Build settings and scene order in Unity - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

Scene Loading Order in Build Settings

Consider a Unity project with three scenes added to the Build Settings in this order: Menu, Level1, and Level2. The first scene is set as the default scene to load on game start.

What scene will be loaded first when the game runs?

A No scene will load automatically

B Level1

C Level2

D Menu

💡 Hint

Check which scene is at index 0 in the Build Settings list.

The first scene in the Build Settings list (index 0) is the one Unity loads automatically when the game starts. Here, Menu is first, so it loads first.

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Effect of Scene Order on SceneManager.LoadScene

In Unity, if you call SceneManager.LoadScene(1), which scene will load?

Assume the Build Settings have scenes in this order: Intro (index 0), Game (index 1), Credits (index 2).

A Credits

B Game

C Intro

D An error occurs because index 1 is invalid

💡 Hint

Scene indices correspond to their order in Build Settings starting at 0.

SceneManager.LoadScene(1) loads the scene at index 1 in Build Settings, which is 'Game'.

❓ Predict Output

advanced

What happens if a scene is missing from Build Settings?

Given this code snippet in Unity:

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class TestScene : MonoBehaviour {
    void Start() {
        SceneManager.LoadScene("MissingScene");
    }
}

Assuming MissingScene is not added to Build Settings, what will happen when this runs in a built game?

A Unity will throw a runtime error and fail to load the scene

B The game will load the scene anyway without errors

C The game will load the first scene in Build Settings instead

D The game will freeze without any error message

💡 Hint

Think about what happens if a scene name is not found in the build.

If a scene is not included in Build Settings, Unity cannot load it by name at runtime and throws a runtime error.

❓ Predict Output

advanced

Scene Count in Build Settings

If your Unity Build Settings list contains these scenes in order: Start, LevelA, LevelB, End, how many scenes does SceneManager.sceneCountInBuildSettings return?

A 3

B Depends on the active scene

C 4

D 5

💡 Hint

Count all scenes listed in Build Settings.

SceneManager.sceneCountInBuildSettings returns the total number of scenes listed in Build Settings, which is 4 here.

🧠 Conceptual

expert

Impact of Scene Order on Build Size and Loading

Which statement about the order of scenes in Unity Build Settings is correct?

A All scenes listed in Build Settings are included in the build regardless of order, but the order determines their index for loading

B The first scene in Build Settings is always included in the build, but other scenes are only included if loaded at runtime

C Scenes not at index 0 are excluded from the build and must be loaded from asset bundles

D The order of scenes in Build Settings affects the compression level of each scene in the build

💡 Hint

Think about what Build Settings controls for scenes in a build.

All scenes added to Build Settings are included in the build. The order only sets their index used for loading scenes by index.