The Soccer World Cup features 32 national teams competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: a group stage followed by a knockout stage.

In the Fifa World Cup group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. 

Seeding:

Eight teams are seeded and drawn to separate groups. These include the hosts, with the other teams selected using a formula based on both the FIFA World Rankings and performances in recent World Cups. The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on their confederation. Teams in each pot are then drawn at random to the eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation. Previously, because of fewer finals places and a bigger ratio of European finalists, there had been several occasions where three European teams were in a single group.

Round-Robin:

Each group plays a round-robin tournament, guaranteeing that every team will play at least three games. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among all four teams. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage – using points to rank the teams within a group. If two or more teams end up with the same number of points, tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored, then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots.

The Knockout Stage:

The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the "round of 16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.