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60 free Asimov's Foundation Series trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Asimov's Foundation series trivia quiz covers the science fiction saga that began as short stories in Astounding in 1942 and grew into seven novels, a radio serial and an Apple TV+ series. The easy questions handle the basics: who wrote it, what psychohistory is, the name of the mathematician who invented it, the planet at the edge of the galaxy where the Foundation is exiled, and the mutant who breaks the Seldon Plan. From there it moves through the original trilogy story by story: Salvor Hardin and Anacreon, the traders, Hober Mallow, Bel Riose, Bayta Darell and the clown Magnifico, and the two searches for the Second Foundation. The harder half is for readers who have gone beyond the trilogy: Golan Trevize's choice on Gaia, the fifty Spacer worlds, the radioactive Earth and the robot waiting on the Moon, Cleon I and Eto Demerzel in the prequels, the posthumous novels by Benford, Bear and Brin, the Gibbon and Thucydides influences, and the odd afterlives of the series in Futurama, Deep Purple and Paul Krugman's economics. If you enjoyed our Dune or classic science fiction quizzes, this is the deep dive on Asimov's galaxy. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the Foundation series, each novel, its major characters and the television adaptation before publishing.
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Q 01Which author wrote the Foundation series?
Isaac Asimov
He was one of science fiction's 'Big Three' and wrote or edited more than 500 books while working as a biochemistry professor.
Q 02Seldon's psychohistory can predict the future of what, but never of individuals?
Large populations
It relies on the statistical laws of mass action, so a single unpredictable person like the Mule can wreck it.
Q 03Which mathematician devises psychohistory and foresees the fall of the Galactic Empire?
Hari Seldon
He is born on the planet Helicon, where his father grows tobacco, and later serves as First Minister of the Empire.
Q 04According to Seldon's calculations, how long would the dark age after the Empire's fall last if nothing were done?
30,000 years
His Plan aims not to prevent the fall but to shrink the interregnum to a single millennium.
Q 05In which magazine were the original Foundation stories published between 1942 and 1950?
Astounding Science-Fiction
Editor John W. Campbell helped Asimov develop the concepts of the collapsing Empire and the Foundations in a single two-hour meeting.
Q 06Which historical work did Asimov say inspired the premise of the Foundation series?
Gibbon's Decline and Fall
He came up with the idea spontaneously on his way to meet editor John W. Campbell.
Q 07Which publisher issued the original trilogy in book form between 1951 and 1953?
Gnome Press
Foundation and Empire also appeared in 1955 as an Ace Double under the title The Man Who Upset the Universe.
Q 08What special one-off Hugo Award did the Foundation trilogy win in 1966?
Best All-Time Series
Asimov assumed the award had been invented to honour Tolkien and was amazed when his own work won.
Q 09Which of these was a runner-up to Foundation for the special 1966 series Hugo?
The Lord of the Rings
The other runners-up were the Barsoom, Future History and Lensman series.
Q 10On which remote planet is the Encyclopedia Foundation established after Seldon's exile?
Terminus
The mineral-poor agricultural world has just one large settlement, Terminus City.
Q 11What is the name of the Empire's capital world, an entire planet covered in city?
Trantor
Its Great Library survives the 'Great Sack' and later shelters the Second Foundation among the farming Hamish people.
Q 12Which body puts Seldon on trial in 'The Psychohistorians' and offers him exile rather than martyrdom?
The Commission of Public Safety
Its chief commissioner, Linge Chen, judges the trial while agent Jerril shadows young Gaal Dornick.
Q 13Who is the Foundation's first Mayor, who seizes power from the Encyclopedia's Board and plays the neighbouring kingdoms against each other?
Salvor Hardin
Q 21Under what alias does the Mule travel with the Darells, posing as a clown fleeing his own service?
Magnifico Giganticus
He plays the Visi-Sonor, a holographic instrument that later inspired the holophonor in Futurama.
Q 22Who kills the psychologist Ebling Mis moments before he can reveal the Second Foundation's location to the Mule?
Bayta Darell
She alone had treated the disguised Mule as a person of her own free will, which is why his powers had left her untouched.
Q 23'The Mule' won a Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1996 for which original year?
1946
The story 'Foundation' itself later won a 2018 Retro Hugo for Best Short Story of 1943.
He was trained by the Trantorian psychologist Bor Alurin and rules with his adviser Yohan Lee.
Q 14Which is the strongest of the four kingdoms neighbouring the Foundation in the early stories?
Anacreon
Its regent Wienis attacks the Foundation with a salvaged Imperial battlecruiser, not knowing Hardin has had a kill switch installed.
Q 15How does the early Foundation control the surrounding kingdoms in 'The Mayors'?
Through a techno-religion built on its nuclear technology
Mallow later realises the religious approach has outlived its usefulness and shifts the Foundation to pure trade.
Q 16In 'The Traders', Limmar Ponyets frees a colleague on Askone by selling a crude device that does what?
Turns iron into gold
When the transmuter breaks down he blackmails the buyer with a recording of him using forbidden technology.
Q 17Which Master Trader investigates the Republic of Korell, is tried for handing a 'missionary' to a mob, and ends up as Mayor?
Hober Mallow
He proves the missionary was a Korellian secret policeman, then wins the war with Korell through an embargo alone.
Q 18Which Imperial general in Foundation and Empire declares war on the Foundation, only to be recalled and executed by his own emperor?
Bel Riose
Barr explains that only a strong emperor with a strong general could threaten the Foundation, and a strong emperor never tolerates a strong general.
Q 19Which emperor recalls Bel Riose for treason in 'The General'?
Cleon II
His Privy Secretary Ammel Brodrig, sent to watch the general, is arrested and executed alongside him.
Q 20What is the Mule, the antagonist who conquers the Foundation?
A mutant who can manipulate emotions
He is the random element psychohistory could not foresee, and Seldon's recorded message during his rise predicts a civil war instead.
Q 24In Second Foundation, the Mule's agents Pritcher and Channis are led to believe the Second Foundation is on which figurehead planet?
Tazenda
The Mule destroys it before learning that both it and Rossem were decoys planted in Channis's mind.
Q 25What title is held by the leader of the Second Foundation's ruling council of mentalics?
First Speaker
The name is a misnomer, since telepaths hardly need speech; the only formal power is to speak first at the Speakers' Table.
Q 26Which teenage girl follows Homir Munn to Kalgan and later escapes with the trader Preem Palver in Second Foundation?
Arcadia Darell
She is the daughter of Dr Darell, a member of the Foundation cabal hunting the Second Foundation.
Q 27Which 1982 novel, written after a 30-year gap under pressure from fans and publishers, became Asimov's first New York Times bestseller?
Foundation's Edge
It came after 262 books and 44 years of writing, and won the 1983 Hugo for Best Novel.
Q 28Which Foundation councilman is sent out by Mayor Harla Branno to search for the Second Foundation in Foundation's Edge?
Golan Trevize
He is arrested for treason first, then packed off with a mythologist as cover and a gravitic ship as transport.
Q 29What is Gaia, the world discovered in the Sayshell Sector in Foundation's Edge?
A planet-wide group consciousness
Every living and inanimate thing on it shares one mind, and it wants to extend that mind to the whole galaxy as Galaxia.
Q 30Why does Trevize say he chose Gaia over the two Foundations at the end of Foundation's Edge?
It alone could later be reversed
Because Galaxia would take so long to form, he reasoned, the decision could be undone if it proved wrong.