Running an Instagram Giveaway in Canada: The Skill-Testing Question Explained
If you've run or entered a Canadian contest, you've probably seen a line like "winner must correctly answer a mathematical skill-testing question to be eligible for the prize." It isn't decoration. It traces back to Canada's Criminal Code, and it's one of the few pieces of giveaway compliance that's genuinely different north of the border.
Quick Answer
Canada's Criminal Code prohibits running a lottery — a prize given out by pure chance, where entrants paid to enter. Adding a skill-testing question that the winner must answer correctly before receiving the prize turns a random draw into a "mixed skill and chance" contest, which sits outside that prohibition. For most free, no-purchase-necessary Instagram giveaways, the legal risk is lower to begin with since no money changes hands, but including a skill-testing question is still standard, low-cost practice that Canadian contest law firms consistently recommend as a safety margin.
Why This Rule Exists
Section 206 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to run certain lotteries and games of chance, including disposing of goods through a game of mixed chance and skill where a contestant pays money or other valuable consideration to enter. The law doesn't carve out a general exception for "but it's just for fun" — the test is about the structure of the contest (pure chance vs. an element of skill) and whether entrants gave consideration to take part, not the size of the prize or the platform it runs on.
A contest decided entirely by random draw, with no skill involved, risks being treated as a prohibited lottery when paid entry (or something equivalent to it) is part of the picture. Requiring the winner to correctly answer a skill-testing question before the prize is awarded changes the contest's legal character to one of "mixed chance and skill" rather than pure chance — which is the structure Canadian contest law has worked around for decades, long before social media giveaways existed.
Does an Instagram Giveaway Actually Need One?
Here's the nuance that often gets flattened into a blanket rule online: the Criminal Code provision most directly implicated requires that a contestant pays money or other valuable consideration to enter. A standard "comment to win, no purchase necessary" Instagram giveaway doesn't involve a payment, which is a meaningfully different situation from a contest requiring an entry fee or a purchase.
That said, Canadian contest lawyers and marketing compliance guides consistently recommend including a skill-testing question anyway, for a few practical reasons:
- "Consideration" can be argued broadly. Some legal commentary suggests an act an entrant wouldn't normally perform (not just a cash payment) could potentially be treated as consideration in some interpretations, which adds uncertainty a skill-testing question removes cheaply.
- It costs you almost nothing to include. A simple math question takes one sentence in your rules and one extra DM to the winner. Given how low the cost is, most hosts don't bother testing the edge cases of when it's technically unnecessary.
- It's the expected convention. Canadian entrants are used to seeing it; its absence can look unusual rather than reassuring.
For a genuinely free, no-purchase Instagram giveaway, you're almost certainly on safer ground than a contest requiring payment — but including the question anyway is cheap insurance, which is why it remains close to universal practice in Canadian contest rules regardless of entry cost.
Example Skill-Testing Questions
They're deliberately easy. The point isn't to make winning hard — it's to introduce a skill element at all. Common examples:
- "What is (4 × 3) + 7?"
- "What is 12 − 5 + 2?"
- "Name the capital city of Canada." (a knowledge-based alternative some hosts use alongside or instead of math)
Keep it simple enough that a correct answer is nearly certain, but genuinely answerable incorrectly in principle — a question with only one possible interpretation and no ambiguity.
How to Add It to Your Giveaway
- State it in your official rules, not just the caption: "If the winner is a resident of Canada, they must correctly answer a mathematical skill-testing question, unsupervised, within [X] days, before the prize will be awarded."
- Ask it when you contact the winner, as part of your claim process — this is also a natural moment to verify the winner before shipping anything (see our guide to verifying a giveaway winner).
- Record the question and answer alongside your other giveaway records, in case anyone asks later how the winner qualified.
If you want this clause worded correctly inside a complete rules document rather than typed from scratch, the Giveaway Rules Generator can include it alongside your other required terms.
The Quebec Note
If you've read older guides about running contests in Canada, you may have seen advice to simply exclude Quebec residents entirely, because Quebec used to require sponsors to file a notice with the province's Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux, pay a contest duty (historically around 10% for Quebec-only contests, less for contests spanning other provinces), and file a winners report after the fact.
That changed. Quebec repealed this filing and duty system, effective October 27, 2023, removing publicity contests from the scope of its lotteries legislation. Sponsors no longer need to file a notice, pay the duty, or submit a winners report to run a contest open to Quebec residents. If you've been excluding Quebec out of habit or because of older advice, that specific reason no longer applies — though the skill-testing question practice described above is a separate, Criminal-Code-driven convention that isn't affected by the Quebec change either way.
How This Fits With the Rest of Your Giveaway Rules
A skill-testing question is one piece of a Canadian giveaway's compliance, not the whole picture. You still need the standard elements any giveaway requires: no-purchase-necessary language if there's any ambiguity about entry cost, eligibility and age terms, how the winner is selected and notified, and the Instagram release language Meta's own guidelines require. Whether your giveaway is legally a sweepstakes, contest, or something else entirely is worth confirming too — our guide to whether your giveaway is a lottery or a sweepstakes walks through that distinction, which matters in every province, not just for the skill-testing question specifically.
Once your rules and entry mechanic are set, drawing the winner itself works the same in Canada as anywhere else — load the comments into InstaPicker's comment picker, apply your entry filters, and draw. The skill-testing question is a condition attached after the draw, not part of the draw mechanism itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the specifics, but it's standard, low-cost practice regardless. The Criminal Code provision most directly in play applies most clearly where entrants pay to enter, which a free, no-purchase giveaway typically doesn't involve — but including the question anyway removes any ambiguity at almost no cost, which is why it's nearly universal in Canadian contest rules.
Your rules should state this explicitly — typically, the winner forfeits the prize and an alternate winner is selected and given the same opportunity. State a clear process rather than leaving it undefined.
Some hosts use general knowledge questions alongside or instead of arithmetic. The key requirement is that it introduces a genuine skill element with one correct, verifiable answer, not that it specifically be a math problem.
Not for the reason older guides gave — Quebec repealed its publicity contest filing and duty requirements as of October 27, 2023, so that specific administrative burden no longer applies. Always check current requirements before assuming older advice still holds, since contest law does get updated.
No. It's one clause within a complete set of rules, which should still cover eligibility, entry period, prize value, selection method, and the Instagram release language, among the other standard elements any giveaway needs regardless of country.