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50 free Sikhism trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Sikhism trivia for students of world religions, interfaith quiz nights, RE teachers and anyone curious about the faith of 25-30 million people. The quiz starts with the basics - Guru Nanak's birth in 1469 near Lahore, Ik Onkar and Waheguru, why Sikhs do not proselytise, what a gurdwara and a langar are - and moves through the ten gurus: Angad and the Gurmukhi script, Amar Das and Ram Das founding Amritsar, Arjan compiling the Adi Granth and dying a martyr, Hargobind's two swords, Tegh Bahadur's execution in Delhi. It then covers Guru Gobind Singh, the Vaisakhi of 1699, the Panj Piare and the Khalsa, the five Ks and the names Singh and Kaur, the Guru Granth Sahib as eternal guru, and the Golden Temple from Ram Das's pool to Ranjit Singh's gold leaf and Operation Blue Star. There are also questions on Sikh festivals, the Nishan Sahib, the kirpan, Sikh Canada and the partition. Roughly a third of the questions are easy and the rest climb steadily. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, born?
1469
He was born to Hindu Khatri parents in a village now called Nankana Sahib, and died in 1539.
Q 02In which region of the Indian subcontinent did Sikhism originate at the end of the 15th century?
Punjab
Millions of Sikhs lived west of the 1947 partition boundary and most moved into India amid terrible violence.
Q 03Roughly how many Sikhs are there worldwide?
25-30 million
More than nine in ten live in India, with sizeable diaspora communities in North America and Britain.
Q 04Before his death in 1708, Guru Gobind Singh named what as his successor, ending the line of human gurus?
The scripture itself
The tenth guru named it his successor before his death in 1708, closing the line of human gurus.
Q 05How many human gurus does Sikhism recognise?
Ten
They led the faith for some 240 years until 1708, each building on the teachings of the last.
Q 06What Sikh phrase, opening the scripture, expresses the oneness of God as 'One Creator'?
Ik Onkar
God is described as shapeless, timeless and beyond time and death, and has no gender in a literal sense.
Q 07What is the Sikh word for God?
Waheguru
Metaphorically God is presented as masculine and God's creative power as feminine.
Q 08What does the word 'Sikh' mean?
Student or disciple
The word Sikhism itself was coined under British rule; many adherents prefer the endonym Sikhi, the 'path of learning'.
Q 09What is a langar?
A free vegetarian community meal open to all
Every gurdwara offers one, and the kitchen is run by volunteers; the Golden Temple feeds well over 100,000 visitors a day.
Q 10What does the word gurdwara, the name for a Sikh place of worship, mean?
Doorway to God
Family practice includes reading from the scripture at home and attending the gurdwara, where the langar is served.
Q 11The five Ks are articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs. Which K is uncut hair?
Kes
The others are the comb, the steel bracelet, the blade and the special undergarment; most religious Sikh men wear a turban over their hair.
Q 12Which of the five Ks is a small wooden comb?
Kangha
The kara is the circular steel or iron bracelet and the kachera the special undergarment.
Q 13What is a kirpan?
A blade worn as an article of faith
Traditionally a full-sized talwar of about 76 cm, it shrank to a dagger under 19th-century British colonial laws.
Q 21Which Mughal emperor had the fifth guru tortured and killed in 1606 for refusing to convert to Islam?
Jahangir
His martyrdom is seen as a watershed; his eleven-year-old son then began arming the Sikhs.
Q 22Which sixth guru carried two swords representing spiritual and temporal power, the doctrine of Miri Piri?
Hargobind
He also created the Akal Takht, the 'throne of the timeless one', which sits opposite the Golden Temple's sanctum.
Q 23Which guru was beheaded in Delhi in 1675 on Aurangzeb's orders after resisting forced conversions of Kashmiri Pandits?
Tegh Bahadur
His head was carried secretly to Anandpur for cremation; his son Gobind Rai went on to found the order of initiated Sikhs a generation later.
Q 14What is the collective name for Sikhs who have been fully initiated through the amrit ceremony?
The Khalsa
The word means 'pure and sovereign'; sweetened water is stirred with a double-edged sword and drunk by the initiate.
Q 15In which year did Guru Gobind Singh initiate the Panj Piare on Vaisakhi, founding the Khalsa?
1699
He baptised the Panj Piare, the five beloved ones, who then baptised him in turn.
Q 16What does the surname Singh, given to initiated Sikh men, mean?
Lion
A newborn's first name is chosen from the first letter on a page of the scripture opened at random.
Q 17What does the name Kaur, given to Sikh women, mean?
Princess
Both names were originally titles conferred on initiation and did away with caste-revealing surnames.
Q 18Which script, standardised by the second guru, Guru Angad, is used for the Sikh scriptures?
Gurmukhi
It descends from the older Landa scripts of the region; the scripture's language is Sant Bhasha, related to Hindi and the local tongue.
Q 19Which fifth guru compiled the first edition of the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth, in 1604?
Arjan
It included the writings of the first five gurus plus thirteen Hindu and two Sufi saints; he was tortured to death by the Mughal emperor two years later.
Q 20How many pages, or angs, does the Guru Granth Sahib have?
1,430
Its 5,894 hymns are arranged mainly by the 31 musical ragas in which they are meant to be sung.
Q 24What is the name of the holy pool that surrounds the Golden Temple's sanctum?
Sarovar
The guru Ram Das completed the pool in 1577, and the holy city grew up around it.
Q 25Which Sikh ruler overlaid the Golden Temple's sanctum with gold leaf in 1830, giving it its popular name?
Maharaja Ranjit Singh
He had rebuilt it in marble and copper in 1809 after Mughal and Afghan armies had repeatedly destroyed earlier versions.
Q 26How many entrances does the Golden Temple have, symbolising that all castes and faiths are welcome?
Four
The square plan is ringed by a circumambulation path around the pool; well over 100,000 people visit each day.
Q 27What was the name of the 1984 Indian Army assault on militants inside the Golden Temple complex?
Operation Blue Star
Ordered by Indira Gandhi, it killed thousands and destroyed the Akal Takht; the complex was rebuilt afterwards.
Q 28What is the Akal Takht?
The supreme seat of temporal authority in Sikhism
Created by the sixth guru, it is one of the Panj Takht and its leader is appointed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
Q 29What is the Nishan Sahib?
The Sikh flag flown at gurdwaras
It is triangular, saffron or navy blue, and carries the Khanda emblem in its centre.
Q 30What are the 'Five Thieves' (panj chor) that Sikhism teaches lead people away from God?
Ego, anger, greed, attachment and lust
The world is held to be in Kali Yuga, an age of darkness, because of attachment to maya, worldly illusion.