Bidder Question Deadlines: When to Ask?

The Key Points in Brief

A precise bidder question clears up a contradictory requirement before it becomes grounds for exclusion.

The contracting authority must provide answers at the latest 6 calendar days before the bid deadline (§ 20 (3) VgV) – so submit questions around 10–12 days beforehand .

Good bidder questions follow a fixed structure: reference, observation, specific question, proposed action.

Answers go to all bidders – anonymised, but visible in content. That changes how you phrase things.

Those who have indexed their company knowledge formulate bidder questions in minutes instead of hours.

A single unclear wording in the specification can cost an otherwise perfect bid the contract. Bidder questions are the only formal tool with which you can clear up such ambiguities before submission. Those who formulate them correctly shift risk back to the contracting authority – and gain a measurable advantage. This guide shows how to formulate bidder questions that actually get answered, including a template, deadlines and practical examples.

Why bidder questions decide contract awards

In 2024 in Germany, 199,334 public contracts and concessions with a value of €135.2 billion were awarded (Federal procurement statistics, BMWK). The competition for these contracts is often decided not on price, but on who read the specification correctly – and spotted its gaps.

Bidder questions serve three functions here. First, they clear up contradictions: if the bill of quantities in item 3.4 requires a material that the technical systems rule out, this must be clarified before submission – otherwise two bidders will calculate on different bases. Second, they document your diligence: in a dispute, a question asked shows that you recognised and addressed an ambiguity. Third, they shift risk: if the contracting authority replies bindingly, that information applies to all bidders and becomes part of the procurement documents.

An example from mechanical engineering: a mid-sized company discovers that the test standard required in the tender was withdrawn two years ago. Instead of calculating on a hunch, it submits a bidder question. The contracting authority corrects the requirement for everyone – and the bidder who found the gap is the only one to calculate without a safety margin. It is exactly such details that decide between first and second place.

The 5 most common mistakes when formulating bidder questions

Asked too late. Questions shortly before the deadline put the contracting authority under time pressure – or go unanswered.
Too vague. “Please clarify lot 2” gives the contracting authority nothing to work with and produces an equally vague answer.
Several topics in one question. If one aspect is answered and the other overlooked, you’ve gained nothing.
Giving away your strategy. Because answers go to all bidders, a question that is too specific sometimes reveals your own approach to the competition.
No reference to the document. Without an exact citation (document, page, item), the contracting authority has to guess what you are referring to.

These five mistakes share a common cause: bidder questions are written at the end of the process under time pressure, instead of being collected systematically on first reading of the documents.

Formulating bidder questions: the 4-sentence template

A robust bidder question consists of four elements. This structure makes it clear, answerable and legally sound:

Reference – exact citation: “In the specification, section 3.4, page 12 …”
Observation – the specific contradiction: “… material X is required, while section 5.1 presupposes material Y.”
Question – a closed, precise question: “Which material is authoritative?”
Proposed action – a suggestion that makes answering easier: “If material Y is meant, we ask for section 3.4 to be corrected accordingly.”

Template to copy:

In [document], [section/page], [requirement A] is required. This contradicts [section/page], where [requirement B] is presupposed. Which requirement is authoritative for the bid calculation? If [variant] applies, we ask for the relevant section to be adjusted.

The fourth sentence is the most important and the one most often left out. It reduces the contracting authority’s workload and thereby increases the likelihood of a clear, usable answer.

Deadlines: until when can you ask bidder questions?

The legal anchor point is § 20 (3) VgV: additional information – which includes answers to bidder questions – must be made available to bidders no later than six calendar days before the bid deadline expires , provided it was requested in good time. If they cannot do so, the bid deadline must be extended.

In practice, this means: submit your questions around 10 to 12 calendar days before bid submission . That leaves the contracting authority enough time for a binding answer within the six-day limit – and you enough time to incorporate the answer into your calculation.

Two points are often overlooked. First: if a question arrives too late but the documents genuinely need clarification, an obligation to extend the deadline can still exist – the contracting authority may not brush off justified questions by pointing to its own deadline. Second: a “question deadline” set by the contracting authority is permissible, but does not replace the statutory six-day logic. Those who know the deadlines can argue on an equal footing if in doubt.

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Examples: strong vs. weak bidder questions

Weak: “Can you explain the maintenance requirements in more detail?” → No reference, no specific contradiction, open question. Result: an equally non-committal answer.

Strong: “In the specification, section 7.2, page 18, a response time of 4 hours is required. Section 9.1 states 24 hours for the same case. Which response time is authoritative for pricing?” → Citation, specific contradiction, closed question. The contracting authority can answer it in one sentence – and must.

An example from landscaping shows the difference in outcome: a company asks precisely whether the required maintenance service in the winter half-year is included or paid separately. The clarification reduces its calculated buffer by several percentage points – and makes its bid more competitive without cutting corners on substance. The weak version (“Please explain the scope of maintenance”) would never have brought this calculation clarity.

How AI helps with formulating bidder questions

The real effort lies not in writing the question, but in finding the passages that deserve one: contradictions between the bill of quantities and contract terms, outdated references to standards, unclear remuneration rules – spread across hundreds of pages of procurement documents.

An AI trained on the respective industry reads the documents in full, flags contradictory or ambiguous passages and suggests formulated bidder questions – following exactly the structure of reference, observation, question and proposed action. The difference from a generic language model: an industry-specific AI knows the typical pitfalls in mechanical engineering, landscaping or sweeping technology and therefore misses less. Half a day of manual review becomes minutes – and missed questions become documented bidder questions submitted on time.

Frequently asked questions about bidder questions

Until when can I submit bidder questions?

As early as possible, in practice around 10–12 calendar days before bid submission. Reason: under § 20 (3) VgV, the contracting authority must provide the answer no later than six calendar days before the deadline. Questions submitted later risk going unanswered.

Do other bidders see my bidder question?

Yes, in terms of content. The contracting authority answers bidder questions to all bidders so that competition is equally informed – but anonymised, without your name. So phrase your question in a way that doesn’t reveal your solution strategy.

Does the contracting authority have to answer every bidder question?

Not every one, but every one that is relevant to preparing the bid and concerns the procurement documents. Points needing clarification must be corrected – if necessary with a deadline extension, even for questions asked at short notice.

How many bidder questions are appropriate?

There is no upper limit. Quality is what matters: better five precise, individually answerable questions than one collective enquiry mixing ten topics.

Conclusion

Bidder questions are not a tiresome sideshow, but a strategic instrument in the competition for public contracts. Those who use a fixed structure – reference, observation, question, proposed action –, submit in good time and know the six-day logic of § 20 VgV get the clarity they need for a clean calculation out of every tender. The biggest lever lies not in the formulating itself, but in systematically finding the passages that deserve a question. This is exactly where the advantage shifts to companies that no longer comb through their procurement documents manually.

Check your next tender for open bidder questions – book a live demo with your latest tender PDF.

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Author: Philipp Hennig, co-founder of aiconver. aiconver is the AI Concierge for tenders in mid-sized companies: finding, assessing, bidder questions, filling in – end-to-end in one platform.