Daylight Saving Time Trivia
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96 free Daylight Saving Time trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
42 free Daylight Saving Time trivia questions with answers. Daylight savings time trivia (yes, it is properly 'saving', and that is question two) for the two nights a year everyone argues about it. The quiz covers where the idea came from - Franklin's joke, a bug-collecting New Zealander, a British builder on horseback - which countries went first, America's War Time and the failed 1974 experiment, why Arizona and Hawaii sit it out, the Navajo-Hopi doughnut, the EU's stalled vote, Russia's flip-flop, and the places with a 30-minute change or a Ramadan pause. It starts with the mnemonic everybody knows and works up to the dates, laws and percentages that only a time-zone nerd could love. Use it for a classroom, a spring-forward quiz night, or to win the annual office argument. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and carries its source.
30 of 96 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which mnemonic reminds you which way to move the clocks?
Spring forward, fall back
'Spring forward, fall back': clocks jump ahead an hour in spring and drop back an hour in autumn, the season Americans call fall.
Q 02Which US federal department oversees time zones and daylight saving observance?
The Department of Transportation
The Department of Transportation regulates US time zone boundaries and daylight saving observance, a duty inherited from the Interstate Commerce Commission; states petition it to move between zones.
Q 03Which countries were the first to adopt daylight saving nationally, on 30 April 1916?
Germany and Austria-Hungary
Germany and Austria-Hungary moved their clocks forward on 30 April 1916 to conserve wartime coal; Britain followed on 21 May the same year.
Q 04Which Ontario city was among the first in the world to enact daylight saving, in 1908?
Port Arthur
Port Arthur, on Lake Superior, moved its clocks forward in 1908, eight years before any country did; in 1970 it merged with neighbouring Fort William to form Thunder Bay.
Q 05What did Benjamin Franklin's satirical 1784 Journal de Paris letter actually propose?
Taxing shutters and firing cannons at dawn
Taxing shutters and firing cannons at dawn were among his mock remedies for Parisians who slept through the morning sun; Franklin never suggested moving the clocks.
Q 06William Willett is said to have had the idea for daylight saving while doing what?
Riding early and seeing blinds still down
Riding early and seeing blinds still down near Petts Wood is said to have convinced Willett that summer mornings were being wasted; his 1907 pamphlet was called The Waste of Daylight.
Q 07What clock change did William Willett propose in his 1907 pamphlet?
80 minutes, in 20-minute steps
80 minutes, in 20-minute steps on four April Sundays, was Willett's 1907 scheme; he died in 1915, a year before Britain adopted a simpler one-hour change.
Q 08Which rock frontman is William Willett's great-great-grandson?
Chris Martin of Coldplay
Chris Martin of Coldplay is a direct descendant of Willett, the Chislehurst builder whose 1907 pamphlet The Waste of Daylight launched the campaign for lighter evenings.
Q 09The United States first adopted daylight saving time in which year?
1918
The Standard Time Act of 1918 introduced daylight saving and confirmed the US time zones; Congress repealed the clock change in 1919 over President Wilson's veto.
Q 10What did Franklin D. Roosevelt call the year-round daylight saving he instituted in February 1942?
War Time
War Time kept American clocks an hour ahead all year until September 30, 1945, and the zones themselves were renamed, so New York ran on Eastern War Time.
Q 11Which 1966 law first standardised the start and end dates of daylight saving across the United States?
The Uniform Time Act
The Uniform Time Act ended the patchwork in which states and even towns picked their own dates, while letting a state exempt itself entirely by law.
Q 12Why did the US cut short its 1974 trial of year-round daylight saving?
Pitch-dark winter mornings
Pitch-dark winter mornings, with children heading to school before sunrise, cut public support from 79% to 42% in three months, and Congress ended the trial that October.
Q 13Which US law, effective 2007, extended daylight saving to run from March to November?
Q 21What became of the European Parliament's 2019 vote to end seasonal clock changes?
The Council never approved it
The Council never approved it: member states could not agree whether to keep summer or winter time, so the plan was still stalled in 2026.
Q 22Which of these European countries keeps the same clock all year, never springing forward?
Iceland
Iceland sits on GMT all year despite lying far enough west for UTC-1, which gives it light summer evenings anyway; Ireland, Norway and Portugal all shift their clocks.
Q 23What did Russia do in 2011, then reverse in 2014?
Adopt permanent daylight saving time
The Energy Policy Act
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 added about a month of daylight time from 2007, and Congress kept the right to switch back if the promised energy savings failed to appear.
Q 14Besides Arizona, which US state stays on standard time all year?
Hawaii
Hawaii opted out in 1967, a year before Arizona, so for most of the year Honolulu sits three hours behind Los Angeles and for the rest only two.
Q 15Which territory inside Arizona does observe daylight saving time?
The Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation keeps daylight time because it also spreads into Utah and New Mexico; the Hopi Reservation it encloses does not, making a doughnut of clocks inside Arizona.
Q 16Why does Arizona stay on standard time all year?
Its heat makes evening sun unwelcome
Its heat makes evening sun unwelcome: an extra hour of summer daylight means more air-conditioning, so the legislature opted out in 1968, and from March to November most of Arizona matches California's clock.
Q 17Which US state did not observe daylight saving statewide until April 2006?
Indiana
Indiana left most of its Eastern-zone counties on standard time until April 2006, though a few near Louisville and Cincinnati had long changed their clocks unofficially.
Q 18How did the Sunshine Protection Act, making daylight saving permanent, pass the Senate in 2022?
By unanimous consent
By unanimous consent, in March 2022: several senators said afterwards they would have objected had they known it could pass, and the House let the bill expire that year.
Q 19Since 1996, when have all EU countries changed their clocks together?
Last Sundays of March and October
Last Sundays of March and October, fixed by an EU directive that took effect in 1996 after years in which the autumn date varied between member states.
Q 20A 2018 EU public consultation on scrapping the clock change drew how many responses?
4.6 million
4.6 million replies arrived during the six-week web survey in summer 2018, and within a month of its close the Commission proposed ending the twice-yearly change.
Adopt permanent daylight saving time: the clocks went forward in March 2011 and stayed there until October 2014, when Russia moved back an hour and kept standard time from then on.
Q 24What was the 1941–1945 UK scheme of running clocks two hours ahead of GMT called?
British Double Summer Time
British Double Summer Time put clocks at GMT+2 each summer from 1941 to 1945; Britain later tried year-round GMT+1 from 1968 to 1971 as 'British Standard Time' and abandoned it.
Q 25Which parts of Australia stay on standard time all year?
Queensland, NT and Western Australia
Queensland, NT and Western Australia: Queenslanders voted daylight saving down with a 54.5% 'no' in 1992 after a three-year trial, and Western Australia gave it up for good in 2009.
Q 26When do Australia's daylight saving states put their clocks forward each year?
First Sunday of October
First Sunday of October, running to the first Sunday of April: until 2008 only Tasmania started that early, while the mainland states waited for the last Sunday of October.
Q 27Lord Howe Island, off Australia, is unusual for a daylight saving shift of how much?
30 minutes
30 minutes: Lord Howe Island moves from UTC+10:30 to UTC+11, so in summer it shares Sydney's time and in winter runs half an hour ahead of it.
Q 28Which country kept its clocks an hour ahead from 2018 to 2026, pausing only for Ramadan?
Morocco
Morocco made GMT+1 its year-round time in October 2018 and dropped back to GMT only for the fasting month, until it returned to GMT for good in September 2026.
Q 29Which country switched to permanent daylight saving time in 2016 rather than changing clocks?
Turkey
Turkey kept its summer clocks on for good in September 2016, so it shares Moscow's time all year and runs an hour ahead of neighbouring Greece every winter.
Q 30Which country abolished daylight saving nationwide in 2022, apart from some border areas?
Mexico
Mexico ended its nationwide clock change in October 2022, keeping it only in Baja California and towns along the US border so they stay in step with their American neighbours.