Quiz: Is Your Partner Working on the Presentation or Are They Just Speedrunning Minesweeper?

It’s crunch time.

You have a presentation due in a few days, and you’d rather not resort to plastering each slide with 2011-era memes in order to win audience favor. So you book a Van Pelt GSR and meet with your partner to bang the thing out in an hour or two. Simple.

But as you begin your search for primary sources, you start to notice your partner acting a bit strangely. Clenched jaw, twitchy fingers, darting eyes…wait a second. Could it be?

Is your partner speedrunning Minesweeper instead of working on the presentation? Take this quiz to find out!

What’s their build like?

A) They’re using a USB mouse, and they have a “StarCraft II” sticker on the lid of their laptop.

B) They're on a standard, run-of-the-mill MacBook.

C) Decent, but nowhere near as good as your monster of a machine. They don’t even have any peripherals — what gives?

How do they look today?

A) Their eyes are bloodshot, they’ve got black bags, and their skin has a deathly pallor to it. They’re sweating too, as if desperately trying to set a high score on their favorite mine-based computer game.

B) They look a little tired and stressed out, but that’s to be expected. The presentation is due in a few days, after all.

C) Your vision is kinda blurry from pulling an all-nighter, so you can’t really make them out, let alone the presentation you’re supposed to be finishing.

You ask them, “what’s Minesweeper?” Their answer:

A) “You seriously haven’t heard of Minesweeper? Well let me fill you in! So the game actually has its origins in the 60s with Jerimac Ratliff’s Cube...”

B) “No idea bro.”

C) “I’ll tell you once you take off your headphones and memorize your lines.”

You ask them how things are going. Their answer:

A) “Good, man, good. I just beat my best time…for finding a graphic to go with this slide. Haha, yeah. That’s right.”

B) “It’s going pretty well. I just cited the source we used in the introduction. Do you think you could help me write the analysis portion?”

C) “Alright, I guess. Hey, do you think you could quit messing around and start editing your slides? We’re running out of time here.”

You finally confront them and ask them if they’ve been playing Minesweeper this whole time. Their answer:

A) “Minesweeper? Me? No, no. I’ve just been looking over our presentation for…typos! Hey, how much longer until we finish this thing? I have a LAN party to attend.”

B) “What are you talking about? Whatever, let’s just write this conclusion, and we’ll be good.”

C) “Are you seriously asking me that? You’re the one who’s been frantically clicking around a candy-colored grid and swearing under your breath for the past hour.”

If you got mostly As: Your partner is definitely speedrunning Minesweeper right now. That bastard!

If you got mostly Bs: Relax! Your partner is putting legitimate work into the presentation.

If you got mostly Cs: Uh oh…you were the one speedrunning Minesweeper all along. Wow, this is awkward.