If you had a reputation for being a know-it-all as a kid, you likely already have your own list of best trivia questions in a journal with scratch-outs, new additions, and illegible notes in the margins. That’s just a fact. (I didn’t make the rules and, of course, am not speaking from personal experience here!)
Going through a list of trivia questions and answers with pals is fun for a few reasons. Part of it has to do with getting to flex your own trivia night muscles, as well as getting to see what areas of trivia each of your friends specialises in, whether it’s pop culture or history, music or sport. And part of it has to do, simply, with making a game out of learning new things and testing your knowledge. Let your inner (or outer) nerd rejoice!
Below, we’ve rounded up a comprehensive list of fun trivia questions and answers for your next game night with the crew. You’ll find general trivia questions and answers, as well as some we’ve curated for music and movie buffs, too. Afterwards, you can keep the night going with a round of Truth or Dare questions or Never Have I Ever.
In this article, you’ll find:
- Common trivia answers and questions
- General trivia questions and answers
- Movie trivia questions and answers
- Music trivia questions and answers
Common trivia questions and answers
There are some questions that are revisited time and time (and time) again. The following queries have shown up in trivia night get-togethers for generations—consider this a great spot to start if you’re hosting your own session, or you’re just trying to brush up on your skills.
1. What is celebrated on February 2 and is also a film?
Answer: Groundhog Day
2. What is the official national anthem of the United States of America
Answer: The Star Spangled Banner
3. Which is the only vowel on a standard keyboard that is not on the top line of letters
Answer: A
4. What was Twitter’s original name?
Answer: twttr
5. How many stars are on the European Union Flag?
Answer: 12
6. Globe and Jerusalem are types of what?
Answer: Artichokes
7. What’s the most popular drink in the world that is not alcohol?
Answer: Coffee
8. What is often seen as the smallest unit of memory?
Answer: Kilobyte
9. What does “HTTP” stand for?
Answer: HyperText Transfer Protocol
10. Which planet is the hottest in the solar system?
Answer: Venus
11. How many Lord of the Rings films are there?
Answer: Three
12. Which animal can be seen on the Porsche logo?
Answer: Horse
13. What does BMW stand for (in English)?
Answer: Bavarian Motor Works
14. Which Williams sister has won more Grand Slam titles?
Answer: Serena
15. Which country invented tea?
Answer: China
16. Which bone are babies born without?
Answer: Knee cap
17. Which planet has the most gravity?
Answer: Jupiter
18. Which American state is the largest (by area)?
Answer: Alaska
19. What is the smallest country in the world?
Answer: Vatican City
20. What is the name of the world’s longest river?
Answer: The Nile
21. How many Pyramids of Giza were made?
Answer: Three
22. What is the national dish of Spain?
Answer: Paella
23. Which writer wrote “Adventure of Sherlock Holmes”?
Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle
24. When was the company Nike founded?
Answer: 1971
25. What is the tallest building in the world?
Answer: Burj Khalifa
26. Which mammal has no vocal cords?
Answer: Giraffe
27. What is the slogan of Apple Inc.?
Answer: Think different
28. How many stripes does Adidas have?
Answer: 3
29. According to Greek mythology, who was the first woman on earth?
Answer: Pandora
30. Fissures, vents, and plugs are all associated with which geological feature?
Answer: Volcanos
31. Which country consumes the most chocolate per capita?
Answer: Switzerland
32. What is the loudest animal on Earth?
Answer: The sperm whale
33. What was the first toy to be advertised on television?
Answer: Mr. Potato Head
34. How many eyes does a bee have?
Answer: Five
35. What is the tiny piece at the end of a shoelace called?
Answer: An aglet
36. In the United Kingdom, what is the day after Christmas known as?
Answer: Boxing Day
37. What is the tallest breed of dog in the world?
Answer: The Great Dane
38. How many ribs are in a human body?
Answer: Twenty-four
39. What’s the hardest rock?
Answer: A diamond
40. Who invented scissors?
Answer: Leonardo da Vinci
41. How many time zones are there in Russia?
Answer: 4
42. What’s the national flower of Japan?
Answer: Cherry blossom
43. What was the original name of Facebook?
Answer: TheFacebook
44: What does "www" stand for in a website browser?
Answer: World Wide Web
45: How many bones are in the human body?
Answer: 206
46: What is the name of the tallest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest
47: What is the smallest country in the world?
Answer: Vatican City
48: What is the largest ocean in the world?
Answer: Pacific Ocean
49: What is the name of the largest desert in the world?
Answer: The Sahara Desert
50: How many hearts does an octopus have?
Answer: 3
51: What is the rarest blood type?
Answer: AB negative
52: How many teeth does an adult human have?
Answer: 32
53: What is the chemical symbol for gold?
Answer: Au
54: What is the name of the closest star to Earth?
Answer: The Sun
55: What is the hottest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Venus
56: What is the name of the largest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Jupiter
57: How many continents are there?
Answer: 7
58: What is the name of the longest river in the world?
Answer: The Amazon River (though some sources say the Nile River)
59: What is the capital of France?
Answer: Paris
60: What year did World War II end?
Answer: 1945
General trivia questions and answers
One of the best things about trivia is how diverse the topics can be. Whether you’re a film buff or a science enthusiast, it’s likely there will be a question tailor made for you. If you’re attending a trivia night it doesn’t have a set theme, chances are one or two of these may make an appearance.
1. Who, in 1903, was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Marie Curie
2. What year did the Berlin Wall fall?
Answer: 1989
3. What is the more popular name for the portrait officially titled “La Gioconda,” painted in 1503?
Answer: The Mona Lisa.
4. What element does the chemical symbol Au stand for?
Answer: Gold
5. What is the sign directly opposite Scorpio in the zodiac?
Answer: Taurus
6. Who is considered the first female self-made millionaire in the U.S.?
Answer: Madam C.J. Walker
7. How many colours were on the original Pride flag, flown at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade in 1978?
Answer: Eight (the pink and turquoise stripes were dropped by 1979 for production reasons)
8. What is the first name of the main female protagonist in Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God?
Answer: Janie
9. The shooting of whom, in 1914, started World War I?
Answer: Archduke Franz Ferdinand
10. What is the smallest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Mercury
11. What is the highest-grossing Broadway show of all time?
Answer: The Lion King
12. Who is commonly credited with throwing the first brick at Stonewall in 1969, beginning an uprising that became a major turning point for LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S.?
Answer: Marsha P. Johnson
13. What are the first 22 cards in a tarot deck called?
Answer: The Major Arcana
14. What was the name of the possessed hotel in Steven King’s novel (and movie) The Shining, based on the real-life Stanley Hotel in Colorado?
Answer: The Overlook Hotel
15. What is the capital of India?
Answer: New Delhi
16. Which two states in the U.S. share the most borders with other states?
Answer: Tennessee and Missouri
17. At a restaurant, you’ll see deer meat on the menu under what name?
Answer: Venison
18. What country has the national language with the longest alphabet?
Answer: Cambodia (their national language, Khmer, has 74 characters!)
19. What is the pseudonym for the author of the best-selling, four-part book series known as the Neapolitan Novels, now an HBO series?
Answer: Elena Ferrante
20. What is the name of the ship that rescued Titanic passengers hours after the ship went down?
Answer: The Carpathia
21. Where is recognised as the location of the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, per the World Meteorological Organization?
Answer: Death Valley, California
22. On what network did RuPaul’s Drag Race premiere in 2009?
Answer: Logo TV
23. What was the first book published by Jane Austen?
Answer: Sense and Sensibility
24. Which two countries have the longest shared international border?
Answer: Canada and the U.S.
25. What city hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics?
Answer: Sochi, Russia
26. What is the longest-running Broadway show?
Answer: The Phantom of the Opera
27. What is the human body’s largest organ?
Answer: Skin
28. What year was the first iPhone released?
Answer: 2007
29. What’s the (extremely metal) name for a group of crows?
Answer: A murder of crows
30. What are the first names of the four main characters in Golden Girls?
Answer: Sophia, Dorothy, Rose, and Blanche
31. What is the longest above-water mountain range?
The Andes
32. What year did Netflix, previously a DVD rental business, introduce streaming services?
Answer: 2007
33. How many feet are in a yard?
Answer: Three
34. How many bones do sharks have?
Answer: Zero!
35. What is the deadliest mammal?
Answer: The hippo
36. What is the deadliest insect?
Answer: The mosquito
37. What country was the Marxist revolutionary figure Che Guevara born in?
Answer: Argentina
38. What is the capital of Singapore?
Answer: Singapore (it’s an island city-state)
39. What is the word for the weather event also called a winter hurricane?
Answer: A bomb cyclone
40. What was the first country to give women the right to vote?
Answer: New Zealand (in 1893)
41. What year was the landmark civil and LGBTQ+ rights case Obergefell v. Hodges ruled on?
Answer: 2015
42. The Hawaiian Islands archipelago is made up of what number of major islands?
Answer: Eight major islands (plus a bunch of smaller islands and islets for a total of 137 islands!)
43. What are the names of the four March sisters in Little Women?
Answer: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy
44. What chewy dessert topping is made from tartar and egg whites and often found on pie?
Answer: Meringue
45. In Greek mythology, who was known as the messenger of the gods?
Answer: Hermes
46. What was Eleanor Roosevelt’s maiden name before marrying FDR?
Answer: Roosevelt (she and Franklin were fifth cousins once removed!)
47. What was the birth name of boxing legend Muhammad Ali?
Answer: Cassius Clay
48. In what city were the first infections of COVID-19 discovered?
Wuhan, China
49. In chess, what direction can a bishop move?
Answer: Diagonally
50. Who was the world’s first cloned animal, a sheep, named after in 1996?
Answer: Dolly Parton
51. What is the name for the equinox that occurs on March 20th or 21st of each year?
Answer: The Vernal Equinox
52. What’s the shortcut for the paste function on most computers?
Answer: Ctrl+V
53. What river runs through Paris?
Answer: The Seine
54. What kind of flower was once used as money?
Answer: Tulips, whose bulbs were once used as a form of currency in Holland!
55. What is the capital of Iowa?
Answer: Des Moines
56. What is the most commonly spoken language in Brazil?
Answer: Portuguese
57. In what country do more than half of people believe in elves?
Answer: Iceland
58. How many colours will you find in a regular bag of M&Ms?
Answer: Six
59. The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the U.S. from what country?
Answer: France
60. How many wives did Henry VIII have?
Answer: Six
61. What is the rarest blood type?
Answer: AB negative
62. Which famous art movement did Pablo Picasso co-create?
Answer: Cubism
63. Which U.S. president is featured on the $2 bill?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson
64. For up to how long do cicadas live underground before emerging above ground for just a few weeks?
Answer: 17 years
65. What phase does a moon enter into after it’s full?
Answer: Waxing Gibbous (if you guessed just the first bit, that works!)
66. Where on the food pyramid do eggplants belong?
Answer: In the fruit section
67. What alcoholic beverage is made from juniper berries?
Answer: Gin
68. Where is the world’s tallest roller coaster?
Answer: New Jersey (at Six Flags Great Adventure — it’s the Kingda Ka roller coaster, with a height of 456 feet)
69. What is the national animal of Scotland?
Answer: The unicorn
70. For how many nights is Hanukkah celebrated?
Answer: Eight
71. What religious and political organization did Malcolm X join in 1952, helping it to grow exponentially before cutting ties with it in 1964?
Answer: The Nation of Islam
72. What country has the highest number of citizens over the age of 65?
Answer: Japan
73. How many keys are on a modern, standard-sized piano?
Answer: 88
74. Area 51 is located in which U.S. state?
Answer: Nevada
75. What U.S. fast food chain is credited with introducing the first drive-through window to the masses?
Answer: In-N-Out Burger
76. What temperature does water boil at?
Answer: 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius
77. Where is Harvard University located?
Answer: Cambridge, Massachusetts
78. Who is the actress with the longest-running TV career?
Answer: Betty White
79. How many countries are in the European Union?
Answer: 27
80. What does DNA stand for?
Answer: Deoxyribonucleic Acid
81. Which marine animals hold hands in their sleep to prevent drifting apart?
Answer: Sea otters, and my system is unable to process that level of cuteness.
82. What is the name of the painting that depicts a woman with a mysterious smile?
Answer: Mona Lisa
83. Who painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling?
Answer: Michelangelo
84. Who wrote the Harry Potter series?
Answer: J.K. Rowlin
85. How many films are in the Harry Potter series?
Answer: 8
86. What is the name of the first Disney princess?
Answer: Snow White
87. What is the name of the toy cowboy in Toy Story?
Answer: Woody
88. What is the name of the coffee shop in Friends?
Answer: Central Perk
89. What pop star burned down her gym with candles?
Answer: Britney Spears
90. What fast food chain was founded in 1955?
Answer: McDonald's
91. What country consumes the most chocolate per capita?
Answer: Switzerland
92. What is the name of the app that lets you post short videos?
Answer: TikTok
93. What social media platform is known for longer videos?
Answer: YouTube
94. What is the name of the viral TikTok dance that everyone was doing in 2020?
Answer: Renegade
95. What popular video game features characters like Mario and Luigi?
Answer: Super Mario Bros.
96. What is the name of the doll that has a boyfriend named Ken?
Answer: Barbie
97. What is the name of the popular online game where players build things with blocks?
Answer: Minecraft
Music trivia questions and answers
Music is one of the most common trivia themes. Even if the entire trivia night isn’t themed around tunes and musicians, it’s likely you’ll run into an entire section of the session dedicated to the topic. The goal here is to get a well-rounded education that spans generations and genres.
1. Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin all belong to what unofficial organisation?
Answer: The 27 Club
2. Who besides Britney Spears did Madonna kiss at the 2003 VMAs?
Answer: Christina Aguilera
3. What song was behind the very first music video to ever premiere on MTV?
Answer: “Video Killed the Radio Star”
4. With what album did Beyoncé start her solo career?
Answer: Dangerously In Love
5. What is the stage name of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta?
Answer: Lady Gaga
6. Who sang the first recorded version of “Strange Fruit,” a classic, haunting protest song against racism and violence against Black bodies?
Answer: Billie Holiday
7. Who was the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
Answer: Aretha Franklin
8. What musical artist played a whopping 27 different instruments on their debut album, “For You”?
Answer: Prince
9. Where did the band ABBA form?
Answer: Sweden
10. Which Beatles single was No. 1 on the Billboard charts for the longest stretch of time?
Answer: Hey Jude
11. What was the Notorious BIG’s real first name?
Answer: Christopher
12. How old was Taylor Swift when she took home her first Album of the Year Grammy?
Answer: 20
13. Starchild, Demon, Spaceman (or Space Ace), and Catman are the on-stage personas of what band?
Answer: KISS
14. How many members does BTS have?
Answer: Seven
15. What was The Beach Boys’ first No. 1 single, out of a total of four?
Answer: “I Get Around”
16. What instrument does Lizzo play?
Answer: The Flute
17. What musical artist cast themselves as every character in a 1978 televised performance of West Side Story?
Answer: Cher
18. What is the longest-running band still featuring its original line-up?
Answer: U2
19. What is the best-selling album of all time in the U.S.?
Answer: “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)” by the Eagles. (Seriously!)
20. How did Otis Redding die?
Answer: A plane crash
21. Which famous country artist had a hit in 1957 with “Walkin’ After Midnight”?
Answer: Patsy Cline
22. In 2017, what single topped the charts in 47 countries simultaneously?
Answer: “Despacito”
23. Who did Beyoncé edge out in 2021 for the title of female artist with the most Grammys?
Answer: Alison Krauss
24. What is the name of Led Zeppelin’s fourth studio album, which includes the song “Stairway to Heaven”?
Answer: It’s untitled! Although it’s most often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV
25. Ariana Grande started her career at age 15 in what Broadway musical?
Answer: 13
26. Who is the highest-grossing female artist of all time?
Answer: Madonna
27. What song by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee was a global hit in 2017?
Answer: Despacito
28. Who sings "Bad Romance"?
Answer: Lady Gaga
29. What artist released the album Lemonade?
Answer: Beyoncé
30. What song did Olivia Rodrigo release in 2021 that broke records?
Answer: Drivers License
Movie trivia questions and answers
Similar to music, movie trivia questions are a go-to for many reasons. First, there are just a ton of movies out there—it’s likely that someone has seen whatever blockbuster is being spotlit. Second, it plays well for a trivia group consisting of multiple generations (hello, family night).
1. What movie is the Oscar-nominated song “Journey to the Past” from?
Answer: Anastasia
2. Who plays the Fairy Godmother in the 1997 version of Cinderella, starring Brandy?
Answer: Whitney Houston
3. How many children are in the Von Trapp family in The Sound of Music?
Answer: Seven
4. What is the highest-grossing movie of all time?
Answer: Avatar
5. What specific shade does Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly dedicate a monologue to in The Devil Wears Prada?
Answer: Cerulean
6. What famous documentary depicts New York City’s ballroom scene at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-to-late 1980s?
Answer: Paris is Burning
7. What was the first feature-length animated movie ever released?
Answer: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
8. What character is played perfectly by Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park and significantly less perfectly by Goldblum in The Lost World: Jurassic Park?
Answer: Ian Malcolm
9. What famous real-life Hollywood couple starred in the film adaptation of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Answer: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
10. What’s the name of the dance number performed toward the beginning of Rocky Horror Picture Show?
Answer: The Time Warp
11. In what fictional town is Jaws set?
Answer: Amity Island
12. What musical group is the movie Dreamgirls purportedly based on?
Answer: Although the movie is a fictional blend of multiple Motown female-led singing groups, it’s thought to most draw on the Supremes
13. In Titanic, where is Jack Dawson from?
Answer: Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
14. What does the movie rating “R” stand for?
Answer: Restricted
15. What movie is Alan Rickman’s first film credit?
Answer: Die Hard
16. The costume designer for Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion also did the costumes for what fellow iconic 90s-fashion movie?
Answer: Clueless
17. Who is the only Disney princess to have been inspired by a real person?
Answer: Pocahontas — although given Disney’s historical inaccuracies, let’s go ahead and call this one capital-L Loosely inspired.
18. How many suns does the planet Tatooine, Luke’s home, have in Star Wars?
Answer: Two
19. What was the first — and still only — horror movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture?
Answer: Silence of the Lambs
20. What movie is the first non-English film to win the Oscar for Best Picture?
Answer: Parasite
21. What is the name of the hotel in Psycho?
Answer: The Bates Motel
22. How many times has the movie A Star is Born been remade?
Answer: Four times
23. Why is Ally Sheedy’s character in detention in The Breakfast Club?
Answer: She “didn’t have anything better to do.”
24. Who was the first Black actress to win an Oscar?
Answer: Hattie McDaniel
25. What three movies share the title for winner of the most Oscars?
Answer: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Ben-Hur, Titanic
26. What 1927 musical was the first "talkie"?
Answer: The Jazz Singer
27. The head of what kind of animal is in an infamous scene from The Godfather?
Answer: A horse
28. In what 1950 film does Bette Davis say, "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy night"?
Answer: All About Eve
29. What day was Barbenheimer released?
Answer: July 21, 2023
30. Which “Titanic” actor appeared on the children's TV show “Romper Room?”
Answer: Leonardo di Caprio
31. Who played Jack Dawson in Titanic?
Answer: Leonardo DiCaprio
32. What is the highest-grossing film of all time?
Answer: Avatar (though this can change!)
33. Which Avenger is green?
Answer: Hulk
34. Who is the main character in The Hunger Games?
Answer: Katniss Everdeen
35. What popular Netflix show features a group of kids who fight monsters?
Answer: Stranger Things
36. What is the name of the group of friends in Stranger Things?
Answer: The Party
Literature trivia questions
- In Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding named love interest Mark Darcy after a character from what classic Jane Austen novel?
Answer: Pride and Prejudice
2. What 1995 coming-of-age comedy set in California is loosely based on Jane Austin's 1815 novel Emma?
Answer: Clueless
3. Which author wrote many of her books while standing?
Answer: Virginia Woolf
4. Who published 13 books under the name Theo LeSieg and one book under the name Rosetta Stone?
Answer: Dr. Seuss
5. What author wrote his last novel in crayon?
Answer: James Joyce.
6. How many volumes are in Marcel Proust’s novel à La Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time)?
Answer: 7
7. What was the first novel ever written?
Answer: The Tale of Genji
8. George Eliot is the pen name of which author?
Answer: Mary Ann Evans
9. Who played the role of Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 TV series based on Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice?
Answer: Jennifer Ehle
Sports trivia questions
- In what year were the first modern Winter Olympic games held?
Answer: 1924
2. What game is called the “sport of kings”?
Answer: Chess
3. In what kind of sport are the “Golden Stanley Cup” medals won?
Answer: Hockey
4. What game is considered the national sport of Japan?
Answer: Sumo
5. Which player has won the most Ballon d'Or awards?
Answer: Lionel Messi
6. How many lanes are there on a standard outdoor track?
Answer: 8
7. How many events are there in men's artistic gymnastics?
Answer: 6 (floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, high bar)
8. What is the oldest age an Olympic gymnast has competed?
Answer: Oksana Chusovitina at age 46 in 2021
9. What is the nickname of the Spanish national soccer team?
Answer: La Roja
10. Which team won the first FIFA Club World Cup in 2000?
Answer: Brazil
11. Who is the all-time top scorer in the Premier League since 1992?
Answer: Alan Shearer with 260 goals
12. Which team won the first-ever Women’s World Cup in 1991?
Answer: United States
This feature originally appeared on Teen Vogue.
