10 minutes to prepare, 10 to present, judged on 5 performance indicators in qsr operations.
Career cluster
Hospitality & Tourism
Format
Roleplay
Participants
1 person
Preparation
10 minutes
Presentation
10 minutes
Performance indicators
5, worth 10 points each
Judge questions
2
4 practice roleplays for Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series
Written by DUZZ in the format of a real district case: an event situation, the instructional area, the 5 performance indicators the judge scores, and the two questions asked at the end. Practise any of them out loud in the app and get scored against the 2026 evaluation form.
OperationsDistrict level
The Hand-Washing Sink Nobody Uses
The setting
A quick serve location has a hand-washing sink in the food preparation area that staff walk past. A new shift lead has noticed, has been told this is how it has always been, and does not know how hard to push.
Your role
You are to assume the role of a shift associate.
Your task
A busy quick service restaurant has a dedicated hand-washing sink at the edge of the food preparation area. During a lunch rush, a newly promoted shift lead noticed that staff routinely walk past it, moving between the register, the fryer and the assembly line without washing their hands.
When the shift lead mentioned it, a longtime employee said this is how the restaurant has always worked and that there is no time to wash hands during a rush. The shift lead is unsure how hard to push on a habit that is older than their own time at the restaurant.
The district manager (judge) wants you to explain what you would do. Demonstrate proper hand-washing technique and what the standard actually requires, discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety, identify the personal health conditions that affect food handling, explain the relationship between personal safety and sanitation practices, and explain the nature of the pathogens the practice exists to control.
Performance indicators
Demonstrate proper hand-washing technique.
Discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety.
Identify personal health conditions that affect food safety.
Explain the relationship between personal safety/sanitation and allergen exposure.
Explain the nature of pathogens.
The judge will ask
1.How do you change a habit that predates everyone on shift?
2.What do you do if the store manager tells you to leave it?
OperationsDistrict level
The Item That Slows Everything Down
The setting
A new grilled sandwich has become popular and takes far longer to make than anything else on the menu. The people who order it are pleased; everybody queuing behind them is not.
Your role
You are to assume the role of a shift associate.
Your task
A quick service restaurant recently added a grilled chicken sandwich to its menu. It has quickly become popular, especially with regular customers, and appears in many positive online reviews.
The sandwich takes much longer to prepare than anything else on the menu, because it is cooked to order on a single grill. During busy periods, one order for it can hold up every order behind it, and drive-through wait times have grown noticeably since it was introduced.
The regional operations manager (judge) wants you to recommend what happens to the sandwich. Explain the concept of production and where this item breaks it, explain the nature of operations in a kitchen built around speed, explain how service standards should be maintained during peaks in demand, identify the types of food service this location is actually set up for, and assess the trends affecting food preparation that made the item popular.
Performance indicators
Explain the concept of production.
Explain the nature of operations.
Maintain service standards during peaks in demand.
Identify types of food service in different segments of the culinary and foodservice operations industry.
Assess trends affecting food preparation.
The judge will ask
1.Would you remove it, change it, or change how it is made?
2.What do you tell the customers who love it?
OperationsICDC level
The Log Signed in Advance
The setting
A routine inspection found a cleaning log signed for shifts that had not happened yet. The manager says it saves time on busy nights and that the cleaning is always done anyway.
Your role
You are to assume the role of a shift associate.
Your task
A quick service restaurant was visited for a routine health inspection. The inspector found the cleaning log for the kitchen equipment already signed for several shifts that had not yet happened.
The store manager explained that staff sign the log in advance on busy nights to save time, and insisted that the cleaning itself is always done. The franchise owner has received the inspection report and wants to understand how serious the finding is.
The franchise owner (judge) wants you to explain how serious this is and what changes. Explain the policies and procedures for handling contamination risks the log exists to control, discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety, explain how noncompliance with health and safety regulations should be reported, explain how the restaurant's hazardous chemicals and waste should be identified, and identify the types of harmful bacteria the cleaning schedule is there to prevent.
Performance indicators
Comply with policies and procedures for handling bodily fluids.
Discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety.
Report noncompliance with business health and safety regulations.
Identify restaurants' hazardous chemicals/waste.
Identify types of harmful bacteria.
The judge will ask
1.Which worries you more, the log or what it says about the culture?
2.What changes before the next inspection?
OperationsAssociation level
Ordering for a Night Nobody Predicted
The setting
A quick serve location near a stadium runs out of its most popular items on event nights and throws away stock on quiet ones. Ordering is done the same way every week regardless of what is happening nearby.
Your role
You are to assume the role of a shift associate.
Your task
A quick service restaurant sits a short walk from a stadium. On nights when there is a game or concert, crowds arrive all at once, and the restaurant regularly runs out of its most popular items well before the rush is over.
On quiet nights, the same restaurant ends up discarding food that was prepared or ordered for demand that never came. Stock is ordered on the same fixed schedule every week, regardless of what is happening at the stadium.
The store manager (judge) wants you to recommend how ordering should work. Discuss the types of inventory the location carries and which of them are at risk either way, describe the types of purchase order available, discuss the use of make-or-buy analysis in a food establishment, describe the factors influencing those decisions, and explain how the restaurant management system should be used to support the change.
Performance indicators
Discuss types of inventory.
Describe types of purchase orders.
Discuss the use of make-or-buy analysis in food establishments.
Utilize restaurant management system applications.
The judge will ask
1.What would you need to know each week before placing the order?
2.Which is worse, running out or throwing away? Defend it.
Practise Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series with an AI judge
Free accounts get three graded roleplays a week: you present out loud, DUZZ records you and scores you against the same 2026 form a real judge uses — performance indicators, the solution criteria, the career competencies and overall impression.