100 Trivia Questions and Answers, With a Note on Each

This is one list of 100 trivia questions in three rounds: 30 easy, 40 medium and 30 hard, which is close to the balance most quiz hosts aim for. The questions cover geography, science, history, literature, film, music, sport and technology, and every answer carries a short note. The note is there because a bare answer rarely sticks; the reason behind it usually does.

The questions come from the MojQuiz question library. We picked ones that still have a single defensible answer without multiple-choice options to lean on, and every answer was re-checked when this list was revised in September 2026. Where the textbook answer is genuinely disputed, the note says so, and there’s a section at the end on the handful of answers that start arguments at quiz nights.

Using it to learn rather than just read. Cover the answer, commit to a guess, then check. In a study published in Science, Karpicke and Roediger (2008) had students learn Swahili–English word pairs. Once a pair had been recalled, students who kept being tested on it remembered about 80% of the pairs a week later; students who kept studying the pairs but were no longer tested on them remembered about a third. Coming back to the same list a few days later adds to the effect.

Round 1 — Easy (questions 1–30)

1. What is the capital of Australia? — Canberra. It was purpose-built as a compromise after Sydney and Melbourne both claimed the title.
2. Which planet is known as the Red Planet? — Mars. Its surface dust is rich in iron oxide, which is essentially rust.
3. What is the largest ocean on Earth? — The Pacific. It covers more of the planet than all the land put together.
4. Who painted the Mona Lisa? — Leonardo da Vinci. It hangs in the Louvre, and its theft in 1911 did a great deal to make it world-famous.
5. How many bones are in the adult human body? — 206. Babies start with around 270, and many fuse together as they grow.
6. Which gas do plants take in from the air to make their food? — Carbon dioxide. Oxygen is what they give off, which is why it’s the usual wrong answer.
7. What is the chemical symbol for gold? — Au, from the Latin “aurum”.
8. Who wrote “Romeo and Juliet”? — William Shakespeare. He took the plot from Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem rather than inventing it.
9. What is the largest mammal in the world? — The blue whale, which can reach about 30 metres long.
10. How many continents are there? — Seven, in the model taught in most English-speaking countries. Many other countries teach six, counting North and South America as one.
11. What is the capital of Canada? — Ottawa. Toronto is the largest city, which is why it’s the common wrong answer.
12. What is the hardest natural substance? — Diamond, which sits at the top of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness.
13. What is the smallest planet in the solar system? — Mercury, since Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
14. At what temperature does water freeze on the Fahrenheit scale? — 32°F, which is 0°C.
15. In which country are the Pyramids of Giza? — Egypt. The Great Pyramid is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
16. Who was the first President of the United States? — George Washington, who took office in 1789.
17. What is the name of Harry Potter’s owl? — Hedwig, the snowy owl Hagrid gives him in the first book.
18. How many players does a football (soccer) team have on the pitch? — Eleven, including the goalkeeper.
19. What is the fastest land animal? — The cheetah, which can reach around 100 km/h in short bursts.
20. What does CPU stand for? — Central processing unit, the chip that carries out a computer’s instructions.
21. Which instrument usually has 88 keys? — The piano: 52 white keys and 36 black.
22. What is the main language spoken in Brazil? — Portuguese. Brazil is by far the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world.
23. Which band recorded “Hey Jude”? — The Beatles, in 1968. Paul McCartney wrote it for John Lennon’s son Julian.
24. What is the currency of Japan? — The yen, introduced in 1871.
25. Who directed the 1993 film “Jurassic Park”? — Steven Spielberg.
26. How many sides does a hexagon have? — Six.
27. What is the capital of Japan? — Tokyo. It became the capital in 1868, when the emperor moved there from Kyoto and the city, until then called Edo, was renamed.
28. What is the highest mountain above sea level? — Mount Everest, at 8,849 metres by the most recent survey.
29. Which sport is played at Wimbledon? — Tennis. It’s the oldest tennis tournament in the world and the only Grand Slam played on grass.
30. Which part of a cell is known as its powerhouse? — The mitochondria, which produce most of the cell’s usable energy.

Round 2 — Medium (questions 31–70)

31. In which year did the Berlin Wall fall? — 1989. The border crossings opened on the night of 9 November.
32. What is the capital of Turkey? — Ankara. Istanbul is far larger, but Atatürk made Ankara the capital in 1923.
33. Who wrote the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”? — George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Blair. It was published in 1949.
34. What is the smallest bone in the human body? — The stapes, one of three tiny bones in the middle ear.
35. Which element has the chemical symbol Fe? — Iron, from the Latin “ferrum”.
36. Who discovered penicillin? — Alexander Fleming, in 1928, after noticing mould killing the bacteria on a culture plate.
37. What is the largest desert in the world? — Antarctica. Deserts are defined by how little precipitation they get, not by heat; the Sahara is the largest hot desert.
38. In which year did the First World War begin? — 1914.
39. Who composed “The Four Seasons”? — Antonio Vivaldi. The four violin concertos were published in 1725.
40. What is the most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere? — Nitrogen, at about 78%. Oxygen makes up about 21%.
41. What is the capital of New Zealand? — Wellington. Auckland is the largest city.
42. Which is the hottest planet in the solar system? — Venus. It’s farther from the Sun than Mercury, but its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat.
43. Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? — Michelangelo, between 1508 and 1512.
44. What is the longest river in the world? — The Nile, by the conventional measurement. Some surveys that measure the Amazon from a different source put it ahead.
45. Who played Jack Dawson in the 1997 film “Titanic”? — Leonardo DiCaprio.
46. How many Grand Slam tournaments are there in tennis? — Four: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
47. What is the pH of pure water at 25°C? — 7, which is neutral. The scale is logarithmic, so pH 5 is a hundred times more acidic.
48. Which Egyptian queen allied herself with Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony? — Cleopatra VII, the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt.
49. What is the capital of Kazakhstan? — Astana. It was called Nur-Sultan from 2019 to 2022, so older lists may use that name.
50. Which strait separates Europe from Africa? — The Strait of Gibraltar, roughly 14 km wide at its narrowest.
51. What is the maximum break in snooker? — 147: all fifteen reds, each followed by the black, then the six colours.
52. Who wrote “Pride and Prejudice”? — Jane Austen. It was published in 1813 without her name on it.
53. What does HTTP stand for? — Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the rules browsers and web servers use to exchange pages.
54. What is the square root of 144? — 12.
55. At which battle was Napoleon finally defeated? — Waterloo, in 1815.
56. Which team won the first men’s Cricket World Cup, in 1975? — The West Indies, who beat Australia in the final at Lord’s.
57. What was Mark Twain’s real name? — Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
58. Who invented the World Wide Web? — Tim Berners-Lee, who proposed it in 1989 while working at CERN.
59. What is the largest lake in Africa? — Lake Victoria, shared by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
60. Which vitamin does your skin make when exposed to sunlight? — Vitamin D.
61. Which Disney film features the song “Let It Go”? — “Frozen”, from 2013.
62. Who holds the men’s 100 metres world record? — Usain Bolt, with 9.58 seconds, set in Berlin in 2009.
63. What is the deepest known point in the ocean? — Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, roughly 11 km down.
64. Which empire did Genghis Khan found? — The Mongol Empire.
65. How many chambers does the human heart have? — Four: two atria and two ventricles.
66. Who wrote “The Great Gatsby”? — F. Scott Fitzgerald, in 1925. It sold modestly in his lifetime.
67. What is the SI unit of electric current? — The ampere.
68. In which city is the Colosseum? — Rome.
69. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? — Marie Curie, for physics in 1903. She won again, for chemistry, in 1911.
70. Which treaty formally ended the First World War between Germany and the Allies? — The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919.

Round 3 — Hard (questions 71–100)

71. What is the capital of Mongolia? — Ulaanbaatar, usually described as the coldest national capital in the world.
72. How many time zones does Russia use? — Eleven.
73. Who composed the opera “The Magic Flute”? — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It premiered in 1791, the year he died.
74. What is the deepest lake in the world? — Lake Baikal in Siberia, at about 1,640 metres.
75. Which Chinese dynasty built the Forbidden City? — The Ming, who completed it in 1420.
76. Who wrote “One Hundred Years of Solitude”? — Gabriel García Márquez, in 1967.
77. What is the chemical formula of glucose? — C6H12O6.
78. In which year was the Battle of Hastings fought? — 1066.
79. What is the capital of Burkina Faso? — Ouagadougou. The country was called Upper Volta until 1984.
80. Which river flows through or along the borders of the most countries? — The Danube, which touches ten.
81. What is Avogadro’s number, to three significant figures? — 6.02 × 10²³, the number of particles in one mole of a substance.
82. Who was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day in the year 800? — Charlemagne.
83. What is the largest moon of Saturn? — Titan. It’s bigger than the planet Mercury and has a thick atmosphere.
84. Who scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics? — Nadia Comăneci, aged 14, at the 1976 Montreal Games.
85. What is the smallest independent country in South America by area? — Suriname.
86. Which 1494 treaty divided newly claimed lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal? — The Treaty of Tordesillas.
87. Which element has the highest melting point? — Tungsten, at about 3,422°C. Carbon survives higher temperatures but turns straight to gas at normal pressure instead of melting.
88. What is the name of the main character in Kafka’s “The Trial”? — Josef K.
89. Which country has won the most men’s Rugby World Cups? — South Africa, with four titles: 1995, 2007, 2019 and 2023.
90. Who proved Fermat’s Last Theorem? — Andrew Wiles, whose completed proof was published in 1995.
91. What was the first music video shown on MTV? — “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, on 1 August 1981.
92. Which statesman led Athens during its golden age in the fifth century BC? — Pericles.
93. What does the series 1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + 1/16 + … add up to? — π²/6. Leonhard Euler solved this, the Basel problem, in the 1730s.
94. Who wrote “The Master and Margarita”? — Mikhail Bulgakov. It wasn’t published in the Soviet Union until 1966, long after his death in 1940.
95. Which performer has won the most Academy Awards for acting? — Katharine Hepburn, with four Best Actress wins.
96. Which composer was almost completely deaf by the time he wrote his Ninth Symphony? — Ludwig van Beethoven.
97. In which year did the First Opium War begin? — 1839.
98. Which country has the longest coastline? — Canada, largely because of its Arctic islands.
99. Which Byzantine emperor faced the Nika riots of 532? — Justinian I.
100. How much does a men’s shot put weigh in athletics? — 7.26 kg, which is exactly 16 pounds.

The answers people argue about

A few classic trivia answers depend on a definition. If you’re hosting, either word the question so only one answer fits, or be ready to accept both.

Largest desert. Antarctica, if a desert means a place with very little precipitation, which is the scientific definition. The Sahara, if the question means hot deserts. Ask for “the largest hot desert” if the Sahara is the answer you want.

Longest river. The Nile is the traditional answer, at around 6,650 km. The Amazon’s length depends on which headwater is counted as its source, and some measurements make it longer. “The longest river in Africa” avoids the argument.

Tallest mountain. Everest is the highest above sea level. Mauna Kea in Hawaii is taller from base to summit, but most of it is under the sea. Chimborazo in Ecuador is the point farthest from Earth’s centre, because the planet bulges at the equator.

Number of continents. Seven is standard in English-speaking countries. Much of Latin America and parts of Europe teach six, joining North and South America. The Olympic rings stand for five.

Colours in a rainbow. Seven is Isaac Newton’s convention. The spectrum is continuous, so any count is a choice.

First animated feature film. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) is the usual answer, and it was the first full-length cel-animated feature in colour with sound. Earlier animated features do exist: Argentina’s “El Apóstol” (1917, now lost) and Germany’s “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (1926).

Frequently asked questions

For running these as an event, the quiz night hosting guide covers round structure, scoring and tiebreakers. For a steady habit rather than a one-off read, see how to improve general knowledge.