. Every phone needs office Wi-Fi or mobile data, because answers are checked online.
6. Get a prize. Coffee for the winning team, a chocolate medal, or a silly trophy that passes to next year’s winners.
7. Tell the building. Send one message to colleagues who are not playing: “Some teams may stop you for one quick question today, and you may hear some cheering.”
8. Have the play link or QR code ready to show on a screen or send in your team chat, but only after the teams are formed.

On the day

Say: “Get into your teams of 3 to 5 and pick one phone holder.” When the teams are formed, show the code: “Phone holders only, scan the code and type your team name.”

Then give the rules in a few sentences. Teams get the events in different orders, so do not follow anyone. Stay inside the building, do not run, and keep the noise down near people working. Only your own team in photos, with screens, papers and whiteboards out of the shot. If you are stuck, use a hint. When you finish, tap Finish Hunt and come and show me your screen. The first team to reach me with 190 points wins gold.

Watch who arrives first and check that each screen shows 190 points. At about 35 minutes, call time. Teams still playing can finish and show their screen. Then hand over the prize.

For a portrait show at the end, open the hunt in the builder, tap Stats, then the Sessions tab, and open a team to see its photos.

Make it yours

Everything in the template can be changed in the builder before you release it, by hand or by asking the AI assistant in plain words. The hunt is written in English, and you can rewrite any step in your own words.

A good first change is a question about your company. Replace the Overtaking Round with a multiple-choice question, such as the year the company started or what it makes. Keep company facts in quiz questions, not in photo, recording or written events, because the automatic check cannot know facts about your company.

If you change the points on any event, also change the number 190 in the first and last steps, because both tell teams the total they need.

Questions organisers ask

How long should an office scavenger hunt be? This one takes about 20 to 35 minutes, which fits into a lunch break. Call time at about 35 minutes, and let teams that are still playing finish.

How many challenges should an office scavenger hunt have? For half an hour, seven events is enough. This hunt has nine steps: an opening, seven events and a finish. It mixes three puzzles, two photos, one recording and one conversation with a colleague.

How do you score an office scavenger hunt? Give harder events more points. Here the warm-up is worth 10 points, the photos and the commentary 20 or 30, and the final puzzle 60, for 190 in total. The phones add up the points. The winner is the first team to reach you with all 190 points, and silver and bronze follow in the order teams arrive.

Is there a free app for an office scavenger hunt? There is nothing to install. The hunt opens in the phone’s web browser from a link or a QR code, and only the person who copies the template needs an account. Each hunt can be played on 5 phones a month for free, and one phone per team means 5 teams.

Does it work as a scavenger hunt for new hires? Yes. Put new starters in teams with colleagues who have been there longer. The portrait and the commentary get each team working together, and Meet a Rival sends every team to talk to someone outside it.

How many teams can play? Five teams play free. For more teams, add a phone pack before the day. The first four teams each get a different order, and a fifth team repeats the first order. With more than 7 teams, start half of them one minute later, so the first photo checks do not all arrive at once. Note when each group started, and take that minute off the late group’s arrival time when you pick the winner.