Quiz Category · General Knowledge

General Knowledge

Test your overall knowledge across every topic.

Broad-coverage trivia spanning history, science, geography, culture, and current affairs. A good place to start if you're not sure which category fits your mood.

General knowledge sits at the intersection of every other category on this site — a single round can move from the boiling point of mercury to the year the Berlin Wall fell to the capital of Burkina Faso. The questions here are deliberately wide rather than deep. Easy rounds stay within the bounds of school-curriculum material: continents, planets, presidents, well-known novels. Medium picks up speed with mid-tier facts most adults half-remember — Nobel laureates, river lengths, the order of British monarchs. Hard is where the floor drops: obscure capitals, scientific units named after lesser-known physicists, the founding years of institutions whose acronyms you recognise but cannot place. This category tends to draw two kinds of players. The first is the casual quizzer looking for variety after burning out on a single topic. The second is the exam aspirant — UPSC, SSC, banking — who uses broad GK practice as a low-stakes diagnostic before drilling into weak areas. Either way, expect a mix that refuses to settle into a comfortable rhythm.

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10 questions per round

24 general knowledge questions with answers

Across easy, medium and hard · reveal each answer to check yourself
  1. 01 What is the capital of France? easy

    • Berlin
    • Madrid
    • Paris
    • Lisbon
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is C. Paris.

    Paris has been the seat of French government since Hugh Capet made it his capital in 987. It is not France's only claimant to fame in this quiz — but Marseille, the usual wrong answer, is the larger port and the older city, founded by Greek settlers around 600 BC.

  2. 02 Which planet is known as the Red Planet? easy

    • Earth
    • Jupiter
    • Mars
    • Venus
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    The correct answer is C. Mars.

    Mars looks red because its surface is covered in iron oxide dust — rust, essentially. The same chemistry that reddens a neglected garden gate colours an entire planet.

  3. 03 What is the largest mammal in the world? easy

    • Elephant
    • Blue Whale
    • Great White Shark
    • Giraffe
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Blue Whale.

    The blue whale reaches about 30 metres and 150 tonnes, making it the largest animal known to have lived — larger than any dinosaur yet found. Its tongue alone can weigh as much as an elephant.

  4. 04 In which continent is the Sahara Desert located? easy

    • Asia
    • North America
    • Africa
    • Australia
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is C. Africa.

    The Sahara spans northern Africa across roughly 9.2 million km², an area comparable to China or the United States. It is the largest hot desert, though Antarctica is the largest desert overall, since deserts are defined by precipitation rather than heat.

  5. 05 Who wrote 'Romeo and Juliet'? easy

    • Charles Dickens
    • Jane Austen
    • William Shakespeare
    • Mark Twain
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is C. William Shakespeare.

    Shakespeare wrote it around 1595, but he did not invent the plot. He adapted Arthur Brooke's 1562 poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, itself drawn from older Italian tales.

  6. 06 Which element has the chemical symbol O? easy

    • Gold
    • Oxygen
    • Silver
    • Iron
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Oxygen.

    Oxygen. Symbols usually come from the English name, but many derive from Latin instead — which is why iron is Fe (ferrum), lead is Pb (plumbum), and sodium is Na (natrium).

  7. 07 What is the smallest country in the world? easy

    • Monaco
    • Vatican City
    • Nauru
    • Malta
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Vatican City.

    Vatican City covers about 0.49 km² with a population in the hundreds. It became independent of Italy only in 1929, under the Lateran Treaty, making it younger than most countries it is smaller than.

  8. 08 Which organ is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body? easy

    • Lung
    • Liver
    • Heart
    • Kidney
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is C. Heart.

    The heart moves roughly 5 litres a minute at rest, beating around 100,000 times a day. It is really two pumps side by side: the right sends blood to the lungs, the left to everywhere else.

  9. 09 What is the capital city of Japan? medium

    • Beijing
    • Seoul
    • Tokyo
    • Bangkok
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is C. Tokyo.

    Tokyo, since 1868, when the emperor moved there from Kyoto and the city was renamed from Edo. Kyoto had held the role for over a thousand years before that, which is why it remains the tempting wrong answer.

  10. 10 Which literary work is written by George Orwell? medium

    • Brave New World
    • 1984
    • Fahrenheit 451
    • To Kill a Mockingbird
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. 1984.

    1984, published in 1949. Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, and the novel gave English 'Big Brother', 'doublethink' and 'thoughtcrime' — words that have long outlasted most fiction of the period.

  11. 11 Who painted the Mona Lisa? medium

    • Vincent van Gogh
    • Pablo Picasso
    • Leonardo da Vinci
    • Claude Monet
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is C. Leonardo da Vinci.

    Leonardo da Vinci began it around 1503 and reportedly never considered it finished, carrying it with him for years. It hangs in the Louvre and owes part of its fame to being stolen in 1911, which made it front-page news worldwide.

  12. 12 Which gas do plants absorb from the atmosphere? medium

    • Oxygen
    • Nitrogen
    • Carbon Dioxide
    • Hydrogen
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is C. Carbon Dioxide.

    Carbon dioxide, taken in through pores called stomata and combined with water and light to build sugars. Oxygen is what they release as a by-product, which is why oxygen is the intuitive but wrong answer.

  13. 13 What is the main ingredient in guacamole? medium

    • Tomato
    • Avocado
    • Onion
    • Pepper
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Avocado.

    Avocado. The name comes from the Nahuatl āhuacamolli, literally 'avocado sauce', and the dish predates the Spanish arrival in Mesoamerica by centuries.

  14. 14 What is the currency used in Japan? medium

    • Yen
    • Won
    • Dollar
    • Euro
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is A. Yen.

    The yen, introduced in 1871 to replace a complex feudal system of coinage. The name derives from a word meaning 'round object', describing the coin's shape.

  15. 15 What element does 'Fe' represent on the periodic table? medium

    • Ferrous
    • Iron
    • Fluorine
    • Lead
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Iron.

    Iron. The symbol comes from the Latin ferrum, not the English name — one of about a dozen elements whose symbols look unrelated to their English words for exactly this reason.

  16. 16 What is the primary language spoken in Brazil? medium

    • Spanish
    • Portuguese
    • French
    • English
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Portuguese.

    Portuguese, which makes Brazil the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and by far the largest in the world by population. It stems from the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, which split the New World between Portugal and Spain.

  17. 17 What is the capital city of Bhutan? hard

    • Thimphu
    • Paro
    • Punakha
    • Bumthang
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is A. Thimphu.

    Thimphu, which became the capital in 1961 and is among the few world capitals with no traffic lights — a set was installed once and removed after residents objected, with police returning to directing traffic by hand.

  18. 18 In which year did the Berlin Wall fall? hard

    • 1989
    • 1991
    • 1987
    • 1990
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is A. 1989.

    1989. The crossings opened on 9 November after an East German official mistakenly announced at a press conference that new travel rules took effect 'immediately', and crowds simply went to the checkpoints.

  19. 19 Which element has the highest melting point? hard

    • Carbon
    • Tungsten
    • Iron
    • Osmium
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Tungsten.

    Tungsten melts at 3,422°C, the highest of any pure metal, which is why it was used for incandescent bulb filaments. Carbon endures higher temperatures still, but sublimates rather than melting at ordinary pressure.

  20. 20 Who wrote the epic poem 'Paradise Lost'? hard

    • John Milton
    • William Blake
    • John Keats
    • William Wordsworth
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is A. John Milton.

    John Milton published it in 1667. He had been completely blind for over a decade by then and composed it by dictating lines to assistants, including his daughters.

  21. 21 Which of the following is the largest moon of Saturn? hard

    • Titan
    • Rhea
    • Enceladus
    • Iapetus
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is A. Titan.

    Titan, larger than the planet Mercury, and the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere. It has lakes and rivers of liquid methane, making it the only other known world with surface liquid.

  22. 22 Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? hard

    • Marie Curie
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Lise Meitner
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is A. Marie Curie.

    Marie Curie took the 1903 Physics prize, shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. She won again in Chemistry in 1911, and remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.

  23. 23 What is the primary ingredient in traditional Japanese miso soup? hard

    • Tofu
    • Miso paste
    • Seaweed
    • Rice
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is B. Miso paste.

    Miso paste — fermented soybeans, usually with rice or barley and a mould called kōji. It is dissolved into dashi stock, and the paste is added off the boil because high heat destroys the flavour and the live cultures.

  24. 24 Which philosopher is known for the quote 'I think, therefore I am'? hard

    • René Descartes
    • Immanuel Kant
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Plato
    Show the answer

    The correct answer is A. René Descartes.

    René Descartes, in his 1637 Discourse on the Method. The line is his answer to radical doubt: he could question everything except that something was doing the questioning.

The full general knowledge pool runs to 297 questions — 98–100 questions per difficulty across easy, medium and hard. Each round you play is shuffled fresh, so the same ten never come up twice in a row. Pick a difficulty above to start a timed round, or scroll on for related categories.

Frequently asked questions

About the general knowledge quiz
What topics are covered in the general knowledge quiz?
A broad mix across history, science, geography, sports, literature, current affairs, and culture. The set is deliberately wide rather than deep — easy rounds stay within school-curriculum material, while medium and hard rounds reach into mid-tier and obscure facts.
How many general knowledge questions are in the pool?
Close to 100 questions per difficulty level (easy, medium, hard), just under 300 in total. Every 10-question round is shuffled fresh, so the same ten never come up in a row.
Is this useful for UPSC, SSC, or banking exam preparation?
It's a useful complement, not a substitute. The general-awareness sections of UPSC prelims, SSC, and banking PO papers reward broad GK practice — this category gives you low-stakes daily drilling alongside exam-specific mock-test series.
How does the difficulty progression work?
Easy stays within school-curriculum material — continents, planets, well-known novels. Medium adds mid-tier facts most adults half-remember — Nobel laureates, river lengths. Hard reaches into obscure capitals, scientific units, and the founding years of institutions whose acronyms you recognise but cannot place.