How to play Reaction Time
Find a quiet moment, choose an input, and wait for the gold TAP signal. Complete five valid trials to see your median reaction time, with a deliberate pause between trials.
- Choose Mouse, Touch, Pen or Keyboard before starting. Use that same input for the entire five-trial run.
- Press Start trial. Wait for the panel to turn gold and show TAP, or PRESS SPACE in keyboard mode. The delay varies randomly from about 1.5 to 4 seconds.
- Press the panel with your selected pointer, or press Space in keyboard mode. Timing is measured on the press, not the release.
- A press before the signal is a false start. Retry that trial; it is not counted among the five valid times. False starts remain visible.
- Press Next trial when ready. After five valid times, your score is their median: the middle time when sorted. Lower is faster.
Controls
- Mouse, touch or pen: press anywhere inside the reaction panel after the gold signal. Only the primary pointer and primary button count.
- Keyboard: select Keyboard, then use Tab and Enter or Space for Start and Next. Release the key, then press Space on the focused reaction panel after the cue. Held keys do not repeat.
- Switching tabs, hiding the page, losing window focus or moving keyboard focus away cancels the current trial. Retry deliberately when you return.
- A mismatched input or a response later than 10 seconds discards the current trial. Earlier completed trials remain until you reload or start a new run.
This is a casual browser challenge, not a laboratory, medical or intelligence assessment. Display refresh, event scheduling, browser and input latency influence results. Compare only on the same device, browser and input. There is no global percentile or leaderboard.
Only best completed results are saved; a reload starts a fresh run. Clearing site data can remove it. There is no cross-device sync, and internet access is needed to load the game.
Frequently asked questions
What is saved?
Only your best completed five-trial median is saved locally, separately for mouse, touch, pen and keyboard under version 1 rules. An unfinished run is never restored on reload. Clearing site data removes records; storage restrictions may prevent saving.
Why use the median?
The median is the middle of the five valid times. It reduces the influence of one unusually slow or fast trial. Every individual trial is also shown.
Does a very low time prove faster reflexes?
No. Anticipation and device or browser latency can affect times. A very low time may simply be a lucky guess. This game makes no health, intelligence or population-ranking claims.
Can I play with a screen reader?
Controls and results are labeled, but the timed cue is visual. Screen-reader announcement delays make measured times unsuitable for comparison. Try untimed Pattern Memory or Sudoku if the visual cue is not useful to you.