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70 free Indiana trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
65 free Indiana trivia questions with answers. Indiana is the state that gave the world the Indy 500, the Jackson 5, Wonder Bread, the Coca-Cola bottle and the word 'Hoosier', which nobody can fully explain. This quiz covers all of it: how the state was born at Corydon in 1816, why the capital moved, what the motto 'Crossroads of America' means, and which tiny town beat a school ten times its size to inspire a Hollywood film. The easy questions ask about the state bird, the capital's famous race and the NFL team; the medium ones move on to Purdue's astronauts, Elkhart's RVs and the Battle of Tippecanoe; the hard and expert ones want the year Indiana finally adopted daylight saving time, the first governor's name and the number of counties on Central Time. It works for a Hoosier family game night, a classroom unit on the state, or a bar quiz anywhere in the Midwest. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the state, its cities, teams and people, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
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Q 01In what year did Indiana become a state?
1816
President James Madison signed off on December 11, and Indiana came in as the 19th state.
Q 02What is the official demonym for a resident of Indiana?
Hoosier
Its origin is still debated, but John Finley's 1833 poem 'The Hoosier's Nest' helped make it stick.
Q 03Which town was Indiana's first state capital, before the seat of government moved in 1825?
Corydon
The 1816 constitution named it the capital, and the delegates who wrote that constitution met there for just 19 days.
Q 04What is Indiana's state motto?
Crossroads of America
It comes from the highways, railroads and canals that converged on Indianapolis.
Q 05Which bird is Indiana's state bird?
Northern cardinal
Seven states chose it, more than any other species, and the Amtrak train that runs through them is named after it.
Q 06Which flower replaced the zinnia as Indiana's state flower in 1957?
Peony
The zinnia had held the title since 1931.
Q 07Which species did Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee all adopt as their official arboreal emblem?
Tulip tree
Kentucky and Tennessee picked the same tree, the tallest in the eastern deciduous forest.
Q 08How many counties does Indiana have?
92
Ninety of them have their own circuit court with a judge elected to a six-year term.
Q 09Which waterway is the official state river of Indiana?
The Wabash
It is also the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi.
Q 10What is the highest natural point in Indiana?
Hoosier Hill
It rises to just 1,257 feet in Wayne County near the Ohio line.
Q 11In which county, at the state's far southwestern tip, is Indiana's lowest point?
Posey
The low point sits at 320 feet above sea level in the state's far southwestern corner.
Q 12How many of Indiana's 92 counties observe Central Time rather than Eastern?
12
Six sit near Chicago and six near Evansville; the other 80 run on Eastern Time.
Q 13In what year did Indiana begin observing daylight saving time statewide?
2006
Sitting on the western edge of the Eastern zone, the state had resisted the clock change for decades.
Q 14Who won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911?
Q 21Which team did the Colts beat in Super Bowl XLI, the first major pro title for an Indianapolis team?
Chicago Bears
Peyton Manning was the MVP of a rain-soaked 29-17 win in Miami.
Q 22In which league did the Indiana Pacers win all three of their championships?
ABA
They won in 1970, 1972 and 1973, then joined the NBA in the 1976 merger.
Q 23The Pacers' name refers to harness racing and to which other Indiana tradition?
The Indy 500 pace cars
The franchise began in 1967 as an original ABA member.
Ray Harroun
He drove a Marmon Wasp fitted with what is now considered the first rear-view mirror, in place of the riding mechanic the rules expected.
Q 15Why is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway nicknamed 'the Brickyard'?
Its racing surface was first paved in brick
The bricks went down in the fall of 1909; a yard-wide strip of them still marks the start-finish line.
Q 16What does the winner of the Indianapolis 500 traditionally drink in victory lane?
Milk
Louis Meyer asked for buttermilk after his 1933 win, and a dairy tradition was born.
Q 17How many cars make up the traditional starting grid of the Indianapolis 500?
33
They line up in eleven rows of three.
Q 18Foyt, Al Unser Sr., Mears and Castroneves share the record for most Indy 500 wins. How many each?
4
Nobody has managed a fifth; Castroneves is the only one of the four still active.
Q 19What is the permanent seating capacity of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
About 257,000
A newspaper reporter counted every seat in 2004 and reached 257,325.
Q 20From which city did the Colts move to Indianapolis in 1984?
Baltimore
The team left in the middle of the night, seeding a rivalry with the Ravens who later replaced them.
Q 24Which WNBA star was Finals MVP when the Indiana Fever won the 2012 title?
Tamika Catchings
The Fever beat the Minnesota Lynx three games to one.
Q 25The 1986 film Hoosiers was inspired by which tiny high school's 1954 state basketball title?
Milan
They beat Muncie Central, a school ten times their size, in the final.
Q 26How many NCAA men's basketball championships has Indiana University won?
Five
Two came under Branch McCracken and three under Bob Knight; the 1976 team is still the last undefeated champion.
Q 27Which Butler University arena is nicknamed 'Indiana's Basketball Cathedral'?
Hinkle Fieldhouse
Finished in 1928, it was the largest basketball arena in the country until 1950 and hosted the state finals for decades.
Q 28In 1955, which Indianapolis school became the first all-Black high school to win a state basketball title?
Crispus Attucks
Its star was a junior named Oscar Robertson, later the NBA's first triple-double-averaging player.
Q 29Larry Bird's nickname 'the Hick from' which Indiana town?
French Lick
He briefly enrolled at Indiana University before returning home and starring for Indiana State.
Q 30Which Indiana university is nicknamed the 'Cradle of Astronauts'?
Purdue
Its alumni include Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, and Eugene Cernan, the last.