Fill-in-the-blank vs. multiple choice: which card type to use when

Card type isn't a style preference - it changes what skill you're actually practising. Using the wrong format for the material is a common, quiet reason a deck can feel like it "isn't helping" even when the content is fine.

What each format actually tests

A fill-in-the-blank or open question-and-answer card asks you to produce an answer from nothing: no options, no cues, just the question. This is the format closest to the testing effect research, and it's the closest simulation of what most exams actually ask - free recall, not recognition among choices.

A multiple choice card asks you to recognise the right answer among plausible wrong ones. That's a genuinely different, easier task. You don't have to generate anything - you only have to distinguish the correct option from the distractors in front of you. It's still useful, but it's testing recognition, not recall, and the two build different memory.

Why this matters for how a card feels afterward

A well-written recall card that you can't answer feels like real information: you now know a specific fact is missing. A multiple choice card you got right by elimination, rather than by actually knowing the answer, gives you false confidence - you didn't recall it, you ruled out the other three. That's the illusion of competence showing up inside a single card format.

A rough rule for picking

Default to open recall (question and answer, or cloze) for anything you'll eventually need to produce without options in front of you - which is most exam material, most real-world use of a fact, and most oral exams or interviews.
Use multiple choice when the real-world test genuinely is a multiple choice test (board exams, certification exams with that format) or when the material is inherently a discrimination task - telling similar things apart rather than producing a fact from nothing.
If a deck feels easy but the actual exam doesn't, check the card type before you assume the content was wrong. Recognition-format practice for a recall-format exam is a mismatch that shows up exactly like that.