During the Orca Bowl, competing teams will be faced with two types of questions. The first is multiple-choice or short-answer questions within the broad category of the oceans.

There are some of these 'buzzer questions' available for practice, but keep in mind that successful teams in past years have found that the best way to prepare for the competition is by writing and practicing with their own buzzer questions.

Competition questions will be drawn from the scientific and technical disciplines used in studying the oceans (physics, chemistry, geology, atmospheric science, biology, etc.) as well as from topics on the contributions of the oceans to national and international economics, history and culture.

The second type of question, dubbed the "team challenge" question, is provided in written form and requires teamwork and extra time to complete. These questions require utilization of critical thinking skills to solve multiple parts of a given problem. There are a number of these team challenge questions available for practice.