200 General Knowledge Questions and Answers for a Quiz Night (10 Categories, Easy to Hard)

Most lists of general knowledge questions fail at the same moment: you start reading them out loud. Question four is so obscure that the whole table goes quiet, question nine is a trick with two correct answers, and by round three half the room has picked up their phones. A quiz night lives or dies on pace and on the feeling that the next question might be yours.

So these 200 general knowledge questions and answers are written for reading aloud. They come in 10 categories, from geography to movies, and each category has an easy half and a harder half. Every answer was checked before it went in. You also get a printable sheet per category, a simple way to score and steal, five tiebreakers and a way to put the whole quiz on your TV with phones as buzzers.

How to run a general knowledge quiz night

You need three things: teams of two to five, something to write on and one person who reads well. Everything else is optional. Plan about 10 minutes per round of 10 questions, including marking, which means four or five rounds fill a comfortable evening.

Here is the format that works at a dining table, in an office break room or on a sofa:

1. 1Split into teams of two to five and let each team pick a name. Silly names make the scoreboard more fun to read out.
2. 2Pick four to six categories from the sheets below. Start with an easy half so everyone scores early.
3. 3Read each question twice, slowly, then give 30 seconds. Teams write the answer down, no shouting.
4. 4After ten questions, teams swap sheets and mark each other while you read the answers.
5. 5Read the scores out after every round. The mid-quiz standings are half the fun.
6. 6Finish with the tiebreakers if two teams are level.

Geography quiz questions

Geography is the safest opening round: everyone knows some of it, and the harder half separates the travelers from the guessers. Capitals are the classic trap, so there are a few here that people get wrong with total confidence. For a full geography night, see our 150 geography trivia questions.

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Geography

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.What is the capital of Australia?
2. 2.Which is the longest river in South America?
3. 3.On which continent is Egypt?
4. 4.Which ocean lies between Africa and Australia?
5. 5.What is the largest country in the world by area?
6. 6.Which US state is made up entirely of islands?
7. 7.What is the capital of Canada?
8. 8.Mount Everest sits on the border of Nepal and which other country?
9. 9.In which country is the city of Rio de Janeiro?
10. 10.What is the smallest country in the world?
11. 11.What is the capital of New Zealand?
12. 12.In which African country is Mount Kilimanjaro?
13. 13.What is the largest hot desert in the world?
14. 14.Which river flows through Baghdad?
15. 15.Which country has the most time zones, counting its overseas territories?
16. 16.What is the deepest lake in the world?
17. 17.Which strait separates Europe and Africa at their closest point?
18. 18.What is the capital of Turkey?
19. 19.Which two countries share the longest international border?
20. 20.Which mountain range is usually taken as the border between Europe and Asia?

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Answers: Geography

1. 1. Canberra
2. 2. The Amazon
3. 3. Africa
4. 4. The Indian Ocean
5. 5. Russia
6. 6. Hawaii
7. 7. Ottawa
8. 8. China
9. 9. Brazil
10. 10. Vatican City
11. 11. Wellington
12. 12. Tanzania
13. 13. The Sahara
14. 14. The Tigris
15. 15. France, with 12
16. 16. Lake Baikal, in Russia
17. 17. The Strait of Gibraltar
18. 18. Ankara
19. 19. Canada and the United States
20. 20. The Ural Mountains

History questions and answers

History questions work best when the answer is a date or a name people have heard of, even if they cannot place it. No obscure kings, no trick dates.

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History

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.In which year did World War II end?
2. 2.Who was the first President of the United States?
3. 3.Which ocean liner sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg?
4. 4.In which year did astronauts first land on the Moon?
5. 5.Which is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing?
6. 6.Which wall, dividing a German city, fell in 1989?
7. 7.Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
8. 8.Which empire built the Colosseum?
9. 9.In which country were the ancient Olympic Games held?
10. 10.Which queen of Egypt formed an alliance with Mark Antony?
11. 11.In which year did Christopher Columbus first reach the Americas?
12. 12.Which charter did King John of England agree to in 1215?
13. 13.Who was the British prime minister for most of World War II?
14. 14.In which year did the French Revolution begin?
15. 15.Who completed the first voyage around the world after Magellan was killed on the way?
16. 16.Which Roman city was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79?
17. 17.Who was the first person to travel into space?
18. 18.What was the name of the ship that carried the Pilgrims to America in 1620?
19. 19.Which US president gave the Gettysburg Address?
20. 20.In which year did the Soviet Union break up?

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Answers: History

1. 1. 1945
2. 2. George Washington
3. 3. The Titanic
4. 4. 1969
5. 5. The Great Pyramid of Giza
6. 6. The Berlin Wall
7. 7. Marie Curie, in 1903
8. 8. The Roman Empire
9. 9. Greece
10. 10. Cleopatra
11. 11. 1492
12. 12. The Magna Carta
13. 13. Winston Churchill
14. 14. 1789
15. 15. Juan Sebastian Elcano, in 1522
16. 16. Pompeii
17. 17. Yuri Gagarin, in 1961
18. 18. The Mayflower
19. 19. Abraham Lincoln
20. 20. 1991

Science trivia questions

The easy half is school science everyone half remembers. The harder half has a few numbers, and we accept close answers for the speed of light and the travel time of sunlight.

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Science

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.What is the chemical symbol for gold?
2. 2.Which gas do plants take in from the air to make food?
3. 3.How many bones are in the adult human body?
4. 4.At what temperature in Celsius does water boil at sea level?
5. 5.Which planet is known as the Red Planet?
6. 6.What is H2O better known as?
7. 7.Which organ pumps blood around the body?
8. 8.What force keeps our feet on the ground?
9. 9.What is the largest planet in our solar system?
10. 10.What is the closest star to Earth?
11. 11.What is the hardest natural substance?
12. 12.Which element has the chemical symbol Fe?
13. 13.Which gas makes up most of Earth's atmosphere?
14. 14.Roughly how long does light from the Sun take to reach Earth?
15. 15.In which part of a cell is most of its DNA kept?
16. 16.Who developed the theory of general relativity?
17. 17.Roughly how fast does light travel, in kilometers per second?
18. 18.Which blood type is known as the universal donor?
19. 19.What is the largest organ of the human body?
20. 20.Which planet has a day that lasts longer than its year?

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Answers: Science

1. 1. Au
2. 2. Carbon dioxide
3. 3. 206
4. 4. 100 degrees
5. 5. Mars
6. 6. Water
7. 7. The heart
8. 8. Gravity
9. 9. Jupiter
10. 10. The Sun
11. 11. Diamond
12. 12. Iron
13. 13. Nitrogen, about 78 percent
14. 14. About 8 minutes
15. 15. The nucleus
16. 16. Albert Einstein
17. 17. About 300,000 km per second
18. 18. O negative
19. 19. The skin
20. 20. Venus

Animals and nature

Animal questions are the great equalizer. Kids often beat adults here, which is a good reason to put this category in the middle of a family quiz.

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Animals and nature

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.What is the largest animal on Earth?
2. 2.How many legs does a spider have?
3. 3.What do bees make from nectar?
4. 4.What is a baby kangaroo called?
5. 5.Which bird is a symbol of peace?
6. 6.What is the fastest land animal?
7. 7.What does a caterpillar turn into?
8. 8.Which animal is often called the king of the jungle?
9. 9.How many hearts does an octopus have?
10. 10.What is the tallest animal in the world?
11. 11.What is a group of crows called?
12. 12.Which is the only mammal that can truly fly?
13. 13.Which is the only continent with no native ants?
14. 14.What kind of animal is a Komodo dragon?
15. 15.What color is a polar bear's skin under its fur?
16. 16.What is the largest bird in the world?
17. 17.Which tree grows acorns?
18. 18.What is a group of lions called?
19. 19.Roughly how long is an African elephant pregnant?
20. 20.What is the largest species of shark?

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Answers: Animals and nature

1. 1. The blue whale
2. 2. Eight
3. 3. Honey
4. 4. A joey
5. 5. The dove
6. 6. The cheetah
7. 7. A butterfly or a moth
8. 8. The lion
9. 9. Three
10. 10. The giraffe
11. 11. A murder
12. 12. The bat
13. 13. Antarctica
14. 14. A lizard
15. 15. Black
16. 16. The ostrich
17. 17. The oak
18. 18. A pride
19. 19. About 22 months
20. 20. The whale shark

The best quiz question is one where half the room says I knew that, a second after you read the answer.

Food and drink questions

A round about food is perfect right after dinner, when everyone is still at the table. The drinks here are coffee and water, the rest is cooking.

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Food

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.Which country does sushi come from?
2. 2.What is the main ingredient in guacamole?
3. 3.Which nut is used to make marzipan?
4. 4.What is the yellow part of an egg called?
5. 5.Which fruit wears its seeds on the outside?
6. 6.What is tofu made from?
7. 7.Which vegetable is the base of coleslaw?
8. 8.Which spice gives most curry powders their yellow color?
9. 9.Which US city is famous for deep-dish pizza?
10. 10.What are dried plums called?
11. 11.What is the most expensive spice by weight?
12. 12.Which cheese is used on a classic pizza Margherita?
13. 13.What is the main ingredient in hummus?
14. 14.Coffee beans are the seeds of which fruit?
15. 15.Which pastry are profiteroles and eclairs made from?
16. 16.Which fruit is dried to make raisins?
17. 17.Which rice dish with saffron comes from the Valencia region of Spain?
18. 18.Which disease is caused by a lack of vitamin C?
19. 19.Which herb is the base of a classic Genoese pesto?
20. 20.Which grain is used to make traditional Italian risotto?

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Answers: Food

1. 1. Japan
2. 2. Avocado
3. 3. Almond
4. 4. The yolk
5. 5. The strawberry
6. 6. Soybeans
7. 7. Cabbage
8. 8. Turmeric
9. 9. Chicago
10. 10. Prunes
11. 11. Saffron
12. 12. Mozzarella
13. 13. Chickpeas
14. 14. The coffee cherry
15. 15. Choux pastry
16. 16. Grapes
17. 17. Paella
18. 18. Scurvy
19. 19. Basil
20. 20. Rice, usually arborio or carnaroli

Music trivia

Music questions split a room by age, which is exactly why they work in mixed teams. The easy half covers songs almost everyone knows, the harder half goes from Vivaldi to Nirvana.

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Music

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.How many strings does a standard guitar have?
2. 2.Which band recorded Hey Jude?
3. 3.Who is known as the King of Pop?
4. 4.How many keys does a standard piano have?
5. 5.Which instrument was Louis Armstrong famous for?
6. 6.Who sang Purple Rain?
7. 7.Which composer kept writing music after he lost his hearing?
8. 8.Which Swedish group won Eurovision in 1974 with Waterloo?
9. 9.Which singer released the album 1989 in 2014?
10. 10.What is the highest female singing voice called?
11. 11.Who composed The Four Seasons?
12. 12.Freddie Mercury was the lead singer of which band?
13. 13.What was the name of Elvis Presley's home in Memphis?
14. 14.How many symphonies did Beethoven complete?
15. 15.Which rapper was born Marshall Mathers?
16. 16.Who composed the opera The Magic Flute?
17. 17.Which instrument is Yo-Yo Ma famous for?
18. 18.Who was the lead singer of Nirvana?
19. 19.What does forte mean in a piece of music?
20. 20.Which music genre is Bob Marley best known for?

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Answers: Music

1. 1. Six
2. 2. The Beatles
3. 3. Michael Jackson
4. 4. 88
5. 5. The trumpet
6. 6. Prince
7. 7. Ludwig van Beethoven
8. 8. ABBA
9. 9. Taylor Swift
10. 10. Soprano
11. 11. Antonio Vivaldi
12. 12. Queen
13. 13. Graceland
14. 14. Nine
15. 15. Eminem
16. 16. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
17. 17. The cello
18. 18. Kurt Cobain
19. 19. Loud
20. 20. Reggae

Movies and TV questions

Movies and TV are the round people remember the next day. The easy half leans on family films, so younger players can carry their team for once.

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Movies and TV

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.What is the name of the cowboy toy in Toy Story?
2. 2.Which film series made the line May the Force be with you famous?
3. 3.What is the name of the snowman in Frozen?
4. 4.Which school of witchcraft and wizardry does Harry Potter attend?
5. 5.What color is Shrek?
6. 6.In The Lion King, who is Simba's father?
7. 7.Which superhero is secretly Bruce Wayne?
8. 8.What kind of fish is Nemo?
9. 9.In which city is the sitcom Friends set?
10. 10.Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
11. 11.Which film won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture?
12. 12.Who directed both Jaws and Jurassic Park?
13. 13.In which year was the first Toy Story released?
14. 14.What is the name of the African nation in Black Panther?
15. 15.Which TV series follows chemistry teacher Walter White?
16. 16.What color are Dorothy's slippers in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz?
17. 17.Which actor played Jack in Titanic (1997)?
18. 18.Which hobbit did Elijah Wood play in The Lord of the Rings?
19. 19.In Back to the Future, what speed does the DeLorean need to reach to travel in time?
20. 20.Which Japanese studio made Spirited Away?

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Answers: Movies and TV

1. 1. Woody
2. 2. Star Wars
3. 3. Olaf
4. 4. Hogwarts
5. 5. Green
6. 6. Mufasa
7. 7. Batman
8. 8. A clownfish
9. 9. New York City
10. 10. SpongeBob SquarePants
11. 11. Wings
12. 12. Steven Spielberg
13. 13. 1995
14. 14. Wakanda
15. 15. Breaking Bad
16. 16. Ruby red
17. 17. Leonardo DiCaprio
18. 18. Frodo Baggins
19. 19. 88 miles per hour
20. 20. Studio Ghibli

Sports trivia questions

No need to follow sports every weekend to score here. The easy half is general culture, the harder half has a few records and dates that sports fans will love to show off. Want a whole round of it? Try our sports trivia questions and answers.

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Sports

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.How many players does a soccer team have on the field?
2. 2.How often are the Summer Olympics held?
3. 3.In which sport would you see a slam dunk?
4. 4.How many holes are in a standard round of golf?
5. 5.In tennis, what is a score of zero called?
6. 6.Which country won the 2022 FIFA World Cup?
7. 7.How many rings are on the Olympic flag?
8. 8.Which sport is played with a shuttlecock?
9. 9.How long is a marathon?
10. 10.In which sport do teams compete for the Stanley Cup?
11. 11.Which country has won the most men's FIFA World Cups?
12. 12.What time did Usain Bolt run in the 100 meters at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin?
13. 13.How many players does a baseball team have on the field?
14. 14.Which city hosted the 2024 Summer Olympics?
15. 15.What is the maximum break in snooker, without free balls?
16. 16.In which sport is the Ryder Cup played?
17. 17.Which tennis Grand Slam is played on grass in London?
18. 18.Which boxer called himself The Greatest?
19. 19.How many points is a touchdown worth before the extra point?
20. 20.In which country does the Tour de France finish each year?

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Answers: Sports

1. 1. Eleven
2. 2. Every four years
3. 3. Basketball
4. 4. 18
5. 5. Love
6. 6. Argentina
7. 7. Five
8. 8. Badminton
9. 9. 26.2 miles, or 42.195 km
10. 10. Ice hockey
11. 11. Brazil, with five
12. 12. 9.58 seconds
13. 13. Nine
14. 14. Paris
15. 15. 147
16. 16. Golf
17. 17. Wimbledon
18. 18. Muhammad Ali
19. 19. Six
20. 20. France

Books, words and language

A literature round sounds scary, but the easy half is fairy tales and books people read as kids. Good for a quieter moment in the evening.

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Books and words

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.Who wrote Romeo and Juliet?
2. 2.How many letters are in the English alphabet?
3. 3.Who wrote the Harry Potter books?
4. 4.What do you call a word that reads the same backwards, like level?
5. 5.Which author created Sherlock Holmes?
6. 6.What did Cinderella leave behind at the ball?
7. 7.What is the plural of mouse?
8. 8.Who wrote The Cat in the Hat?
9. 9.What do you call words that sound the same but mean different things, like pair and pear?
10. 10.Which book lists words with similar meanings?
11. 11.Who wrote the novel 1984?
12. 12.Which novel begins with the words Call me Ishmael?
13. 13.Who wrote Pride and Prejudice?
14. 14.Which Russian author wrote War and Peace?
15. 15.What is the official language of Brazil?
16. 16.Who wrote The Old Man and the Sea?
17. 17.What is the name of the dragon in The Hobbit?
18. 18.Which poet wrote The Road Not Taken?
19. 19.What is the syllable pattern of a haiku?
20. 20.Who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia?

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Answers: Books and words

1. 1. William Shakespeare
2. 2. 26
3. 3. J.K. Rowling
4. 4. A palindrome
5. 5. Arthur Conan Doyle
6. 6. A glass slipper
7. 7. Mice
8. 8. Dr. Seuss
9. 9. Homophones
10. 10. A thesaurus
11. 11. George Orwell
12. 12. Moby-Dick
13. 13. Jane Austen
14. 14. Leo Tolstoy
15. 15. Portuguese
16. 16. Ernest Hemingway
17. 17. Smaug
18. 18. Robert Frost
19. 19. 5-7-5
20. 20. C.S. Lewis

Numbers, inventions and art

The last category is a mixed bag: quick sums, famous inventors and a few paintings everyone has seen on a mug or a poster. It makes a strong final round because the easy half lets teams catch up.

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Numbers, inventions and art

Questions 1-10 easy, 11-20 harder. One point each, two for the harder half.

1. 1.How many days are in a leap year?
2. 2.How many sides does a hexagon have?
3. 3.Who is credited with patenting the telephone in 1876?
4. 4.How many minutes are in a day?
5. 5.What does www stand for in a web address?
6. 6.How many colors are traditionally named in a rainbow?
7. 7.At what temperature in Fahrenheit does water freeze?
8. 8.How many zeros are in one million?
9. 9.Who painted the Mona Lisa?
10. 10.Which inventor's 1879 carbon-filament bulb made electric light practical at home?
11. 11.Who invented the World Wide Web?
12. 12.What is the square root of 144?
13. 13.In which year was the first text message sent?
14. 14.What does DNA stand for?
15. 15.What is the Roman numeral for 50?
16. 16.What is pi rounded to two decimal places?
17. 17.Which scientist described the three laws of motion?
18. 18.Who painted The Starry Night?
19. 19.How many sides does a dodecagon have?
20. 20.Which Italian scientist improved the telescope and observed the moons of Jupiter in 1610?

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Answers: Numbers, inventions and art

1. 1. 366
2. 2. Six
3. 3. Alexander Graham Bell
4. 4. 1,440
5. 5. World Wide Web
6. 6. Seven
7. 7. 32 degrees
8. 8. Six
9. 9. Leonardo da Vinci
10. 10. Thomas Edison
11. 11. Tim Berners-Lee
12. 12. 12
13. 13. 1992
14. 14. Deoxyribonucleic acid
15. 15. L
16. 16. 3.14
17. 17. Isaac Newton
18. 18. Vincent van Gogh
19. 19. 12
20. 20. Galileo Galilei

Tiebreakers: closest number wins

When two teams finish level, ask one of these. Every team writes a number, and the closest one wins. No need to be exact, which is the point.

• How tall is Mount Everest? 8,849 meters, or 29,032 feet.
• How many member states does the United Nations have? 193.
• In which year was the Eiffel Tower completed? 1889.
• On average, how far is the Moon from Earth? About 384,400 km, or about 238,900 miles.
• In which year was Ludwig van Beethoven born? 1770.

Make your own round

The round people talk about afterwards is usually the one about themselves: the host's first job, the year the couple met, the dog's full name. Write your own questions here and print them on the same sheet as the rest.

Sheet title

Layout

CardsNotebook

Your questionsIn which city did we first meet? | Chicago What was the host's first job? | Lifeguard What is the dog's full name?One question per line. Add the answer after | (optional). Up to 40 items. Nothing is uploaded, it all happens in your browser.

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Our own round

1. 1.In which city did we first meet?
2. 2.What was the host's first job?
3. 3.What is the dog's full name?

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Answers: Our own round

1. 1. Chicago
2. 2. Lifeguard

Start it on the TV, the rest is in your pocket

Paper quizzes have one weak spot: the person reading is not playing. If you want everyone on the same side of the questions, put the quiz on the TV. Buzzin is a party game platform that starts in the smart TV's browser, on a Chromecast, on a laptop over HDMI or through the BuzzinTV app on LG TVs with webOS 22 or newer, Philips TVs with Titan OS, Android TV, Google TV and Amazon Fire TV. Players scan a QR code on the screen and their phones become buzzers. Nobody installs anything or creates an account. Which setup suits your TV is covered in our guide to smart TV party games with phones.

The quiz is called TV Show: a voiced host reads the question, four answers appear on the big screen, the fastest correct tap scores and the game keeps the scoreboard. It is the same general knowledge format as the sheets above, with the quizmaster finally allowed to play. If you want to turn it into a full evening, our guide on how to host a game show night at home covers the setup, and there are more themed rounds in the Halloween trivia questions.

If you play it, tell us on our Discord what you liked and what is worth improving: https://discord.gg/nbVVeWNXFm.