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This Gen Z trivia quiz has 97 questions with answers on the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012, and a big chunk of it is Gen Z slang trivia: what no cap, bussin, slay, sus, bet, it's giving, caught in 4K, rent-free, vibe check, NPC and main character energy actually mean, plus the terms for a second Instagram account, a not-quite-relationship and a partner's harmless quirks. The rest covers the culture around the words: TikTok, Snapchat and Twitch, Among Us and Roblox, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X, the GameStop squeeze, doomscrolling, cottagecore, quiet quitting and the ok boomer moment in New Zealand's parliament. Most questions are easy if you are Gen Z or live with someone who is; a few, like which word Oxford picked for 2023 or who bought Depop, will test everyone. It works as a party round, an office icebreaker between generations, or a quick check of whether you are still fluent. Every answer has been checked against a dictionary, encyclopaedia or news source, and each question shows its citation once you have answered. Anyone turning 20 in the mid-2020s was born squarely inside Gen Z, so this doubles as trivia for 20 year olds: the slang, apps and moments here are the ones they grew up with.
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Q 01What does the Gen Z slang term "no cap" mean?
No lie
'Cap' for a lie comes from African-American Vernacular English; the blue cap emoji is used online to call one out.
Q 02Which app popularized the short-form vertical video format among Gen Z?
TikTok
ByteDance bought the lip-sync app Musical.ly in 2017 and folded its users into TikTok the next summer, which is how the app arrived in the US with an audience ready-made.
Q 03What year range is generally used to define Generation Z?
1997-2012
Pew Research Center defines Generation Z as those born 1997-2012; it set 1997 as the start partly because that cohort has no memory of the September 11 attacks.
Q 04What word was named Oxford's Word of the Year in 2023, largely due to Gen Z usage?
Rizz
Rizz, meaning charm or the ability to attract romantic interest, was popularised by YouTuber and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat in 2021 before Oxford crowned it Word of the Year for 2023.
Q 05Which Billie Eilish song became a massive Gen Z anthem and was the theme for a James Bond film?
No Time to Die
"No Time to Die" was written and performed by Billie Eilish for the 2021 James Bond film of the same name. She was the youngest artist ever to write and record a Bond theme song.
Q 06What does "sus" mean in Gen Z slang, popularized by the game Among Us?
Suspicious
'Sus' is a clipping of 'suspicious'; the 2018 game Among Us, a lockdown hit in 2020, turned it into global slang for calling someone suspect.
Q 07Which app popularized ephemeral photo messaging with streaks tracked by a flame emoji?
Snapchat
Snapchat introduced Snapstreaks in 2015 (a flame emoji marks one, an hourglass warns it is about to lapse) and added the location-sharing Snap Map in June 2017.
Q 08Which Gen Z aesthetic romanticises tweed, old libraries, and classic literature?
Dark Academia
Dark Academia romanticises classical study: tweed, cardigans, Oxford shoes in black and dark green, Gothic college buildings, and novels like Donna Tartt's The Secret History.
Q 09Which blocky sandbox building game had its full release in November 2011?
Minecraft
Minecraft, Mojang's block-based sandbox, was first shared publicly in May 2009 and had its full release on 18 November 2011; Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014.
Q 10What does "bet" mean in Gen Z slang?
Agreement, like 'okay'
'Bet' is slang for agreement, like 'okay' or 'deal': 'Want to grab food?' 'Bet.' It is a clipping of the older affirmation 'you bet'.
Q 11Which 2021 Olivia Rodrigo song broke Spotify's single-day record for a non-holiday song?
Drivers License
'Drivers License' set Spotify's non-holiday single-day record on its fourth day and beat it again the next day with over 17 million streams; it won Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2022 Grammys.
Q 12What Gen Z term describes someone excessively devoted to a celebrity or public figure?
Stan
Eminem's 2000 song is about a fan whose obsession turns deadly; two decades on, 'I stan' is used with no menace at all.
Q 13What does "slay" mean when used by Gen Z?
To do something very well
Q 21Which 2020 viral game involved completing tasks on a spaceship while identifying hidden impostors?
Among Us
Among Us, released by Innersloth in 2018 to little notice, exploded in 2020 when streamers played it through lockdown; its original map is a spaceship called The Skeld.
Q 22What does "understood the assignment" mean in Gen Z internet culture?
Nailed it — did something perfectly
Rapper Tay Money's 2021 track 'The Assignment' and her TikTok pushed the phrase into red-carpet commentary.
Q 23Which streaming platform became Gen Z's go-to for live gaming and later added "Just Chatting" streams?
Twitch
It spread through Black, Latino and queer ballroom culture in the 1970s and reached wider ears via the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning.
Q 14Which activist born in 2003 led the 'Fridays for Future' school strikes?
Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg, born in Stockholm on 3 January 2003, began her 'Skolstrejk för klimatet' alone outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018; her mother is opera singer Malena Ernman.
Q 15Which 2020 app prompted users to post unfiltered photos at random times?
BeReal
BeReal was built in France by Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau and sat quietly for two years before its early-2022 surge; latecomers are marked as having posted late.
Q 16Which Lil Nas X song went viral on TikTok and became the longest-running Hot 100 #1 at the time?
Old Town Road
'Old Town Road' held the Hot 100's number one for a record 19 weeks in 2019; Lil Nas X bought its beat for $30, and Billboard's removal of it from the country chart sparked a genre row.
Q 17Which gaming platform, popular with younger Gen Z, lets users create and play millions of user-made games?
Roblox
Creators build in Roblox Studio using Luau, a dialect of Lua, and can sell items for the in-game currency Robux.
Q 18What does "bussin" mean in Gen Z slang?
Really good, especially of food
It came out of African-American Vernacular English for delicious food and widened to mean excellent in general.
Q 19What does the Gen Z term "main character energy" refer to?
Living as your own life's star
It cuts both ways: TikTokers film cinematic 'main character' moments, but calling someone an MC can also mean they crave the spotlight.
Q 20What Gen Z aesthetic romanticizes rural life, baking bread, and flower gardens?
Cottagecore
Cottagecore idealises a slow rural life of bread-baking, foraging and flower gardens; it boomed during the 2020 lockdowns, with sourdough starters and linen dresses filling feeds.
Twitch, bought by Amazon for about $970 million in 2014, added the non-gaming 'Just Chatting' category in 2018; by 2020 it was the platform's most-watched category.
Q 24Which informal nickname for Gen Z took off in 2018 through a 4chan Wojak meme?
Zoomer
'Zoomer' plays on 'boomer' and the generation's speed with technology; the Zoomer Wojak of 2018 followed the 30-Year-Old Boomer Wojak, while Doomer and Bloomer Wojaks are about outlook, not age.
Q 25What does the Gen Z slang "it's giving" mean?
Something conveys a vibe
'It's giving' means something conveys a vibe; like much 2020s slang it came out of Black and queer ballroom culture before TikTok made it universal, so 'it's giving main character' means protagonist energy.
Q 26Which Doja Cat song, boosted by a TikTok dance, topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020?
Say So
'Say So' stalled at number 5 until a Nicki Minaj remix in May 2020 pushed it to number one, the first for either rapper; Haley Sharpe's TikTok dance had made it a hit first.
Q 27Which secondhand-clothing app, a favourite of Gen Z resellers, did Etsy buy for $1.6 billion in 2021?
Depop
Depop, founded in Italy in 2011 by Simon Beckerman and moved to London the next year, was bought by Etsy for about $1.6 billion in June 2021; most of its users were under 26.
Q 28What does "rent-free" mean when Gen Z says something is "living in my head rent-free"?
You can't stop thinking of it
'Living rent-free in my head' means you cannot stop thinking about something; advice columnist Ann Landers used the image in the 1990s, warning that a grudge lets someone you despise 'live rent free in your head'.
Q 29Which 2016 Netflix show about 1980s kids encountering supernatural phenomena became a Gen Z touchstone?
Stranger Things
Stranger Things, created by the Duffer Brothers, premiered on Netflix in July 2016; it is set in Hawkins, Indiana, where a girl called Eleven opens a gateway to the Upside Down.
Q 30What Gen Z term describes someone who goes to excessive lengths for the attention of someone who doesn't reciprocate?
Simp
'Simp' means someone who does far too much for a person who does not reciprocate; it began as a clipping of 'simpleton' around 1900 and appeared in 1980s rap before TikTok revived it in 2019.