A standard basketball game is divided into four quarters.

• In the NBA, each quarter lasts 12 minutes, making the total regulation game time 48 minutes

• In the WNBA, each quarter is 10 minutes long, so the total regulation time is 40 minutes

• NCAA women's basketball also uses four 10-minute quarters, while NCAA men's basketball uses two 20-minute halves instead of quarters

• At the high school and youth levels, quarters typically last 6 to 8 minutes, varying by league

Between quarters, there are short breaks, with a longer halftime break (usually about 15 minutes) between the second and third quarters

. If the game is tied at the end of the fourth quarter, overtime periods of 5 minutes each are played until a winner is decided

. In summary, professional basketball games like the NBA and WNBA have four quarters, with quarter lengths depending on the league, but the four-quarter structure is the most common format in basketball