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60 free Puerto Rico trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free Puerto Rico trivia questions with answers. Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island that has been a Spanish colony, a US territory and, since 1952, a commonwealth whose people are American citizens who cannot vote for president. This quiz runs the whole story: the Taíno name for the island, Columbus's 1493 landing, the conquistador who became first governor, the 1898 handover, the 1917 citizenship law and the string of statehood referendums, plus the geography behind it all, from the only tropical rainforest in the US forest system to the deepest trench in the Atlantic. The easy questions ask about the coquí, mofongo, coquito, the flag and the national anthem. The harder ones get into the king who protected El Yunque in 1876, the year Congress fixed the spelling 'Porto Rico', the turnout in the 2017 referendum, and the name of the deepest point in the Atlantic. Music and sport get their share too: reggaeton's Panamanian roots, Bad Bunny's Grammy, Roberto Clemente's last flight and the night Puerto Rico beat Team USA at basketball. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia or an official page, and the sentence that establishes it is shown under each question, so you can settle the argument at the dinner table.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did the Taíno call the island before Europeans arrived?
Borikén
The name lives on in 'Boricua', the everyday word Puerto Ricans use for themselves.
Q 02Christopher Columbus reached the island on 19 November 1493 during which of his voyages?
His second voyage
That expedition left Cádiz with 17 ships and well over a thousand men, a colonizing fleet rather than an exploring one.
Q 03What name did Columbus give the whole island in 1493?
San Juan Bautista
The island and its main settlement later swapped names, so the saint ended up on the capital and the 'rich port' on the whole island.
Q 04Which conquistador founded the settlement of Caparra in 1508 and became the island's first governor?
Juan Ponce de León
He was greeted by the Taíno cacique Agüeybaná, and five years later led the first European expedition to Florida.
Q 05San Juan, founded in 1521, is the oldest European-established capital in the Americas after which city?
Santo Domingo
It is also the oldest European-founded city anywhere under United States sovereignty, beating St. Augustine by decades.
Q 06When Spanish colonists founded the capital in 1521, what did they call the settlement?
Ciudad de Puerto Rico
Over time the names traded places, and the 'rich port' label migrated from the harbor town to the entire island.
Q 07US troops under General Nelson Miles landed unopposed at which southern town on 25 July 1898?
Guánica
Spanish forces had only just inaugurated an autonomous government that spring, and it lasted a matter of weeks.
Q 08Under the 1898 treaty ending the Spanish–American War, Spain gave up the island and which Pacific island?
Guam
Spain also relinquished Cuba and sold the Philippines, for which the US paid $20 million.
Q 09Which 1917 law granted US citizenship to Puerto Ricans?
Jones–Shafroth Act
Resident Commissioner Luis Muñoz Rivera argued against it in Congress, fearing citizenship would undercut hopes of independence.
Q 10The island's official Spanish status name, 'Estado Libre Asociado', is rendered in English as what?
Commonwealth
The literal translation is 'Free Associated State', a phrase that has fueled decades of argument about what the status really means.
Q 11Puerto Rico's commonwealth constitution entered into force on which date in 1952?
July 25
It was the same calendar day on which American troops had come ashore in 1898.
Q 12Who served as the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico, from 1949 to 1965?
Luis Muñoz Marín
President Kennedy awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, and San Juan's international airport carries his name.
Q 13Which mid-century program lured US manufacturers to the island with tax breaks?
Operation Bootstrap
It shifted the economy from sugar toward factories, and pharmaceuticals became the island's biggest manufacturing sector.
Q 21In which year did the Arecibo Telescope's instrument platform crash through its dish?
2020
Support cables failed on the morning of December 1, weeks after the National Science Foundation had already decided to decommission it.
Q 22The coquí frog, an unofficial symbol of the island, gets its name from what?
The sound of its call
The 'co' warns off rival males and the 'quí' attracts females, and male and female ears are tuned to different notes.
Q 23The US spelled the name 'Porto Rico' after 1898. In which year did Congress restore the Spanish spelling?
1931
The change came through a joint resolution introduced by Resident Commissioner Félix Córdova Dávila.
Q 14Which languages are official for the government of Puerto Rico?
Spanish and English
In practice Spanish dominates daily life, schooling and the courts.
Q 15Cerro de Punta, the island's highest peak, rises to roughly how many feet above sea level?
4,390
It sits in the Cordillera Central on the boundary between the municipalities of Ponce and Jayuya.
Q 16El Yunque holds what distinction within the US National Forest System?
Only tropical rainforest
Thirteen of the island's 17 coquí frog species live there.
Q 17El Yunque was formally set aside as a forest reserve in 1876 by which Spanish king?
Alfonso XII
That makes it one of the oldest reserves in the Western Hemisphere, just four years younger than Yellowstone.
Q 18The fortress El Morro in Old San Juan is named in honor of which Spanish king?
Philip II
Construction began in 1539 as a single tower; it grew into a full bastion fort by 1595 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
Q 19Which Old San Juan building, in use since the 16th century, is the governor's official residence?
La Fortaleza
Built between 1533 and 1540 as a fortress, it is the oldest executive seat in continuous use in the New World.
Q 20How many feet across was the main dish of the Arecibo Observatory telescope?
1,000
It was the world's largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, until China's FAST surpassed it in 2016.
Q 24The Puerto Rican flag was modelled on the flag of which other country?
Cuba
Exiled revolutionaries in New York adopted it in December 1895, swapping the two countries' red and blue.
Q 25Where were the first self-described salsa bands largely assembled by Caribbean musicians in the 1970s?
New York
Promoter Izzy Sanabria, who hosted a 1973 TV show called Salsa, claims he was the first to use the word for the genre.
Q 26In which year did the US Navy stop using Vieques as a bombing range and leave the island?
2003
Much of the former range became a national wildlife refuge, though parts stay closed because of unexploded ordnance.
Q 27Mosquito Bay on Vieques, the world's brightest bioluminescent bay, glows because of what?
Dinoflagellates
The microorganism Pyrodinium bahamense lights up whenever the water is disturbed, leaving a neon-blue trail behind kayaks.
Q 28Flamenco Beach on Culebra is famous for two rusting relics left by the US Navy in 1975. What are they?
Two Sherman tanks
They were used for target practice; today they are covered in graffiti and are one of the most photographed sights on the island.
Q 29The cobblestones paving Old San Juan's narrow streets are famous for being what color?
Blue
The walls that surround the district earned it the nickname 'La ciudad amurallada', the walled city.
Q 30Bacardi's giant distillery, across the bay from Old San Juan, is in which municipality?
Cataño
Nicknamed the Cathedral of Rum, it is the largest rum distillery in the world and makes about 85% of all Bacardi.