[UX] New Quizzes Settings' decimal separator behaviour is not consistent between the options

Issue Documented: 2025-09-25
Canvas

This behavior has been resolved and deployed to the production environment as of 10/28/25.

Description

The decimal separator causes different behavior based on what you chose in the settings.

  • If you chose 'period' then as a student while taking the test if you enter a comma as your decimal separator you will get a warning message after entering the answer: “Answer must be a number. Remove any symbols or units.“. You can still click on the submit button, and if you do then a window will pop up warning you that you have invalid or missing answers. You can continue submitting, and your answer will be marked as wrong due to the different decimal separator used.
  • If you chose 'comma' then as a student while taking the test if you enter a period as your decimal separator it will change to comma after going to the next question. The answer will be marked as correct upon auto-grading.

Expected Behavior

The feature’s behavior is not consistent when it comes to students.

Workaround

No workaround exists at this time.

Steps to Reproduce

Prerequisites: A New Quiz with either a Formula or Numeric type of question (question’s answer has to be a decimal number).

Scenario #1:

  1. Set ‘Decimal separator' to 'Period’ on the account level.

  2. Act as a student and start to take the quiz.

  3. When you enter the answer enter ‘comma' instead of 'period’.

  4. Go to the next question.

  5. Notice the warning message under the before-answered question.

  6. If you continue to submit you will receive another warning message about missing/invalid answers.

Scenario #2:

  1. Set ‘Decimal separator' to 'Comma’ on the account level.

  2. Act as a student and start to take the quiz.

  3. When you enter the answer enter ‘period' instead of 'comma’.

  4. Go to the next question.

  5. Notice that the ‘period' you entered changed to 'comma’.

Additional Info

QUIZ-16527

Known issues indicate notable behaviors that have been escalated to the Canvas engineering team. Known issues are not a guarantee for an immediate resolution. This document is for informational purposes only and does not replace the Support process. If you are encountering the behavior outlined in this document, please ensure you have submitted a Support case (per your institution's escalation process) so Canvas Support can adequately gauge the overall customer impact and prioritize appropriately.

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