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50 free Linkin Park trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Linkin Park started as three friends from Agoura High School recording in Mike Shinoda's bedroom under the name Xero, got rejected by Warner Bros. three times, and then released the best-selling album of 2001. They named themselves after a Santa Monica park and changed the spelling to grab a web domain. Two decades and 100 million records later, they lost Chester Bennington, went quiet for seven years and came back with a new singer and From Zero. These 50 questions run the whole story: the Whisky a Go Go debut, Jeff Blue, Grey Daze, the names Plear and Platinum Lotus Foundation, the Grammy for Crawling, Projekt Revolution, the shakuhachi on Meteora, Paul McCartney crashing Numb/Encore, Fort Minor, the Doomsday Clock title, Transformers, the 8-Bit Rebellion game, Kiiara on Heavy, the Hollywood Bowl tribute, Emily Armstrong, Colin Brittain and the Champions League final. Easy questions stick to members and albums; the expert tier asks about Hans Zimmer, Griffith Observatory and the first DVD. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a rock trivia night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which California city was Linkin Park formed?
Agoura Hills
Shinoda, Bourdon and Delson met at the local high school; the band's name came from a park in Santa Monica.
Q 02In which year did Linkin Park form?
1996
Their four-track demo under the name Xero came out in November 1997.
Q 03What was the band originally called before it had a record deal?
Xero
The Xero demo was recorded in Mike Shinoda's makeshift bedroom studio.
Q 04After Bennington joined, the band briefly used what name, later its debut album's title?
Hybrid Theory
Warner Bros. asked them to change it to avoid confusion with the Welsh electronic act Hybrid.
Q 05The band's name pays homage to a Santa Monica park named after which president?
Lincoln
The park is now called Christine Emerson Reed Park.
Q 06Why did the band alter the spelling of the park's name for their own?
To get the web domain
linkinpark.com was available; the correctly spelled domain was not.
Q 07Which name did the band consider before settling on Linkin Park?
Platinum Lotus Foundation
"Plear" was the other candidate.
Q 08Which A&R executive recommended Bennington and later signed the band to Warner Bros.?
Jeff Blue
Blue had watched Xero live in 1998 and decided the band needed a different vocalist.
Q 09Chester Bennington came to the band from which Arizona alternative rock group?
Grey Daze
He later fronted Dead by Sunrise as a side project and briefly sang for Stone Temple Pilots.
Q 10Who was Xero's original vocalist before Bennington?
Mark Wakefield
Wakefield left after the band failed to land a record deal.
Q 11At which West Hollywood club did the band play its first show, in November 1997?
Whisky a Go Go
The November 1997 gig came the same month the Xero demo was released.
Q 12In what year was the band's debut album released?
2000
It came out on October 24 and went on to be the best-selling album of 2001.
Q 13How many copies did the debut album sell in its first year?
4.8 million
That made it the best-selling album of 2001; it has since been certified Diamond.
Q 14Which single peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest placing?
Q 21Which Japanese bamboo flute was introduced on Meteora?
Shakuhachi
The album mixed nu metal and rap metal with newer effects and unusual instruments.
Q 22Roughly how many copies did Meteora sell in its first week?
800,000
It finished as the third best-selling album in the US in 2003.
Q 23Which rapper teamed up with the band for the 2004 mash-up EP Collision Course?
Jay-Z
It became only the second EP ever to top the Billboard 200, after Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies.
Q 24Who joined the band and Jay-Z on stage at the 2006 Grammys to add lines from "Yesterday"?
In the End
A 2015 Spotify study rated it the sixth most "timeless" Billboard hit of 1950-2005.
Q 15Which song won the band its first Grammy, for Best Hard Rock Performance?
Crawling
The album was also nominated for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album.
Q 16What is the name of the band's official fan club and street team, founded in 2001?
Linkin Park Underground
Jessica Sklar helped set it up; the song "Qwerty" first appeared on its 6.0 CD in 2006.
Q 17What was the name of the band's own touring festival, featuring acts like Cypress Hill?
Projekt Revolution
Later editions carried My Chemical Romance, HIM, Placebo and Chris Cornell.
Q 18What was the title of the band's first DVD, released in 2001?
Frat Party at the Pankake Festival
It documented the 320-plus concerts the band played in a single year.
Q 19What was the 2002 remix album featuring Black Thought and Jonathan Davis called?
Reanimation
It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold nearly 270,000 copies in week one.
Q 20Meteora is named after a rocky monastery region in which country?
Greece
The monasteries there are built on top of towering rock pillars.
Paul McCartney
"Numb/Encore" won the Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration that night.
Q 25What is the name of Mike Shinoda's hip-hop side project?
Fort Minor
Its debut album The Rising Tied was released with help from Jay-Z.
Q 26Which producer did the band choose for Minutes to Midnight?
Rick Rubin
Rubin returned for A Thousand Suns and later contributed to the Recharged remix album.
Q 27The title Minutes to Midnight refers to what?
The Doomsday Clock
The band cut five of seventeen tracks after fourteen months of work on the album.
Q 28"What I've Done" appeared on the soundtrack of which 2007 blockbuster?
Transformers
The single peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100, and the band returned for the sequel with "New Divide".
Q 29Which film composer did the band work with on the Revenge of the Fallen score?
Hans Zimmer
Joe Hahn directed the "New Divide" video using clips from the film.
Q 30What was the band's 2010 iOS game called?
8-Bit Rebellion!
Beating it unlocked a new song, "Blackbirds", later an iTunes bonus track.