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60 free Samsung trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Samsung trivia quiz covers the company that sells dried fish in its origin story and semiconductors, skyscrapers and smartphones today. It starts with the basics (what the name means, who founded it and when, what a chaebol is, the first black-and-white TV) and moves through the decisions that built the giant: the 1974 chip acquisition, the Tokyo declaration on DRAM, Lee Kun-hee's Frankfurt Declaration and 'change everything except your wife and kids', overtaking Motorola, Nokia and Intel. The second half is the Galaxy era and the wider empire: the first Galaxy S, the Note and its S Pen, the exploding Note 7, the billion-dollar Apple verdict, the Fold's broken review units, Bixby, Tizen and Samsung Pay, plus the Burj Khalifa, the Geoje shipyard, Renault's takeover of Samsung Motors, the Samsung Lions and Bluewings, Everland and the pardons, prison terms and art collection of the Lee family. About a third of the questions are easy; the rest suit tech-industry watchers and Korea buffs. Our Apple and South Korea quizzes make good follow-ups. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Samsung, Samsung Electronics, its products, affiliates and leaders, and each explanation adds one more detail.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the name Samsung mean in Korean?
Three stars
The founder said 'three' stood for something big and powerful and 'stars' for everlasting.
Q 02In what year was Samsung founded?
1938
It began as a small trading company under Japanese rule.
Q 03Who founded Samsung?
Lee Byung-chul
He was 28 and from a large landowning family; he had studied at Waseda University in Tokyo.
Q 04What did the original Samsung trading company sell?
Dried fish, groceries and noodles
It had about forty employees in what was then called Taikyu, now Daegu.
Q 05Samsung is the largest of South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates, known by what Korean word?
Chaebol
Its revenue equalled 22.4% of South Korea's GDP in 2022.
Q 06Samsung's revenue in 2022 was equal to roughly what share of South Korea's GDP?
22%
The country's GDP that year was about $1.67 trillion.
Q 07What was the first product of Samsung's electronics business?
A black-and-white television
By 1981 Samsung Electric had made more than 10 million black-and-white sets.
Q 08Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in which city?
Suwon
Its Digital City campus is in the Yeongtong district.
Q 09Which industry did Samsung enter in 1974 by buying a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy?
Semiconductors
Korea Semiconductor was building one of the country's first chip plants.
Q 10The founder's 1983 'Tokyo declaration' committed Samsung to becoming a maker of what?
DRAM memory chips
Samsung has been the world's largest memory chip maker since 1993.
Q 11Since which year has Samsung Electronics been the world's largest memory chip manufacturer?
1993
In 2017-18 it briefly overtook Intel as the largest semiconductor company of all.
Q 12Which long-time leader did Samsung briefly dethrone as the largest semiconductor company in 2017-18?
Intel
Samsung remains the world's biggest maker of memory chips.
Q 13After the founder died in 1987, Samsung was split into five groups. Which of these was one of them?
CJ Group
The others were Shinsegae, Hansol and JoongAng, alongside Samsung itself.
In 1993, Lee Kun-hee told executives to change what, apart from their wives and kids?
Q 21Which numbered model in the S series, announced in March 2013, sold more than 80 million units?
The S4
It became one of the best-selling phones of the line.
Q 22Samsung announced the original Galaxy Note, pioneer of the 'phablet', at which trade fair in 2011?
IFA Berlin
Its 5.3-inch screen was thought absurdly large at the time.
Q 23What is the stylus that shipped with every Galaxy Note called?
S Pen
It uses a pressure-sensitive Wacom digitiser.
Q 24Why was the Galaxy Note 7 recalled worldwide in 2016 and then discontinued?
Everything
The 'Frankfurt Declaration' demanded quality over quantity even at the cost of sales.
Q 15In which German city did Lee Kun-hee gather his executives in 1993 for his famous declaration on quality?
Frankfurt
He believed Samsung was churning out large quantities of low-quality goods.
Q 16Which American hip-hop clothing brand did Samsung's textile arm invest in in 1995 after its founder ran an ad for funds?
FUBU
The ad appeared in The New York Times.
Q 17Which company overtook Motorola in 1995 to lead South Korea's mobile phone market?
Samsung
In the early 1990s Motorola had held over 60 percent of the Korean market against Samsung's 10.
Q 18Which company, top mobile phone maker since 1998, did Samsung overtake in early 2012?
Nokia
Samsung's rise was powered by the Galaxy line launched in 2009.
Q 19Samsung has been the world's largest television maker since which year?
2006
Its Smart TVs run its own Linux-based Tizen operating system.
Q 20When was the original Samsung Galaxy S smartphone released?
2010
The Galaxy brand itself began in 2009 with the Android-based i7500.
Its batteries overheated and caught fire
Even replacement units burned, and the FAA banned it from all flights.
Q 25What did Samsung release in July 2017 as a refurbished version of the recalled phablet?
Galaxy Note Fan Edition
Software updates had earlier crippled the remaining originals to stop them being used.
Q 26How much did a jury award Apple in August 2012 in its patent case against Samsung, before appeals cut it?
$1.05bn
The sum was later cut on appeal, and the two companies settled in 2018.
Q 27Why was Tim Cook originally reluctant to sue Samsung?
It was a critical component supplier to his company
Samsung's component sales to Apple were thought to be worth around $8 billion in 2012.
Q 28Which 2015 phone introduced Samsung's curved-screen concept?
The S6 Edge
The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge marked a major redesign.
Q 29What delayed the launch of the Galaxy Fold in April 2019?
Review units' screens were breaking
Samsung recalled the review units and finally released the phone in September.
Q 30Samsung's voice assistant, launched with the Galaxy S8 in 2017, is called what?
Bixby
It replaced the earlier S Voice.