FIRST Tech Challenge
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40 free FIRST Tech Challenge trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
FIRST Tech Challenge puts teams of students in charge of designing, building and coding a robot for a new task on the field every year. Along the way the league has built up its own vocabulary, its own traditions and a long list of past seasons that veterans still argue about. This quiz covers the whole picture: who started the organization and why, how a match is structured, what the judges look for, the hardware and software that make a robot go, and the pieces robots have chased around the field in seasons past. It is written for team members, mentors, alumni and curious parents. Use it to break the ice at a team meeting, to fill a quiet hour at a tournament, or to find out how much of the league's history you really know.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which inventor founded FIRST, the youth robotics organization that runs FIRST Tech Challenge?
Dean Kamen
Dean Kamen holds more than 1,000 patents, yet in 2010 he called FIRST the invention he is most proud of.
Q 02Which FIRST ethos asks rival teams to compete hard while treating each other with respect?
Gracious Professionalism
Gracious Professionalism is left loosely defined on purpose, so it can mean different things to different people. Lending parts to a team you will face later is a standard example.
Q 03Which toys did FIRST Tech Challenge robots knock onto the field by spinning carousels in Freight Frenzy?
Rubber ducks
Rubber ducks were the odd ones out in Freight Frenzy: far squishier than the plastic boxes and balls, and flung off if a carousel spun too fast.
Q 04Which film franchise partnered with FIRST for 2019–20, the season FIRST Tech Challenge played Skystone?
Star Wars
Star Wars owner Lucasfilm backed that whole season through its Force for Change initiative, while the bigger robots played Infinite Recharge.
Q 05Which language, also taught in AP Computer Science A, do FIRST Tech Challenge teams code robots in?
Java
Java is the typed option; beginners can instead snap together graphical commands, and the same reusable kit runs either.
Q 06In which month does FIRST reveal each season's new FIRST Tech Challenge game at an event called Kickoff?
September
September kickoffs leave months to build: qualifying tournaments and regional or state championships run from October through March.
Q 07Which material are the 36 interlocking floor tiles of a FIRST Tech Challenge playing field made from?
Foam
Foam tiles lock together into a square 12 feet on each side, enclosed by a wall one foot high.
Q 08Which Texas city has hosted the FIRST Championship and its FIRST Tech Challenge finals alone since 2022?
Houston
Houston used to share the event with Detroit; since 2022 its George R. Brown Convention Center has staged the whole thing.
Q 09Which mobile operating system took over FIRST Tech Challenge robots when smartphones replaced LEGO bricks?
Android
Android arrived in the 2015–16 season, first on ordinary phones mounted on the robot and later inside a purpose-built hub.
Q 10Which period opens every FIRST Tech Challenge match, with drivers forbidden to touch their controllers?
Autonomous
Autonomous lasts 30 seconds and runs on pre-written code alone; only afterwards do up to two drivers take over.
Q 11Which MIT professor co-created FIRST and based its robot contests on his popular 2.70 design class?
Woodie Flowers
Woodie Flowers also hosted the PBS science series Scientific American Frontiers until Alan Alda replaced him in 1993.
Q 12Which top judged FIRST Tech Challenge award honors a team that excels at robot, outreach and teamwork alike?
Inspire
Inspire is treated as the sum of every other judged award, so its winner is held up as the role model for other teams.
Q 13Which robot-kit brand appeared in FIRST Tech Challenge's original name during its first two seasons?
Vex
Vex kits gave the league its first name, FIRST Vex Challenge, until FIRST renamed it FIRST Tech Challenge in summer 2007.
Q 21Which LEGO brick was the brain of FIRST Tech Challenge robots from 2008 until smartphones took over?
NXT
NXT bricks talked to a driver's laptop over Bluetooth, and extra controllers were added to get around the brick's limits.
Q 22Which aluminum building system did Pitsco create for FIRST Tech Challenge when its kit changed in 2008?
TETRIX
TETRIX came out of a partnership between Pitsco and LEGO's education division, and its first robots carried a LEGO brain.
Q 23Which aerospace company is the presenting sponsor in the full title of FIRST Tech Challenge's Decode?
RTX
RTX also presents Biobuzz, the game that followed Decode; earlier titles carried its former name, Raytheon Technologies.
Q 14Which pencil-and-paper game gave its layout to the upright peg rack in FIRST Tech Challenge's 2012–13 season?
Tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe went vertical in Ring It Up!, a game in which more than 2,400 teams hung plastic rings on an upright rack of pegs.
Q 15Which chipmaker partnered with FIRST in 2015 to make smartphones the brains of FIRST Tech Challenge robots?
Qualcomm
Qualcomm's deal put one phone on the robot and a second in the drivers' hands, linked by Wi-Fi Direct instead of a laptop.
Q 16What do FIRST Tech Challenge teams call informal practice events outside the official tournament structure?
Scrimmages
Scrimmages count for nothing toward advancement, so teams use them to test robots and gain match experience.
Q 17Which camera-read markers from the University of Michigan help FIRST Tech Challenge robots locate themselves?
AprilTags
AprilTags work like a simplified QR code: each carries a numeric ID that tells a robot where it is and which way it is facing.
Q 18Which wheels, ringed with rollers set at 45 degrees, let many FIRST Tech Challenge robots slide sideways?
Mecanum
Mecanum wheels take their name from the Swedish company where engineer Bengt Ilon devised them, and the same design moves forklifts that need very tight maneuvering.
Q 19In which New Hampshire city is FIRST headquartered, near the school gym that hosted its first robot contest?
Manchester
Manchester is home to FIRST Place, a headquarters that also runs day camps and classes for students and teachers.
Q 20Which city's Union Station hosted the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in the years up to 2017?
St. Louis
St. Louis put FIRST Tech Challenge in its historic railway terminal while the larger FIRST programs filled the Edward Jones Dome.
Q 24Which red and blue plastic game pieces did FIRST Tech Challenge robots score on junctions in Powerplay?
Cones
Cones numbered 60 in all, 30 of each colour, and teams scored them on junctions to create a circuit.
Q 25Which two metals named the minerals that FIRST Tech Challenge robots sorted into a lander in Rover Ruckus?
Gold and silver
Gold and silver minerals each had their own cargo hold, and robots could begin the match hanging from the lander itself.
Q 26What name does the FIRST Tech Challenge game Decode give the green and purple balls robots launch into goals?
Artifacts
Artifacts go into each alliance's own goal, and teams earn more by arranging them into patterns.
Q 27Which large inflatable did FIRST Tech Challenge robots hoist onto the center goal in Velocity Vortex?
Yoga ball
Yoga ball lifts came at the end of a match in which robots also shot softball-size plastic balls into the same goals.
Q 28Which tier of US FIRST Tech Challenge tournament sat between state championships and Worlds until 2018?
Super-Regionals
Super-Regionals numbered four and lasted five seasons; scrapping them let each World Championship grow from 128 teams to 160.
Q 29Which bigger-robot league for high schoolers is FTC designed to prepare students to step up to?
FIRST Robotics Competition
FIRST Robotics Competition is the senior league: FIRST Tech Challenge was set up as the bridge to it from FIRST LEGO League.
Q 30Which word does the R in FIRST stand for, in a name that ends with Science and Technology?
Recognition
Recognition reflects the organization's stated vision: a world where science and technology are celebrated.