SM Entertainment
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50 free SM Entertainment trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
SM Entertainment built the template for the modern K-pop idol: scout young, train for years, debut with a concept. Three decades on, its roster runs from the first idol groups of the 1990s through Girls' Generation, SHINee and EXO to NCT and aespa. This quiz puts the artists first: who debuted when, which songs broke through, which members went solo and where the group names come from. It also takes in the company itself, including its founder, its business partners and the shareholder battle that changed who controls it. It is pitched for K-pop fans of any generation. Casual listeners will find plenty they can reason out, and longtime followers of the label get a few deep cuts from its earliest years.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which former singer opened a small Seoul studio in 1989 that grew into SM Entertainment?
Lee Soo-man
Lee Soo-man named that first studio after his own initials, then sold most of his stake in the company in 2023.
Q 02What does the number in NCT 127's name represent about the city of Seoul?
Its longitude
Its longitude, 127 degrees east, marks NCT 127 out as the unit of the group that is based in the South Korean capital.
Q 03Which aespa hit remakes a song from the soundtrack of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw?
Next Level
Next Level reworks a track by the singer A$ton Wyld, and it won Song of the Year at the 19th Korean Music Awards.
Q 04Which K-pop girl group sang in Pyongyang, North Korea, at an inter-Korean concert in April 2018?
Red Velvet
Red Velvet's trip made them the first SM Entertainment act to perform in North Korea in fifteen years.
Q 05Which SM act, billed as the Avengers of K-pop, topped the Billboard 200 with its 2019 debut EP?
SuperM
SuperM became the first Asian artist to top that chart with a debut release, uniting seven members of SHINee, EXO and NCT units.
Q 06Which Girls' Generation hit topped the Music Bank chart for nine consecutive weeks in 2009?
Gee
Gee also ended the decade as the top-performing song of the 2000s on the Korean music platform Melon.
Q 07Which Korean tech company beat Hybe in 2023 to become SM Entertainment's largest shareholder?
Kakao
Kakao and its entertainment arm ended up with about 40% of SM after Hybe withdrew, saying the bidding war could damage shareholder value.
Q 08A 2012 documentary followed 32 SM Town artists to their concert at which New York venue?
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden hosted a stop on SM Town Live's world tour, and the film I Am follows the performers on their way to that stage.
Q 09Which singer debuted at thirteen and became the first Korean pop star to break through in Japan?
BoA
BoA went on to sell over a million copies each of her Japanese albums Valenti and Best of Soul.
Q 10Which band, whose 1996 debut single attacked school bullying, is called the first K-pop idol group?
H.O.T.
H.O.T. followed that debut with the bubblegum hit Candy, and the band's formula became the model for later K-pop groups.
Q 11Which trio debuted in 1997 with the album I'm Your Girl as SM Entertainment's first girl group?
S.E.S.
S.E.S. is an acronym of the members' stage names, Sea, Eugene and Shoo, and the trio disbanded in 2002.
Q 12Which group quit SM in 2003, fought to keep its name and became K-pop's longest-running boy band?
Shinhwa
Shinhwa, named after the Korean word for myth or legend, kept all six members together when they signed with a new agency.
Q 13Which SM act was the first foreign artist to headline Japan's Nissan Stadium?
TVXQ
TVXQ began as a five-member group and has continued since 2011 as the duo of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin.
Q 21Which Girls' Generation leader launched her solo career in 2015 with an EP titled I?
Taeyeon
Taeyeon's title track from that EP reached number one on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart.
Q 22Which SHINee member, the youngest in the group, released the solo records Ace and Move?
Taemin
Taemin went solo in 2014, and the title track of Move drew attention for its distinctive choreography.
Q 23Which EXO singer's 2020 EP Delight was South Korea's first million-selling solo album in 19 years?
Baekhyun
Baekhyun had already scored the 2010s' best-selling album by a Korean soloist with his debut EP, City Lights.
Q 14Which SM girl group became the first K-pop act to perform at SXSW in Austin, Texas?
f(x)
f(x) took its name from the maths notation for a function, where the result changes with the value of x.
Q 15Which boy group debuted in September 2023 with Get a Guitar and includes two former NCT members?
Riize
Riize features Shotaro and Sungchan, who left NCT to join what became SM Entertainment's new boy group.
Q 16Which eight-member girl group, SM's largest since Girls' Generation, debuted in 2025 with The Chase?
Hearts2Hearts
Hearts2Hearts was first revealed in a surprise trailer at the end of SM's 30th-anniversary concert in Seoul.
Q 17Which Chinese boy band debuted in January 2019 as the fourth sub-unit of the K-pop group NCT?
WayV
WayV, short for We are your Vision, is managed by SM Entertainment's Chinese sub-label, Label V.
Q 18Which R&B duo, pairing Brian Joo with Hwanhee, did SM Entertainment form in late 1998?
Fly to the Sky
Fly to the Sky started out marketed as idols before growing into one of South Korea's most popular R&B acts.
Q 19Which supergroup, the first unit of SM's Girls On Top project, debuted in 2022 with Step Back?
Got the Beat
Got the Beat drew seven singers from across SM's roster and first performed the song at an online New Year's Day concert.
Q 20Which NCT unit launched in 2016 with teenage members meant to graduate on reaching adulthood?
NCT Dream
NCT Dream scrapped the graduation system in 2020 and carried on as a fixed line-up instead.
Q 24Which Canadian rapper passed an SM audition in Vancouver and debuted with NCT in 2016?
Mark
Mark waited until 2025 to release a solo album, The Firstfruit, nine years after his group debut.
Q 25Which aespa member was scouted by SM after competing on a children's TV singing show?
Ningning
Ningning, born in Harbin, sang on China's Let's Sing Kids, then trained for four years before being revealed as aespa's third member.
Q 26Which singer from SM's first idol boy band was appointed a director of SM Entertainment in 2005?
Kangta
Kangta was the first member recruited for that band, after the company's founder spotted him at an amusement park.
Q 27Which hip hop singer, who debuted in 1990 with the act Wawa, was the first artist signed to SM?
Hyun Jin-young
Hyun Jin-young had hits, but a drug arrest damaged his career and pushed SM toward carefully trained, clean-image idols.
Q 28Which 2013 EXO single was the breakthrough hit released alongside the album XOXO?
Growl
Growl helped XOXO sell over a million copies, making EXO the first Korean act to do that in twelve years.
Q 29Which 2008 single was SHINee's debut song, sharing its title with the group's first EP?
Replay
Replay's Japanese version later sold over 100,000 copies, then a record for a Korean group's debut single in Japan.
Q 30Which Girls' Generation debut single was later adopted as an anthem by South Korean protesters?
Into the New World
Into the New World returned in 2016 when Ewha Womans University students sang it while facing police during a campus protest.