Hard Trivia Questions and Answers

All 111 hard trivia questions with answers

1. A group of lions is properly called what?

   Answer: A prideTroop belongs to monkeys, and colony to ants and penguins.General Knowledge

2. A nautical mile is based on what measurement of the Earth?

   Answer: One minute of latitudeThat is why it suits navigation charts better than a land mile.General Knowledge

3. A traditional haiku has how many syllables in total?

   Answer: SeventeenThey fall in three lines of five, seven and five.General Knowledge

4. Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside Asia, is in which country?

   Answer: ArgentinaIt rises to about 6,960 metres in the Andes near the Chilean border.Geography

5. Angel Falls, the highest uninterrupted waterfall on Earth, is in which country?

   Answer: VenezuelaIt drops from a flat-topped mountain called Auyán-tepui in the Guiana Highlands.Geography

6. Greenland is a self-governing territory of which country?

   Answer: DenmarkIt is the world's largest island and gained home rule in 1979.Geography

7. A bond in which two atoms share a pair of electrons is called what?

   Answer: Covalent bondIonic bonds transfer electrons outright, as in table salt.Science

8. A boundary where two tectonic plates slide past each other sideways is called what?

   Answer: Transform boundaryThe San Andreas Fault in California is the best-known example.Science

9. Absolute zero corresponds to what temperature in Celsius?

   Answer: About minus 273 degreesIt is the point at which particle motion reaches its theoretical minimum.Science

10. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 in which city?

    Answer: SarajevoGavrilo Princip shot him and his wife on 28 June, setting off the crisis that led to war.History

11. Europe's first printing press using movable metal type is credited to whom?

    Answer: Johannes GutenbergHis Bible was printed at Mainz around 1455.History

12. Mansa Musa, famed for his wealth, ruled which West African empire?

    Answer: The Mali EmpireHis pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 spread so much gold that prices fell in Cairo.History

13. Alfred Hitchcock never won Best Director. Which of his films won Best Picture?

    Answer: RebeccaProducer David O. Selznick collected the award for 1940, not Hitchcock.Movie

14. Film editor Thelma Schoonmaker is the long-time collaborator of which director?

    Answer: Martin ScorseseSchoonmaker won editing Oscars for Raging Bull, The Aviator and The Departed.Movie

15. In Citizen Kane, what turns out to be the meaning of 'Rosebud'?

    Answer: A childhood sledThe object appears only in the film's closing shot.Movie

16. A time signature of three-four is typical of which dance?

    Answer: The waltzThe count falls in threes, which is what gives the waltz its swing.Music

17. How many different notes are there in a chromatic scale?

    Answer: TwelveEach step is a semitone, which on a piano means every key in turn.Music

18. Played from C to C on a piano, which scale uses only the white keys?

    Answer: C majorThat is why it has no sharps or flats in its key signature.Music

19. A "sesquipedalian" person is fond of what?

    Answer: Long wordsHorace coined it, literally meaning words a foot and a half long.Funny

20. Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of what?

    Answer: Peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouthDespite the look of it, the arachi- here is from the peanut's genus Arachis, not spiders.Funny

21. Borborygmus is the medical word for what?

    Answer: A rumbling stomachIt is gas and fluid moving through the intestines, and the word imitates the noise.Funny

22. At which golf tournament is the winner given a green jacket?

    Answer: The MastersAugusta National has handed one to the champion since 1949.Sports

23. How many squares are on a standard chessboard?

    Answer: 64Eight rows of eight, alternating light and dark.Sports

24. In which sport would you compete for the Ryder Cup?

    Answer: GolfIt is a team match between Europe and the United States, first played in 1927.Sports

25. Besides Hamilton and Madison, who wrote the Federalist Papers?

    Answer: John JayJay wrote five of the 85 essays before falling ill.US History

26. "Seward's Folly" was a nickname for the purchase of what?

    Answer: AlaskaCritics mocked Secretary of State William Seward until gold was found there.US History

27. The 1803 case Marbury v. Madison established which principle?

    Answer: Judicial reviewIt gave the Supreme Court power to strike down unconstitutional laws.US History

28. A baby rabbit is properly called a what?

    Answer: KitA leveret is a young hare, which is a different animal entirely.Animal

29. A group of crocodiles basking together is called a what?

    Answer: BaskA group in the water is instead called a float.Animal

30. A group of rhinoceroses is known as a what?

    Answer: CrashFitting for an animal that can charge at 50 km/h.Animal

31. Dashi, the Japanese stock, is traditionally made from kombu seaweed and which dried fish flakes?

    Answer: BonitoThe flakes are shaved from a fillet that has been smoked and dried until rock hard.Food and Drink

32. Gluten is formed when water is mixed with which components of flour?

    Answer: ProteinsKneading lines up glutenin and gliadin into an elastic network.Food and Drink

33. Roquefort cheese is made from the milk of which animal?

    Answer: SheepIt is ripened in limestone caves in southern France.Food and Drink

34. A number that cannot be written as a ratio of two integers is called what?

    Answer: IrrationalThe square root of two was the classic first example.Math

35. A square matrix that equals its own transpose is described as what?

    Answer: SymmetricReflecting it across the leading diagonal changes nothing.Math

36. How many faces does a regular dodecahedron have?

    Answer: TwelveEach face is a regular pentagon, and it is one of the five Platonic solids.MathWhy?

37. Besides Wembley Stadium in London, Live Aid was staged in which American city?

    Answer: PhiladelphiaThe US leg took place at John F. Kennedy Stadium.80s

38. Halley's Comet made its most recent pass close to the Sun in which year?

    Answer: 1986Several probes, including Europe's Giotto, flew out to study it.80s

39. IBM released its first personal computer, the model 5150, in which year?

    Answer: 1981Its open architecture invited the clone industry that followed.80s

40. Czechoslovakia split into two independent states in which year?

    Answer: 1993The peaceful separation on 1 January 1993 is known as the Velvet Divorce.90s

41. In 1997 the IBM computer Deep Blue won a match against which world chess champion?

    Answer: Garry KasparovKasparov had beaten the same machine a year earlier before it was upgraded.90s

42. Kurt Cobain died in which year?

    Answer: 1994He was 27, and Nirvana had released In Utero only months earlier.90s

43. Doctor Who was first broadcast in which year?

    Answer: 1963Its first episode went out the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.TV

44. Fawlty Towers was set in a hotel in which English seaside town?

    Answer: TorquayJohn Cleese based it on a real Torquay hotel where the Monty Python team had stayed.TV

45. In the 1960s series The Prisoner, the main character is held in a place known simply as what?

    Answer: The VillageIt was filmed at Portmeirion, an Italianate resort village in north Wales.TV

46. Christmas became an official federal holiday in the United States in which decade?

    Answer: The 1870sCongress made it a federal holiday in 1870, long after individual states had done so.Christmas

47. Christmas festivities were banned in England during the rule of which figure?

    Answer: Oliver CromwellThe Puritan-led Parliament outlawed the feast in the 1640s; it returned with the monarchy in 1660.Christmas

48. Good King Wenceslas, from the carol, actually ruled which territory?

    Answer: BohemiaHe was a tenth-century duke, not a king, and was canonised after his murder.Christmas

49. In Irish folklore, who is the man said to have tricked the devil and given his name to the lantern?

    Answer: Stingy JackRefused entry to both heaven and hell, he was left roaming with a burning coal.Halloween

50. In which year was Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho released?

    Answer: 1960It was shot in black and white on a tight budget by a television crew.Halloween

51. What is the fear of the number thirteen called?

    Answer: TriskaidekaphobiaSome buildings still skip the thirteenth floor because of it.Halloween

52. What is the administrative capital of Sri Lanka?

    Answer: Sri Jayawardenepura KotteParliament moved to this suburb of Colombo in the early 1980s.World CapitalsWhy?

53. What is the capital of Belize?

    Answer: BelmopanThe capital moved inland after a hurricane devastated the coastal city in 1961.World CapitalsWhy?

54. What is the capital of Bhutan?

    Answer: ThimphuPunakha held the role before the seat of government moved in 1955.World CapitalsWhy?

55. In which year did Disney's streaming service Disney+ launch in the United States?

    Answer: 2019It launched in November 2019.Disney

56. Which character did Walt Disney create for Universal before losing the rights and inventing Mickey Mouse?

    Answer: Oswald the Lucky RabbitDisney regained the Oswald rights in 2006.Disney

57. Which composer wrote the score for The Lion King, winning an Academy Award for it?

    Answer: Hans ZimmerElton John and Tim Rice wrote the film's songs separately.Disney

58. How many players make up a Quidditch team?

    Answer: SevenThree Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker.Harry Potter

59. What core does Harry's wand contain?

    Answer: A phoenix featherThe feather came from Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes.Harry Potter

60. What is the name of the Weasley family home?

    Answer: The BurrowShell Cottage is Bill and Fleur's later home.Harry Potter

61. How many Infinity Stones are there in Marvel continuity?

    Answer: SixThey were originally called Infinity Gems in the comics.Marvel

62. In which year did the Fantastic Four first appear in a Marvel comic?

    Answer: 1961Fantastic Four number one is generally treated as the start of the Marvel Age.Marvel

63. What was Marvel Comics called when it was founded in 1939?

    Answer: Timely ComicsIt traded as Atlas in the 1950s before adopting the Marvel name.Marvel

64. What is the Septuagint?

    Answer: An ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scripturesTradition connects it with seventy translators working in Alexandria.Bible

65. Which ancient manuscript find in the Judean desert included some of the oldest known biblical texts?

    Answer: The Dead Sea ScrollsThey were discovered near Qumran from 1947 onwards.Bible

66. Which book directly follows the four Gospels in the New Testament?

    Answer: Acts of the ApostlesIt narrates the spread of the early church after the Gospels close.Bible

67. Amy Winehouse won five Grammys in 2008 for which album?

    Answer: Back to BlackIt was her second and final studio album.2000s

68. Apple opened its music download store in which year?

    Answer: 2003Songs were sold individually rather than only as albums.2000s

69. Avatar: The Last Airbender first aired in which year?

    Answer: 2005It ran three seasons on Nickelodeon.2000s

70. Concorde began scheduled passenger service in which year?

    Answer: 1976Air France and British Airways started services on the same day.70s

71. Egypt signed the 1978 Camp David Accords with which country?

    Answer: IsraelThe talks were hosted by US president Jimmy Carter.70s

72. Never Mind the Bollocks, released in 1977, was whose only studio album?

    Answer: Sex PistolsThe band had split within about a year of its release.70s

73. Canada fixed Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October in which year?

    Answer: 1957Before that the date moved around from year to year.Thanksgiving

74. Commercial cranberry growers harvest the fruit by flooding what?

    Answer: BogsThe berries have air pockets inside, so they float to the surface.Thanksgiving

75. In which year did Congress fix Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November?

    Answer: 1941The law settled the confusion caused by the 1939 change.Thanksgiving

76. A Dublin church displays relics said to be Saint Valentine's, sent by which pope?

    Answer: Gregory XVIThey were given to an Irish preacher in the 1830s.Valentine's Day

77. A wedding ring is worn on the fourth finger because of a belief in a vein running where?

    Answer: From that finger to the heartThe vein does not exist, but the custom outlived the anatomy.Valentine's Day

78. Early church records name at least how many martyrs called Valentine?

    Answer: ThreeTheir stories overlap so much that they may describe fewer real people.Valentine's Day

79. A defense that brings a fifth defensive back onto the field is running what?

    Answer: A nickel packageA sixth defensive back makes it a dime.NFL

80. How high above the ground is the crossbar on an NFL goalpost?

    Answer: Ten feetThe uprights rise a further thirty-five feet above the crossbar.NFL

81. How wide is a regulation NFL field?

    Answer: 160 feetThat is fifty-three and a third yards from sideline to sideline.NFL

82. A penalty taken as a gentle chip down the middle is named after which player?

    Answer: Antonin PanenkaHe converted one that way in the 1976 European Championship final shootout.Soccer

83. A size five match ball must have a circumference within which range?

    Answer: 68 to 70 centimetresIts weight must be between four hundred and ten and four hundred and fifty grams at kickoff.Soccer

84. Anfield is the home ground of which club?

    Answer: LiverpoolEverton actually played there first, before Liverpool was founded.Soccer

85. A fourth word, Communiter, was added to the Olympic motto in 2021. What does it mean?

    Answer: TogetherThe full motto now reads faster, higher, stronger, together.Olympics

86. Counting the white background, how many colors appear on the Olympic flag?

    Answer: SixBlue, yellow, black, green and red sit on white.Olympics

87. The ancient Olympic Games were staged at which sanctuary site?

    Answer: OlympiaDelphi and Corinth hosted their own separate games.Olympics

88. Ascension Day falls how long after Easter Sunday?

    Answer: Forty daysIt always lands on a Thursday as a result.Easter

89. In Poland, Easter Monday is marked by a custom involving what?

    Answer: Sprinkling or dousing people with waterIt is known there as Smigus-dyngus, or Wet Monday.Easter

90. In which country do children traditionally hear that church bells, not a rabbit, bring the Easter eggs?

    Answer: FranceThe bells are said to fall silent from Thursday and return from Rome on Sunday.Easter

91. Chandler's father, a Las Vegas performer, was played by which actor?

    Answer: Kathleen TurnerKathleen Turner played Charles Bing, performing under the stage name Helena Handbasket.Friends

92. Gunther, who works at Central Perk, is secretly in love with which character?

    Answer: RachelJames Michael Tyler played Gunther, originally hired as a background extra who could work an espresso machine.Friends

93. In the final season Rachel accepts a job that would move her to which city?

    Answer: ParisRoss races to the airport to stop her leaving for Paris in the two-part finale.Friends

94. After Michael and Deangelo both depart, which character becomes Scranton's regional manager?

    Answer: Andy BernardDwight gets the job much later, in the ninth season.The Office

95. After quitting Dunder Mifflin, Michael sets up a rival firm called what?

    Answer: The Michael Scott Paper CompanyHe starts it in an office-park basement with Pam and Ryan before selling it back.The Office

96. Dwight's cousin Mose was played by which member of the show's writing team?

    Answer: Michael SchurSchur wrote for the series and went on to create Parks and Recreation and The Good Place.The Office

97. Count Dooku was played by which actor?

    Answer: Christopher LeeLee had a long horror career before taking the fallen Jedi turned Sith lord.Star Wars

98. Emperor Palpatine was played by which actor?

    Answer: Ian McDiarmidMcDiarmid played him in Return of the Jedi and again throughout the prequels.Star Wars

99. Kylo Ren was played by which actor?

    Answer: Adam DriverDomhnall Gleeson played General Hux and Oscar Isaac played Poe Dameron.Star Wars

100. Aragorn's sword, reforged from the shards of Narsil, is named what?

     Answer: AndúrilThe name means Flame of the West; Narsil was broken in the battle with Sauron an age earlier.Lord of the Rings

101. Bilbo Baggins was played by which actor in the film trilogy?

     Answer: Ian HolmMartin Freeman played the younger Bilbo in the later Hobbit films, not in this trilogy.Lord of the Rings

102. Boromir's younger brother, who captures Frodo and Sam in Ithilien, is named what?

     Answer: FaramirIn the book Faramir lets them go readily; the film has him take them towards Osgiliath first.Lord of the Rings

103. A goaltending violation is called when a defender touches the ball at what moment?

     Answer: On its downward flight toward the basketTouching the ball on or directly above the rim also counts, and the basket is awarded.NBA

104. A triple-double means reaching double figures in how many statistical categories in one game?

     Answer: ThreePoints, rebounds and assists are the usual three, though steals and blocks also count.NBA

105. Ball Arena is home to which NBA team?

     Answer: Denver NuggetsThe building opened in 1999 as the Pepsi Center and was renamed in 2020.NBA

106. A balk is called against which player?

     Answer: The pitcherWith runners on base, an illegal or deceptive motion by the pitcher advances every runner one base.Baseball

107. A regulation baseball must weigh between five ounces and what?

     Answer: 5.25 ouncesThe circumference is likewise fixed within a narrow band, nine to nine and a quarter inches.Baseball

108. Coors Field is home to which team?

     Answer: Colorado RockiesThin air a mile above sea level makes it famously friendly to hitters.Baseball

109. Acadia National Park is located in which state?

     Answer: MaineIt sits largely on Mount Desert Island along the Atlantic coast.US States

110. Augusta is the capital of which state?

     Answer: MaineGeorgia has a city called Augusta too, but its capital is Atlanta.US States

111. Crater Lake is found in which state?

     Answer: OregonIt fills the caldera of a collapsed volcano and is the deepest lake in the country.US States