Is there an API call that get a list of all submissions for one specific quiz and one specific user?

I have a Python program that gets all quizzes from a course and for each quiz, it gets all submissions for that quiz. After that, gets all attempts for each submission. It is a triply nested for loop.

I would like to have an API call that knowing the course_id, quiz_id, user_id, could get all submissions for that quiz for that user.

Something similar to what we have for the assignments.

GET /api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments/:assignment_id/submissions/:user_id

Thanks in advance.

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

James

@marcia_moraes ,

The List submissions for multiple assignments endpoint of the submissions API will do everything you say you want (and a little more). It's what Canvas uses to fetch the gradebook information, but it can be used for other things.

The basic call is

GET /api/v1/course/:course_id/students/submissions

but that won't do anything by itself.

You need to add at least one assignment_ids[]= and at least one student_ids[] to the query.
To get the grades for all of the attempts, add include[]=submission_history.
The quiz_id is available inside the body property, but you will need to parse it from the quiz item. The body looks kind of like JSON, but it's not properly formed. Alternatively, you can include[]=assignment and that gives you the quiz_id. I would not include the assignment if you are fetching multiple students as it returns the assignment object for each student.
You can add per_page=100 to fetch more up to 100 submissions at a time. This minimizes the number of API calls that need made, although this is not necessarily the fastest way to get the information.

What I would do for the quiz_id is to get a list of all of the quizzes first or assignments first.

If you use the List quizzes in a course endpoint of the Quizzes API, then id is the quiz_id and you will need to hang onto the assignment_id to make the submissions call. The submission call needs the assignment_id, not the quiz_id.
If you use the List assignments endpoint of the Assignments API, then assignments that are quizzes will have is_quiz_assignment=true and also a quiz_id. Hang onto the quiz_id because you want it, but the id for the assignment list is the assignment_id, which is what you need for the submissions call.
If you use the List assignment groups endpoint of the Assignment Groups API and include[]=assignments then you can get all of the assignments with a single call (typically) without having to worry about pagination. What I wrote about the list assignments applies here as well. You can cut down the amount of information transferred, which speeds things up with exclude_response_fields[]=rubric and exclude_response_fields[]=description. You can also exclude_assignment_submission_types[]=discussion_topic, exclude_assignment_submission_types[]=wiki_page, and exclude_assignment_submission_types[]=external_tool to further cut down the information transferred. Unfortunately, there is not an include_assignment_submission_types[]=online_quiz, (I used strikethrough to emphasize it's not there) you would get that from the list quizzes endpoint.

Then I would have a single loop that iterated through the assignments, perhaps in batches of assignments, depending on how many quizzes you have. I would use student_ids[]=all to get the submissions for all students with an active enrollment. You have to explicitly list student ids for those students who are concluded or inactive as they are not included.

The assignment_ids[] will take multiple values, which is why I mentioned batching. For example, if you had 20 quizzes that you wanted to obtain the information for, you could probably put all 20 at the same time by repeating assignment_ids[], but I would either go 1 at a time (number of API calls = number of quizzes) or do array slices and make perhaps 4 or 5 at a time.

The more information you request, the more likely you are to run into pagination issues. You can get up to 100 submissions at a time with per_page=100, so that could be up to 100 students for a single assignment, 50 students for 2 assignments, or 25 students for 4 assignments. Pagination for the multiple submissions endpoint uses the opaque bookmark, so you cannot predict what the next page will be, you'll have to wait for the first request to finish before starting the next. That blocks the beauty of concurrent calls. As long as your students × assignments doesn't exceed 100, you can make multiple concurrent calls, subject to the rate limiting that Canvas has in place. Browsers allow 5-7 concurrent requests, but if you try 14 at the same instant, you'll hit the threshold and get blocked and they won't succeed.

As for the actual request, what you're going to get is a structure that looks like this (I've removed a lot of the information)

<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><BR />  <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">324686732</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"body"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"user: 9335957, quiz: 6068641, score: 5.0, time: 2020-02-13 01:43:09 +0000"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"grade"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"5.67"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">5.67</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:43:09Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"assignment_id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">24792036</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"user_id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">9335957</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"grader_id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">-</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">6068641</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">3</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"submission_history"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">39442823</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">5.0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:43:09Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">3</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">39442823</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">6.0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:42:22Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">2</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">39442823</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">6.0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:39:36Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">1</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />  <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><BR /><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

The array here only contains one object, but you would have one for each student.

The id in each case is the submission id.
The user_id and assignment_id are the what they say.
The quiz_id is called quiz inside the body. What I would do, though, is use the quiz id that I found earlier or tie it to the assignment_id.
The grader_id is the opposite of the quiz_id when the quiz is automatically graded. In this case, the quiz_id=6068641 and the grader_id=-6068641.
The score is the overall score. In this case, 5.67 is the average of 6, 6, and 5, which is how I grade my quizzes.
The submission_history gives all of the attempts. In this case, my student took it 3 times.
- id is the submission id. I know you didn't ask for this, but it's different from the overall submission id and for some API calls you need it.
- score is the score for that attempt. Note that there is also a grade property, but that is the grade for all of the attempts, not the grade for the listed attempt. Be sure to use grade
- submitted_at is the time when the student submitted the quiz.
- attempt is the attempt number

All comments

James

@marcia_moraes

What part of the quiz submissions do you want that you cannot get through the regular submissions API that you listed?

The get multiple submissions version may be able to cut out some of your loops, but it may not be usable at all depending on what information you need.

If you include[]=submission_history in the query for the get submissions (single or multiple) endpoint, you can get a list of all of the submissions for quizzes including the student responses.

James

@marcia_moraes ,

The basic call is

GET /api/v1/course/:course_id/students/submissions

but that won't do anything by itself.

You need to add at least one assignment_ids[]= and at least one student_ids[] to the query.
To get the grades for all of the attempts, add include[]=submission_history.
The quiz_id is available inside the body property, but you will need to parse it from the quiz item. The body looks kind of like JSON, but it's not properly formed. Alternatively, you can include[]=assignment and that gives you the quiz_id. I would not include the assignment if you are fetching multiple students as it returns the assignment object for each student.
You can add per_page=100 to fetch more up to 100 submissions at a time. This minimizes the number of API calls that need made, although this is not necessarily the fastest way to get the information.

What I would do for the quiz_id is to get a list of all of the quizzes first or assignments first.

If you use the List quizzes in a course endpoint of the Quizzes API, then id is the quiz_id and you will need to hang onto the assignment_id to make the submissions call. The submission call needs the assignment_id, not the quiz_id.
If you use the List assignments endpoint of the Assignments API, then assignments that are quizzes will have is_quiz_assignment=true and also a quiz_id. Hang onto the quiz_id because you want it, but the id for the assignment list is the assignment_id, which is what you need for the submissions call.
If you use the List assignment groups endpoint of the Assignment Groups API and include[]=assignments then you can get all of the assignments with a single call (typically) without having to worry about pagination. What I wrote about the list assignments applies here as well. You can cut down the amount of information transferred, which speeds things up with exclude_response_fields[]=rubric and exclude_response_fields[]=description. You can also exclude_assignment_submission_types[]=discussion_topic, exclude_assignment_submission_types[]=wiki_page, and exclude_assignment_submission_types[]=external_tool to further cut down the information transferred. Unfortunately, there is not an include_assignment_submission_types[]=online_quiz, (I used strikethrough to emphasize it's not there) you would get that from the list quizzes endpoint.

As for the actual request, what you're going to get is a structure that looks like this (I've removed a lot of the information)

<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><BR />  <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">324686732</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"body"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"user: 9335957, quiz: 6068641, score: 5.0, time: 2020-02-13 01:43:09 +0000"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"grade"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"5.67"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">5.67</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:43:09Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"assignment_id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">24792036</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"user_id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">9335957</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"grader_id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">-</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">6068641</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">3</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="string token">"submission_history"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">39442823</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">5.0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:43:09Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">3</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">39442823</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">6.0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:42:22Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">2</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"id"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">39442823</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"score"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">6.0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"submitted_at"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"2020-02-13T01:39:36Z"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />        <SPAN class="string token">"attempt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">1</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />      <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><BR />    <SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><BR />  <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><BR /><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

The array here only contains one object, but you would have one for each student.

The id in each case is the submission id.
The user_id and assignment_id are the what they say.
The quiz_id is called quiz inside the body. What I would do, though, is use the quiz id that I found earlier or tie it to the assignment_id.
The grader_id is the opposite of the quiz_id when the quiz is automatically graded. In this case, the quiz_id=6068641 and the grader_id=-6068641.
The score is the overall score. In this case, 5.67 is the average of 6, 6, and 5, which is how I grade my quizzes.
The submission_history gives all of the attempts. In this case, my student took it 3 times.
- id is the submission id. I know you didn't ask for this, but it's different from the overall submission id and for some API calls you need it.
- score is the score for that attempt. Note that there is also a grade property, but that is the grade for all of the attempts, not the grade for the listed attempt. Be sure to use grade
- submitted_at is the time when the student submitted the quiz.
- attempt is the attempt number

marchermon

I really do appreciate your efforts to help me and I have over the last month or two kept going back to looking into GraphQL and using our built in interface but I'm afraid at this point it's just too far over my head. We just switched from Moodle to Canvas. When using Moodle, I could create little PHP websites and use MySQL to very quickly query our Moodle Database. It was one of the reasons I was hesitant to switch to Canvas. I have been able to use =json_decode(@file_get_contents( in PHP to query our canvas and rebuild many of my original pages. But getting the average score of all 20 tests makes it hang for a long time. I have read many things and watched videos but using GraphQL somehow with PHP is too far above me currently.

unknown

Thanks again to @James . I still haven't figured out how to program in GraphQL but I continue to play with it. As a follow up I did make a long string for my query using what you said about you (could use assignment_ids[]=1&assignment_ids[]=2&assignment_ids[]=3) rather than making 20 different calls and then I used some pagination and it worked ok. I won't have all 20 Jedi Trials published until the end of the year so it goes pretty fast currently. By the end of the year it will be up to no more than 10 seconds to load which will be acceptable.

Doug9

Thanks @James, your replies here (and also here) are helpful.

I'm using the Submissions API to retrieve all my school's assignment submissions to find students with late/missing submissions in the current year and term. I'm supplying the section_id and one student per API call, looping over all the enrollments until complete.

In the Canvas UI assignments can be assigned to Everyone, or section(s) or student(s).

Is there is a difference in data returned when querying API by course ID or section ID?

List submissions for multiple assignments

GET /api/v1/courses/:course_id/students/submissions

vs.
GET /api/v1/sections/:section_id/students/submissions

Unanswered Questions

Obtaining access token using developer key for server-to-server REST API access
I have a developer key in our Test instance: How would I use this in a local program to make a REST API call? Looking at https://developerdocs.instructure.com/services/canvas/oauth2/file.developer_keys: Developer keys are OAuth2 client ID and secret pairs stored in Canvas that allow third-party applications to request…
Finding the LTIv1.3 IDs for Members of a Course
I'm building a tool for my institution that imports grades from another LTI tool into Canvas so instructors can automate late assignment policies not otherwise supported by Canvas. I'm trying to use the LTIv1.3 ID which is readily available on the LTI-side as a link to the student record on Canvas, but I can't find the ID…
Canvas Media Question
How can one track Canvas Media use without having the reports available from Canvas Studio? Checking API endpoints and the Data 2 schema, there do not seem to be dedicated Canvas Media endpoints. Am I missing some? A method I've considered is using the body field of the wiki_pages table, as this contains the html code of…
Canvas Catalog API - Completed Certificates
Hello, I'm trying to utilize an API call to pull completed certificates and was hoping to download and store the certs as a backup. I can successfully run the API call but it will not allow me to view the certificate unless I access the URL while signed into an account where it's "my" cert. Is there a permissions setting…
UI for weekly progression idea
UI for weekly progression idea that rest in the Schedule tab of the **K-12 UI** of Canvas it's incomplete and I really would not take it and push it into instance but I am going to post it here because in the past people like @James && @robotcars || @Steve_25 have had terrific input in the past... maybe w/their eyes and…