I've always wondered about this: Are firecracker questions automatically generated from the info or are they premade? I was wondering if I would lose any questions by unflagging several topics.
It's something like if you flag a card, there is a number of questions associated with it. Let's say 7. That part is obvious.
These 7 questions are drawn from a pool of possibly more than 7 that consists of straight recall type or multiple choice type. I think the one that you get depends on previous progress and scores, and it's also possible to see a question twice by coincidence (but really, poor design).
So let's say I bank acute coronary syndrome. I get questions that ask me to describe or define it. If I rate it 1 or 2, I'll probably see the same exact thing tomorrow. If I rate it 4 or if it's the 5th time I've seen it, I might instead get a multiple choice question about acute coronary syndrome. If I see it 3 months from now and rate it 1 again, I might see the straight recall again.
The poor design part IMO is that you have potential to get double/repeat questions of the same topic and also that you might never see the "other type" of question in your review out of sheer luck/design flaw.
All of this is based off what I've observed in my experience so it doesn't necessarily happen that way... but the same result IS I have witnessed firsthand (i.e. I have gotten repeat questions plenty of times, which can lead to me scoring a five once and "perfect recalling" the other to save time, which potentially subtracts one from a question load improperly, because the double might actually represent a question that could have been drawn differently. I have also seen a question for let's say 20 repetitions of the same thing and all of a sudden I get one I've never seen before on #21. This sounds good when I say it like this, but I've also gotten a question e.g. direct recall on attempt #1 and then never see it again after 20+ repetitions, I only see the multiple choice type. I would have liked to see the original question again!)
Also, for those of you straining over 45questions/day.... you ain't seen nothin' yet.